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WebmasterWorld member Receptional Andy suggests the unconventional way to perform keyword research: offline with two books.
The first book is the useful dictionary. If you do a search for "widget," for example, you may get an origin phrase, and in this case, it's "gadget."
The second book is the related reading guide: the thesaurus. You can get plenty of comparable words by using the thesaurus.
Then, you just need to write down everything on paper. No need for a computer at all.
Now I'm not sure how many people will do this, but the idea is an interesting one. :)
In fact, as one more modern member suggests, the idea of keyword research is to get information of what people are actually searching for. That said, the oldschool traditional killed-trees version just doesn't cut it.
Still, as Andy responds, some keyword research tools aren't helpful, and using a dictionary and thesaurus may add some words that you may otherwise not have thought of.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
Ryan Adami
05/08/2008 03:07 pm
Along with online methods of keyword research, I generally use a thesaurus to find missing variations. This is especially true for PPC campaigns where you can test new keywords more efficiently. -Ryan
No Name
05/08/2008 05:34 pm
I use the thesaurus for copywriting in order to create semantically rich texts and also to cater to the long tail
Chris
05/08/2008 08:37 pm
With all the useful tools online it's always great to be reminded of the most wonderful books to help with understanding words, the dictionary and thesaurus.
John
05/09/2008 03:48 am
I find books useful on the writing side - not the search side. A thesaurus is useful when you are trying to find that right word.
Carlos Muñoa
05/09/2008 02:33 pm
I like Thesaurus too. I usually use Google Trends to see which is the most popular keyword term depending on the subject and my potential visitors.
Phalgun
05/10/2008 08:38 am
My only concern is, that though we may end up finding a lot of synonyms, how could we be sure that these are the very words people are searching for? Search engines are trained to mostly act as sniffer dogs, they aren't too smart at understanding alternatives; atleast not the ones that don't have "google" in them. So I think what you are suggesting, is probably using a thesaurus to find alternative words, and then use a keyword research tool to actually find which of those alternatives is most popular amongst search users.
No Name
05/11/2008 01:57 am
This is a big waste of time... Not practical