Market Samurai or… Market Karate Kid?

Keyword research is the most necessary, and often overlooked, step in the SEO process. This is where it all starts. If you get this part wrong, you're destined to fail right from the beginning. In order to do it right, you have to use a reliable SEO keyword generator.

If you're one of those who thinks you can rely on the Google Keyword Planner alone, prepare to be led down a dark and unprofitable path. That tool is made for paid advertisers, not do it yourself SEO's. It's not really clear if Google even likes a person performing SEO.

So do you really think they're going to make anything that could make your SEO better?

Well... probably not on purpose anyway.

In order to keep up with everyone else, you are going to need something a little extra in your tool belt for keyword research.

How does Market Samurai compare to other keyword tools?


There are plenty of keyword tools to choose from on the web today. Keyword Spy, the Long Tail keyword tool, and Keyword Canine are just a few that many use and have success with.

So with all of these options, what makes Market Samurai stand out?

All keyword tools basically promise you the same thing: they will help you to target more profitable keywords for your content. If you want to make a wise investment, there’s a few things you should have in the back of your mind when choosing a keyword tool.

3 questions to ask before buying a keyword generator


#1 - Will it provide you with keywords that you would not find through free methods?

Like with all other keyword tools, the keyword data is pulled from Google’s Keyword Planner. The purpose of a keyword generator is to find keywords that you wouldn’t be able to find just using the Google Keyword Planner.

Market Samurai does just that…

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As you can see, the keywords displayed in the Google Keyword Planner all have the phrase “get paid to write” in them.

This makes complete sense if you are a person or business wanting to bid on that keyword phrase for Google ads.

But… if you are wanting to find an easy keyword to target with your SEO efforts, it is certainly not ideal.

Market Samurai much more intuitively displays results that are similar to your original search, but at the same time, could also lead you to another keyword that would be easier to target. This is much better for finding obscure keywords that you would not find using the keyword planner.

Market Samurai can then analyze the top 10 results of all the keywords it generates and present it to you in an easily digestible format for quick scanning. You can then skim through the results and further analyze what you deem as valuable keywords using the SEO competition module.

For SEO article writing this module will help you to dive a little deeper into your keyword to see if it is worth targeting. Market Samurai does this by analyzing the top 10 results of that keyword with Majestic’s metrics.

#2 - What metrics are being used to analyze the keywords?

It really comes down to 3 different names for backlink analysis. Moz, Ahrefs, and Majestic are all unique in their own way. Ahrefs is known for the size of its index, you will often find links in Ahrefs that aren’t found by either Moz or Majestic. With the neglect of Page Rank updates (see video below), Moz and Majestic have become the replacements for measuring a website’s authority in the search engines.



When you have gotten past the point of skimming the viability of a keyword, you should use each of these tools for an in-depth review of your market and its potential for profit.

Market Samurai pulls it’s SEO data from Majestic’s Site Explorer in the form of trust flow, citation flow, referring domains (both on a page and domain level), and backlinks (both on a page and domain level). Trust flow is Majestic’s unique rating system for how trustworthy a website’s backlinks are.

Trust flow is regarded as one of the most reliable measurements for a site’s quality. It is believed by many that trust flow cannot be manipulated. The way in which it grades a website’s backlinks is proprietary to Majestic, so it’s tough to find a thorough comparison of this rating to the metrics in other backlink analysis tools.

Citation flow is a measurement of the volume of backlinks pointing to a particular page or domain. The higher the citation flow the more backlinks there are pointing to that page.

A site whose trust flow and citation flow are within 5 points of each other is more than likely gaining its links from reputable sources, thus making it harder to surpass in the search engine results page. Of course, the higher the numbers the better the backlink profile.

As a quick reference, trust flow and citation flow can definitely give you a good idea of how hard it would be to outrank a particular page in the search results. Market Samurai displays these measurements for every site in the top 10 results for the keyword you are researching.


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#3 - Is information displayed in a way that can be scanned both quickly and accurately?

You can easily skim through the top 10 results for any keyword using the SEO competition module. To make it even easier Market Samurai color codes the different measurements that are displayed.

Metrics highlighted with green suggests easy competition levels.

Metrics highlighted with yellow suggests moderate competition levels.

Metrics highlighted with red suggests difficult competition levels.


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In the early stages of keyword research, you can basically look at this and determine if your keyword would be viable based from how much green you see. It really doesn’t get any simpler than that.

The negatives of Market Samurai


No software is perfect and Market Samurai is no exception. The absolute biggest issue with Market Samurai is its speed. There’s really no keyword tool that is fast, but it seems like Market Samurai takes a little big longer to fetch results than others. So if you are the impatient type, it may make more sense to continue your search.

Other useful features


You can also use Samurai to find domain names, similar content (which is great when you are creating content), and monetization opportunities. The monetization module is really convenient when performing keyword research.

Not only can you find a keyword that’s easy to target, you can also see if there are any relative affiliate offers on Commission Junction, Clickbank, and Amazon. Being able to do this without leaving the tool, makes Market Samurai great for finding good money-making keywords.

Hopefully this Market Samurai review has given you enough information to make a well-informed purchasing decision. While it can’t give you guaranteed SEO results, Market Samurai is a solid tool that can make your keyword research efforts more fruitful.

 

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