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As many already know, keyword research is a vitally important part of a website's viability and long-term success. At least, where search engines are concerned. While keyword research itself is important -- just as important, if not more important, is knowing how to extract the right information while you're researching a particular keyword or a keyword market.

On blogs, and on webmaster forums all around the planet, internet business owners ask about the differences between free keyword research tools and software, or web-based tools, that they have to pay to use. This question is more than fair, too, as many keyword tools can be quite costly -- especially for a "newbie". Keyword research tools can run $50 to $1,000 or more for one-time purchase software, and $50 to hundreds of dollars per month for subscription-based tools.

As a new website owner who is trying to learn the ropes of creating, optimizing, and promoting your website, you'll eventually stumble upon the topic of keyword research. Sure, you know it's important -- but what is it, and what exactly does it do?

Keyword research is a vitally important part of your website's marketing, whether you are running pay-per-click (PPC) ads, optimizing your website, or launching an off-page SEO campaign. In fact, proper keyword research should be the foundation on which you build all of your marketing and search engine optimization strategies.

A lot of website owners ask a common question when it comes to keyword research -- do free keyword research tools really work? This question is more than fair, as with most other things in life, and online -- you get what you pay for. While there are exceptions to almost every rule, are keyword research tools one of these exceptions?