As you might imagine, we test-drive a lot of tools here at SearchEngineNews.com. We delight in putting both paid and free tools through the grinder. An easy toolset for us to get excited about is anything that supercharges the creative brainstorming process of keyword selection. That's because overlooked highly profitable keyword combinations can produce golden payoffs in the face of stiff competition.

Whether you're targeting the free organic search listings or working the pay-per-click market, comprehensive keyword research gives you:

• Keywords that deliver the greatest profits based on estimated traffic and competition levels.
• Niche-related long-tail keywords that are worth targeting to bring in traffic at the lowest cost and effort.
• Keywords the competition is already targeting that you might be overlooking.
• Keywords the competition has overlooked.

While there are a number of great keyword tools available for a price, there are also several excellent keyword tools available for free. Here's a comprehensive look at a few of our favorites:

1. Google Trends