What is Open Keyword?
Open Keyword is an SEO tool for generating keywords lists. It has two parts:
A keyword searching tool that gets related keywords from Google Suggest, Yahoo! Live Search, and Yahoo Related Search.
A keyword scraping tool that gets the list of keywords given by Google Trends Hot List that's updated hourly. These keywords are stored into a database and retrieved by the search script.
For the second part to work, you need to set up a scheduled task (called a cron job on Unix-like machines) to run the script every hour. Over time, you can build up your own database that you can use in-house.
Why Use Open Keyword?
Many reasons! Some which might hopefully convince you to try it out:
It's FREE! Actually, it's so open source, it's not even funny. It's released under the BSD licence, which means you can use the source code without too many legal worries. Note that Open Keyword depends on other libraries that have different licenses that you should respect individually, but the Open Keyword code that ties them all together is released under the BSD license. The full text of the license is found at the end of this page.
The keywords are straight from the search engines based on their popularity. That means that you will be targetting the highest volume keywords from the start.
You run it in-house, on your own server. Your keyword research activity is not logged anywhere. This is useful for firms that have strict client confidentiality agreements about not sharing anything, or as little as possible. Not to mention of course, that as long as your server is functioning, you can do keyword research.
Download and Installation
The Open Keyword distribution is here. This version was released 19 October 2007.
The distribution contains many files. Most of them are for MagpieRSS which is a library Open Keyword uses. The key files for you to use are:
search.php which is the actual search interface. It's a minimal PHP script for you to customize as necessary.
openkw.css which is the CSS file Open Keyword uses.
google-hot.php which is the scraper script that retrieves the Google Trends Hot Keywords list. You need to set up your server to run this script every hour so that it retrieves the keywords for you automatically. This is called a scheduled task or a cron job.
db-dump.php is a script that simply dumps the keywords found in the Google Trends Hot Keywords database. It's very basic as it stands and meant to be a starting point for you to customize it.
keywords.db is the actual SQLite database of the keywords. Depending on your server, you might need to change the permissions of this file to be 666 or even 777. Sometimes, you may even to change the permissions of the whole Open Keyword directory. Each server will be different depending on how it's set up.
Peruse the other scripts by the way to see what they do. You might particuarly enjoy JSON.php which parses JSON text.
Requirements
Open Keyword is written in PHP and requires a functioning SQLite extension. The SQLite extension is bundled by default in PHP 5, and can be obtained as a PEAR extension for PHP 4. Ask your web host or your server's admin for help in installing SQLite for you if need be.
Demo?
No live demo, I'm afraid. I don't want eKstreme.com's address to be banned by Google and Yahoo! for excessive requests. That's part of the reason I'm releasing this as a free tool.
Help, Future Versions, Feedback
Open Keyword is open source, so you can modify it to your heart's content. I would ask you though to share your modifications so everyone benefits too.
If you have an idea for an improvement and you can't code it, you can drop me a line with a description of what feature you think is needed. If I can help, I will; otherwise, I'll post on eKstreme.com's blog asking for people to pitch in.
Finally, all feedback is welcome, so please do get in touch!
Licence
Copyright (c) 2007, Pierre Far
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the eKstreme.com nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
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