HI, I'm trying to select the best keyword phrase to optimize my
clients' website in the UK. They have a hotel resort and golf complex.
The problem is the vast difference in estimation. For example, in
WordTracker, they have ZERO listings in the past 60 days for "golf
course hotels uk". However, the Overture keyword analysis says there
were 133 searches in November. Then, an SEO package called WebCeo,
suggests there would be 690 daily worldwide searches for this term.

Given the huge split of opinion, how am I supposed to know what the
best keyword phrase to recommend? Bear in mind that my clients might
invest a lot of money every month in my selection. What do you think
is the best guide that most SEO professionals would use to search for
top keyword phrases?

Hi,

I generally go by what other sites are getting, there are a few ways
of finding this info.

1) search for google, i.e. "webalizer stats golf"
   This will give a number of results, as an example see:
   http://www.hotel-online.com/Logs/search_200209.html

   As you can see hotel was their most hit word with 600 odd hits.
   You aren't always as lucky to see all search words, most webalizer users
   will restrict this to only 20 of their top searchs which will be displayed 
   at the bottom of the webalizer stats.

2) the next best bet is to search webalizer stats of sites close to your 
   country, one way I know of is to search for "site:.uk webalizer", now this
   makes things a little more difficult as you cant add your search words.

Doing your homework with heaps of webalizer examples often helps.
A lot of people would prefer to pay for software such as webalizergold
and the likes. I've tried these myself and often got good rankings,
but having to modify your page on a monthly, sometimes weekly or even
daily basis to keep ranks up is not worth it. Have multiple site
aliases such as ...

http://gold-course-hotels-in-the-uk.yoursite.com

An example of one of mine is:
http://www.auckland-chatting-room.chat.co.nz/search.php

Try putting your own words, i.e.
http://www.haha-your-so-funny.chat.co.nz , the text updates with a
simple php code, however this is more advanced than what you will
need.

Hope this helps,

Barry