Questions during a crisis are less about facts and more about emotions. This question comes straight from the gut, not the head. Most leaders I’ve watched acted as if it were just the opposite. When they ignore the emotions and speak only to the facts, they lose their team or their audience. That’s why Yes is such a tempting answer for a leader and why leaders are tempted to use it when it doesn’t apply. Nowhere is that more obvious than when it comes to job security. As much as you’d like to be able to answer this question with a yes, don’t do it unless you are 100 percent certain.

Of course, not much in today’s world is 100 percent certain, so your answer to this question is apt to be closer to I don’t know, and there are some comments about that answer in the next section. But you’re in front of your team right now and don’t have time to page through a book to find a formula for success. (Don’t bother looking for one. In this kind of situation, formulas don’t exist.) Think of it this way. What would you want to hear in this situation? A forthright I don’t know or a lot of fancy words and phrases used to obscure the fact that what is being delivered is no answer at all?

Maybe there is a formula after all. Don’t ignore the emotions you’re dealing with. Tell the truth, sincerely and frequently. Update as promised in clear and simple language. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Keep the promises you do make, and stay visible. Don’t shy away from the emotions; learn to deal with them. You’ll be a better leader for it.

Doing SEO effectively starts with finding the right words, phrases, and ideas to target.

• Free: Digital Point keyword suggestion tool – free web based tool which compares Wordtracker and Overture search frequencies. (www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/)

• Various Prices (approximately $7 / day to $250 / year): WordTracker – web based leased product which has many more features than the other tools. WordTracker traffic is generally more representative of actual traffic than Overture’s tool since many fewer automated bots scour its data collection network than Overture’s. (www.wordtracker.com)

• Various prices: Keyword Discovery - deep database of keyword data. Contains historical data. Some of their partners made them sign a non disclosure agreement. The database may not be as clean as the WordTracker database, but it does contain more data. (www.keyworddiscovery.com/)

• Free: Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool – offers search frequency for the prior month throughout the Overture network. Please note that many bid checkers and other automated bots cause this number to skew high. (inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/)

• Free: Google Keyword Sandbox – shows related search terms but not search quantity. (adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox)
• Free: Google Search Suggestion Tool – auto-completes search queries to help you find more related search terms (www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en)

• Free: Google Sets – shows groups of related keywords. (labs.google.com/sets)

• Free: Good Keywords – free downloadable software which can be used for preliminary keyword research. (www.goodkeywords.com)

• Free: Ontology tool – finds related keywords using the Google ~ search. (www.gorank.com/seotools/ontology/)

• Free: Competitors websites and related search suggestions from various search engines such as Vivisimo and Teoma.