The Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool
I am not an SEO expert — in fact, I’m batting around the idea of hiring someone to handle it so I can focus on stuff I actually want to futz around with, like writing these posts and developing more useful site content — but we do have to deal with it if we want to get our sites some serious play online.
Note to you freelancers who don’t have websites/blogs, eyes glazing over right now and thinking of moving on: You may want to pay attention. There is a fast-growing demand for freelancers who can pump out keyword optimized online articles and content.
There are a bunch of keyword research tools out there. Some good, some not so… but the lot except for a select few pretty much share a common problem: the absence of historical usage data.
Which is why I usually find myself using the Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool more often than not. And even though I have one, a Google AdWords account isn’t needed to use it.
It currently lets you research Keyword Variations and Site-Related Keywords. You’ll likely be doing a lot more of the former, where you just type in a keyword or phrase and it then gives you a huge list of what it believes are related keywords and phrases. Even better: These are keywords and phrases that users have actually used for Google searches.
Even better #2: For each key, Google also shows you a graphic representation of the previous month’s search volume (rather, “the relative number of users searching for that keyword on Google”), the average search volume for the past 12 months — and this you’ll probably find a highly interesting, if not useful, curiosity — Advertiser Competition data (which are stats “showing the relative amount of [AdWords] advertisers bidding on that keyword”).
As if that weren’t enough, researching Site-Related Keywords lets you enter the URL of any webpage out there to “find keywords related to the content on the page.” Sure, go bonkers entering your own URLs and pages, but here’s something you really should do: enter your competitors’ URLs and see what keywords their sites are bringing up on Google.
Now that’s research!
Go to the Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool »
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2 Responses to “The Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool”
By Will Bontrager on Oct 25, 2007 | Reply
Ah, I really like Google’s keyword tool. Especially the Search Volume Trends column (revealed with the “Show/hide columns” dropdown). A year’s worth of search volume represented in a tiny graph.
Blog writers might prepare posts ahead of time for publication at the historical time when search volume increased for the posts’ key words. And reduce posting with key words during historical drop in demand.
Product developers and service providers might use the information to help establish promotion periods. As an example, “house numbers” had a steady decline September through February. During March, the volume took a big jump and has had a slow rise ever since. This might be information of use to home builders, real estate agents, and numerologists. And, of course, folks writing about those subjects.
By Wordpreneur on Oct 26, 2007 | Reply
Hi William
Search volume trends… excellent! In fact, I just learned something new about my traffic because of this (I’m not kidding… with a bit of thought and reasoning, the data from this tip of yours can be quite revealing). Good stuff and thanks!
ees