08.25.08
Keyword Research becomes easier
If you’ve any experience with Internet Marketing, you know how important keyword-research is. Keywords are a big reason why some people make only peanuts while others are laughing all the way to their banks.
Tools like Word Tracker, Good Keywords, Overture’s Search Tool, etc etc became an absolute necessity for Internet Marketers. Some of these are free and others subscription based. Most of the features these tools offer are similar - they give you a set of possible keywords you can use for your niche, the popularity of these keywords and so on.
Big Daddy Google has its own keyword tool too:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Since this comes from Google, it was in my must-use list of tools. However, till a few months back this tool had some limitations which made it less appealing. So while most other tools would give an exact number of searches performed on various keywords, Google’s tool would give a relative indication. One had to judge keyword-demand based on qualitative phrases - low/medium/high search volume instead of exact numbers.
From a personal perspective, I was using the other tools (and not just Google’s) because hard numbers are always pleasing to the eye and give a better insight. Well, it seems many others thought the same and Google finally added this feature to their own tool.
Now when you search for a keyword in Google’s external keyword tool, it gives you raw numbers for searches done on the various keywords. They give you an average number of searches as well as those done in the last month.
Yes, most of the other tools gave this data but how reliable were they? When it comes from the Big Daddy, you know there is more truth to it. After all, Google is the most popular search engine of all. They have a huge database of user queries. The other tools extrapolate the numbers based on a sample, but Google has its own database to pull up those numbers.
I am simply loving this added feature, as it saves me a lot of time. Now, I don’t use a dozen tools to get a proper estimation of keyword demand. I do use a few others to get more keyword ideas, but don’t look at their search numbers anymore. That is all through the Google tool.
There are two more additions I would love to see in Google’s keyword tool. As of now, they give competition data for the keywords, but its again a qualitative thing - low/medium/high advertiser competition. I wish they give us a hard number for this column too - so we know exactly how many advertisers are bidding on a particular keyword.
The second addition I’d love to see is, of course, a bigger keyword list. Right now, they give about 100 or so keyword suggestions. I hope they expand this so we get a wider range of long-tails. With these additions, the Google Keyword Tool will become a near-perfect solution for all keyword researchers.
Anyone at the G-plex reading this?
