Better Keyword Finder
PotPieGirl on July 12th, 2008
When doing your keyword research for a niche website, wouldn’t it be nice to get the real traffic data straight from the source - from Google? Guess what? Now you CAN! Google has made their keyword selection tool much better by adding the actual search volume for the past month, and an average for every month. This is GREAT for us niche site builders! One more wonderful thing that the web offers for FREE to help us make niche websites =)
Google Adwords Keyword Selection Tool Improved
This is the url for the Google Adwords Selection tool:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Once upon a time, Google’s keyword finder only gave these bar graph thingys to represent search volume for a keyword phrase - now they are giving real live numbers!
How To Use Googles Keyword Finder
Go to the url above and enter your broad keyword term you are researching. Enter the ‘capcha code’ as you see it, and then click ‘get keyword ideas’. Google will ‘think’ for a minute and then give you a BIG and BEAUTIFUL list of related keywords. (There is still a bar graph showing the advertiser/AdWords competition)
On the right side, you will see two columns, one will show the number of searches for the last full month (in this case, for June 2008), and the other column will show the average monthly searches.
You are also given a drop down menu at the top where you can select your match type. The three main match types you will probably use are ‘broad match’, ‘phrase match’, and ‘exact match’. Let’s talk about what each of these mean - but keep in mind that this tool is mainly designed for those that are doing AdWords PPC advertising. This means that when Google talks about ‘your ad’, you should just let that slide and get the gist of what it means for on-page keyword selection options.
“Broad Match” is (according to Google):
“Broad matches are often less targeted than exact or phrase matches. If you decide to use broad-matched keywords, we recommend you create keyword phrases containing at least two descriptive words each.”
“Phrase Match” is (again, according to Google):
“If you enter your keyword in quotation marks, as in “tennis shoes“, your ad will appear when a user searches on the phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and possibly with other terms in the query.
In this case, the search can also contain other terms as long as it includes the exact phrase you’ve specified. For example, your ad may appear for the queries buy tennis shoes and tennis shoes store but not shoes for tennis.”
“Exact Match” is
“If you surround your keywords in brackets-such as [tennis shoes]-your ads will appear when users search for the specific phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and without any other terms in the query. For example, your ad won’t show for the query red tennis shoes. Although you won’t receive as many impressions with exact matching, you’ll likely enjoy a higher clickthrough rate, because users searching for these terms are typically looking for exactly what you offer.”
You can read the complete explanation here.
I believe that when I use this new data from Google, that I will be using the ‘Phrase Match’ or even the ‘Exact Match’ option. I have done some reading around the web today, and there is talk of the broad match keyword traffic volume results appearing to be a bit inflated.
Also, don’t forget to use Google to check how many competing pages you for each keyword phrase. =)
I think this is just terrific to see these keyword traffic stats from Google. I’m not sure exactly what possessed them to release this data, but I have no doubt that many webmasters and niche site creators are all saying a big “Thank You” today!
My family and I are leaving in the morning for our long-awaited beach trip. I will be checking email occasionally, so if you leave a comment, please be patient with me until I moderate and approve ya!
Thank you! Now go find some great keywords. Any questions - fire away!
Tags: keyword finder, Keyword Research
November 19th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I’ve been using Google Adwords Keyword Selection Tool for some time but this description of your was useful to read nevertheless - thank you!