Using Google’s Keyword Tool

Google has created a great free, online tool that can help advertisers see what people are searching for online and the related words that they are also using in their searches. In this exercise, the basics of the Google Keyword Tool will be outlined.

See For Yourself

As a business, if you’re considering using any kind of paid advertising based on keywords, you should get a good idea of your competition before putting down any money on a specific keyword. Using Google’s tool will help you do that.

First you’ll want to go http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. The page will look like this:

Next you’ll want to enter the keywords on which you’re planning on bidding. In fact, you’ll probably want to look at the statistics for many different keywords related to your page. In this case, we’re going to type in the phrase “classic cars.” The results look like this:

Now we know that the phrase “classic cars” is very popular with other advertisers. Now look at the number of people who search for the phrase “classic cars.” You can see that more people tend to search for that phrase, but just as many people search for terms like “muscle car.” You can see that many people are still searching for terms like “classic car wash,” yet the advertising competition for this phrase is much lower than for a phrase like “classic cars.” This tool can really help out any business that wants to get paid advertising for a bargain. Remember that the most popular keywords are the most expensive. By using less expensive keywords, you can still reach a rather large audience.

The Google Keyword Tool is also great for finding out the keywords of already-existing websites. Try this out with your favorite website. Go back to the main page of the Keyword tool and change the search option to “Website content” as shown below. Type in your favorite website address:

The keyword tool will tell you the various keywords that Google will pick up when searching that site with a search engine spider. This can be a helpful way to find out the keywords of any website and how Google will see that website’s contents. In this case, Kitten Wars is a website devoted to cute kitten pictures. The results from the keyword tool look something like this:

As you can see, there isn’t a whole lot of advertiser competition for terms relating to cats and kittens because there haven’t been a lot of searches for those terms. Remember that if your site doesn’t contain hugely popular keywords, don’t be discouraged. The Internet caters to people of all tastes, hobbies, and interests. By catering to a specialized audience, a website can still gain a significant amount of traffic by following rules of good design and good SEO practices.

Last but not least, this tool also has a very useful way to detecting keyword data from text you enter into a textbox. This can help any developer whose writing articles or website information and wants to know the various keywords before they’ve been published. In this case, we’re going to be using some text from Shakespeare to show you how Google will pick out keywords within text that hasn’t even been put online yet. Simply go back to the keyword tool and enter some text into the textbook like this:

In this case, Google isn’t really sure what to do with this short passage from Romeo and Juliet. Also, since we’re entering very old dialogue with a lot of references to celestial bodies, Google immediately picks up on these words and suggests keywords like “planet Earth, solar system, the sun, the moon” and more. Now if this were a keyword-driven article, the results would tell you the exact keywords within your text and would provide clues on how to improve the text and make the words more search engine-friendly. This is why SEO professionals often rely on tools like these to help sort and calculate keywords. Now you know how to use this very simple tool, online, and for free.

Clearpath Technology is a SEO Firm providing Link Building, Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing services. For more details, visit http://www.clearpathtechnology.com or visit physically at Clearpath Technology, 2nd & 3rd Floor, Anshul Plaza, Sector-10, Plot-8, Dwarka, New Delhi-110075, India. You can also call +91-9958844066 or toll free 1-877- 453- 8080.