For long an open secret, but barely touched upon till recent past is that
keywords used by surfers have demographic variance
to a largish extent. What this means is except for some obvious terms, surfers from different locales of the globe will most likely type in different search terms to look for information on the web. Even in big countries like US or India, search terms used by surfers vary from place to place. Search engines knew this for long, but it took them awhile to chalk out suitable products tailored to be effective in serving aggregate needs on the net.
Talking about Google, products like local search or, for that matter, the advantage of geo-targeting in AdWords campaign are all part of strategy accrued from search behavior pattern, accumulated and studied for nearly a decade.
What are ways to get you the most promising
keywords? Try AdWords
Keyword Tool. Who knows you may soon forget you ever used anything else. Admittedly, AdWords is meant to maximize revenues to Google. What’s impressive is Google’s fatherly approach to ensure that AdWords maximizes returns to advertisers too. Let’s explore how easily you can fetch your choicest keywords from Google’s vast repertoire.
Start at AdWords Keyword Tool
, and after selecting the country and language you’d like to target (English and United States by default), slip below and select one of the 2 tabs, namely Keyword Variations and Site-Related Keywords.
Keyword Variations
If you select this tab, just type in some keywords in the box, one in each line. If you want similarly meant keywords, do not forget to select ‘Use synonyms’. Remember it is always better to begin your keyword search with general terms. As you progressively narrow down your keyword selection, you’re more likely to discover promising phrases along the way.
So you have a long list of keywords presented by Google based upon your few initial keywords. Watch closely, you’ll find Google saying that it’s a list sorted by relevance. What’s that? It’s Google’s way of gently prodding you to begin an AdWords campaign, for the keywords that appear at the top are the most relevant ones, should you consider ad campaign with them.
What would you do now? Well, you may start adding them as necessary, search for more related keywords (link at the bottom of the list), or even download them in your chosen format. But wait before you do anything of these. Google helps you with excellent tools to further fine-tune your list of keywords.
Refining your keywords
Move to ‘Show columns’ and in the accompanying drop-down list, you get to select eye-popping options. Choose the first option, ‘Keyword popularity’ and you’ll simultaneously see 2 adjacent columns of data. Click a column heading, the list re-arranges in decreasing importance. In the column ‘Advertiser Competition’, the list shows which of your keywords are hotly sought after. Similarly, the column ‘Search Volume’ gives you a measure of popularity of respective keywords. Still want more specific info’? The generous Google is there for that. Amble to far right of the columns and alongside ‘Match Type’, select ‘Broad’, ‘Phrase’ or ‘Exact’ and watch how the scenario changes.
Let’s move on to third option in ‘Show columns’, which is ‘Global search volume trends’, a recent addition. When you select this, you’ll see an amazing display of how keyword popularity changes globally through the year in the form of bar-charts. Once again, hook on to ‘Match Type’ and refine your search further.
Start an AdWord campaign?
If you do not contemplate starting an AdWord campaign, you may skip the other 2 ‘Show columns’ options. In case you do plan one, first select ‘Cost and ad position estimates’ and in the ensuing page, choose your currency and mention your maximum CPC. This is the maximum cost you bear each time your ad is clicked on. Hit ‘Recalculate’, your list will turn up myriad combinations of ad position and average CPC for your keywords.
The remaining ‘Show columns’ option is ‘Possible negative keywords’. This is a tool that assists your keywords to maintain a sharp focus in an ad campaign. Depending on campaign strategy, one has to decide whether or not to include negative keywords. More often than not, expert campaigners will choose one-word broad match and then work on a long list of negative words to disallow unwanted ad impressions.
Site-Related Keywords
Till now, we’ve spoken about keywords you chose and ways of refining them. Suppose you are eager to know what keywords your competition is using! Well, why not? If indeed so, AdWords Keyword Tool comes to your assistance.
To start, click the other tab ‘Site-Related Keywords’, enter the URL of your competition in the search box and hit ‘Get keywords’. Don’t forget to check ‘Include other pages on my site linked from this URL’. As you set Google to work, it dutifully comes up with a list of keywords, grouped by common terms. Once there, similar to Keyword Variations, here too you can start working on your keywords with abundance of tools at your command.
If you’ve come up to this point, you’d have certainly noticed the great virtues of AdWords Keyword Tool. It’s free, so use it to your full advantage.