Is keyword research so important? What if I am not performing keyword research anyway?
Is Google AdWords keyword tool the perfect tool to perform keyword research?
Keywords are as important as Nomenclature of anything. That is why – apple is apple – not mango. If there is only one website in the world then keyword research might not be so much important, but among millions of websites – how people will identify your site – and how you would be able to let people know “what your website is all about?”
Keywords are nothing but a language of your websites and blogs. Unless your site is big like Facebook or Pinterest – you need to incorporate words that best define your website – so that your customer can buy things from you without hesitation.
Google Keyword Research Tool
There are lots of keyword research tools out there that claim to do better keyword research. I agree and have used different varieties of tools (both free and paid), but I found Google AdWords Keyword Tool is the best and that is totally free to use.
Google is the biggest search engine – what does it mean? It simply means that most of the Internet users are still using Google search engine for the purposes of getting an appropriate answer for their queries online. And that online query is your actual keyword.
Google keeps record of every query and updates every single query in the form of a chart – for example, how many times a particular query has been performed on Google search engine. This gives you an idea regarding the number of online customers or the number of audience.
How to use Google AdWords keyword research tool?
Before heading into the actual process of keyword research, I would like to share on what kind of ideas you will get from this tool.
- Match types for keyword – in form of broad, exact, and phrase match
- Search volume – number of visitors globally and locally
- Competition – keyword competition in the Google search engine
- Semantic keywords – other related keyword terms
- Long-tail keywords – closely related search terms
- Advanced options and filters – set your preferences
- CPC – cost-per-click for bidding purposes
Let’s take a ride on Google keyword research tool – simply click on the given link – or just type the term phrase “Google keyword research tool” into Google search engine – the first option would lead to the same web page.
In order to make a good example of keyword research, I have decided to research on the very popular term “digital marketing”. So, you will get a nice keyword research example with detailed data as of today.
After clicking the link above, you will get a page like this:
Sign-in or not!
At present, sign-in to this tool is not so important, but it would be beneficial as the way deeper you go into keyword research process. I would let you know when signing-in would help you finding a good quality keyword.
Match types for keyword – in form of broad, exact, and phrase match
At the left-hand side of the page, you will see an option of “Match Types” – now, your actual game starts here – the more you play with this keyword research tool the more new thing you will explore and thus the more benefits and expertise you will avail.
There are three subcategories under match types – broad, exact, and phrase. You can pick all or any one. The difference you will get in the overall global and local monthly searches – which are on the right of the page.
It gives you an idea of other terms that are frequently being used in association with the main keyword that you have entered there for research purposes.
For example, the terms that are being used with “digital marketing” are:
Agency
Agencies
Company
What is
Training
These are the terms that people are using along with digital marketing in their search engine queries.
Among the all three match types, which one is the best for good quality keyword research? For most of my keyword research, I prefer “exact match type” because it gives me an idea of exact monthly search volume – these are the people who are not adding any other word along with the main keyword.
Search volume – number of visitors globally and locally
These numbers are an estimate of online audience and customers. In our example – these are the people who might be looking for info, services, products, training, etc. related to digital marketing.
For example, exact search volume of digital marketing:
Global monthly searches – 33,100
Local monthly searches – 6,600 (in United States – you can set your own country)
Competition – keyword competition in the Google search engine
Google AdWords keyword tool – as stated in the name “Google AdWords” – it is an estimated of advertiser’s competition. It is a PPC advertising program offer by Google to promote anything online.
There are three levels of competition – high, moderate, and low – it simply means the value of keyword in terms of money.
For example, the keyword competition for digital marketing is “high” – it means the bid price for this keyword is high because many people are willing to show their ads to them who is searching for digital marketing – due to limited hot spots one would have to pay more for top position.
Note: This competition has nothing to do with organic search engine ranking. You will get to read the post – how to outrank your competition in SERPS real quick?
Semantic keywords – other related keyword terms
What is semantic keyword? How semantic keywords are important for your overall keyword research benefits, website planning, and online marketing campaigns?
It is a very broad topic of discussion which you will find in my later post – semantic keywords are the words that have almost the same meaning – which means “meaning alike words”.
For example, the semantic keywords for the term digital marketing are:
Online marketing
Internet marketing
Mobile marketing
Long-tail keywords – closely related search terms
This helps you to find the keyword phrase – narrow keyword phrase – more narrowed keyword phrase – a niche – only closely related search terms.
For example,
Digital marketing agency
Digital marketing company
Advanced options and filters – set your preferences
By default you will get the data of local monthly searches from the United States, you can choose your own country in order to get the local monthly searches from your own country or other country.
You would also be able to set other filters such as; competition wise and set a preference of more than “>” and lower than “<” icons.
CPC – cost-per-click for bidding purposes
As you have seen in the keyword competition section, you must be willing to know the bid price and that is CPC (cost per click). How much I would have to pay for the term “digital marketing”? – if I am willing to run a Google AdWords campaign to advertise my product.
It is the price that online advertisers want to keep low, and at the same time, online publishers want to keep high.