Google Can Help You Find The Best Keywords

Here is the key to keyword research.

Before writing any content, editing any titles or descriptions, inserting keyword rich anchor text, or even altering H1 tags, it’s of the utmost importance to first establish one thing – what keywords and phrases will deliver the most potential clients and consumers.

There’s no sense in undertaking an optimization project without having the faintest clue of what people are searching for. Only sound keyword research in the initial stages can ensure a successful optimization campaign.

The first step is deciding which online tool to utilize. With several available, it’s a question of preference, cost, and the presentation of generated results. While some tools come with a hefty cost, their results aren’t always the most comprehensive. Similarly, some tools might be free, but the results might not deliver the desired depth of analysis.

Google Insights for Search and Google Adwords Keyword Tool are two highly useful options that are available from Google at no cost. Both present statistics differently, so we suggest using them in unison to gather a thorough and detailed picture of search trends.

Google Insights is best for determining national or global search trends. The search results generally depict how many people are searching a given word or phrase over the course of several months or years, and what geographic areas are searching them. Insights can help you identify key word phrases that are becoming more popular, and from on online advertising standpoint it can also help you adjust your ad budget based on monthly search volume.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool exceeds Insights in its ability to deliver constantly changing raw data, as well as a diverse “reference” list of closely related words or phrases. For instance, when searching “Des Moines web design company,” the generated results include Related Keywords (ex. website design des moines), Additional Keywords (ex. iowa web design), and Similar Keywords (ex. des moines ia).

Each of these categories provides dozens of similar keywords and phrases that are being searched. This information obviously enables you to expand your list of targeted phrases, but which ones are the best?

This is where the raw data comes in handy.

Each keyword or phrase comes with basic search engine stats – monthly search averages, overall search averages, and search volume trends – as well as more in-depth analysis – estimated ad position, average CPC (cost-per-click), and advertiser competition.

The basic statistical averages will certainly suffice for most optimization campaigns, while the deeper analysis is mostly relevant when implementing a Google Adwords campaign. However, every statistic available through these Google tools can provide valuable insight, and only dependable information can lead to a successful optimization campaign. Knowing how your potential customers look for products and services online is the starting point to increase web traffic.