10 replies to this topic

[Randy]

Has anybody else been playing with Google's relatively new Search-based Keyword Research tool? I first ran across it about 6 weeks ago and have been tinkering with it as I can find time to compare it to Google's other external keyword tool and my other keyword research tools. Some of the information is similar, other info is quite different.

And yes I know it's primarily for Adwords users. But I'm finding some real nuggets in there when I plug in some of my own sites that don't even run adwords ads.

For instance, with one of my sites I used for testing the info it spits out the tool identified not only a few dozen truly long tail search terms (~<50 searches per month) but also gave me a handful of phrases that had as many as 800 or 1,000 monthly searches. All phrases where I wasn't already ranking on the first page of the Organic SERPs because I wasn't targeting those phrases. For that one test site I was able to put in a few hours work and after a month have picked up enough traffic and conversions to make it worth my time, without ever buying an ad. All on phrases I'd not thought of previously and that no other tool had identified as phrases with good potential.

I find it kind of neat that it even tells me which page might be the best target an ad towards. Instead of setting up an Adwords ad I simply alter pages to target some of the new phrases. In my first tests I'm finding my already established sites pretty much jump into the first SERP page just from using the exact phrase prominently in the content somewhere. Many times I don't even have to put it in the title to get an exceptional ranking boost. So they appear to be not only low competition phrases me and all of my competitors have obviously been missing out on, but are also phrases that actually get relevant, converting traffic.

[gsimerlink]

I haven't touched it yet, but based on your write up I will playing around with it this weekend.

Thanks for the heads up

[Jill]

I've only looked at it briefly myself also, but keep planning to play with it more. Thanks for the reminder! Will definitely make it a priority the next time I'm doing some kwr.

[btreloar]

I'm considering using one of the free Google keyword tools to replace my reliance on Keyword Discovery. But in the process of examining the Google tools, I found some discrepancies that trouble me.

For example, a search on the Search Based Keyword Tool reports 2,800 monthly searches for "car restoration", yet the normal Google Adwords Keyword Tool reports monthly search volume of 74,000 for the same phrase.

That's an awfully large discrepancy. Am I misunderstanding what these numbers are supposed to represent?

[Jill]

Sounds like you may be looking at exact match with the lower numbers and broad match with the larger ones.

[scouseflip]

This looks pretty useful, but appears to be for the US based on the currency used (i.e. USD) and this remains the case when you switch the TLD on the URl to .co.uk - does anyone know if a UK version exists?

[btreloar]

Sounds like you may be looking at exact match with the lower numbers and broad match with the larger ones.

I expect you're right. But neither tool seems to provide an option for broad or exact match. For my keyword research purposes, I'd want to look at exact match, so that seems to imply I should use just the Search Based tool. Do you agree?

[Jill]

Google's regular keyword tool allows you to switch to exact:

[btreloar]

Google's regular keyword tool allows you to switch to exact:

Sorry, Jill, but I'm feeling particularly dense this evening. Where do they let you do that? I haven't been able to find it.

[Jill]

There's a little "Select" box on the top right that defaults to broad. Click and and change it to exact.

[btreloar]

Well, clearly I actually WAS as dense as I felt. I kept looking for an option to select before clicking the button to ask Google for keywords. Duh!

Thanks, Jill.

BTW, a quick check still shows major differences. With the Adwords keyword search tool set to Exact match, it shows monthly searches of 9,900 for car restoration, but the Search Based keyword tool shows only 2,800. I wonder why the results should differ by that much?

Edited by btreloar, 25 November 2009 - 11:21 AM.