This is some text prior to the author information. You can change this text from the admin section of WP-Gravatar To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. Although Google developed its Adwords tool as an advertising product for use in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, it’s also an effective method of performing keyword research for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes. Google Adwords can be used to determine the number of searches for specific words or key phrases, but the results can be confusing because there are several different filters that will return different results. The flexibility of the Keyword Tool, with options to further refine the search, may add to the confusion if the user doesn’t properly understand the way it works.
For example, if the keyword tool is used to search for “online schools”, “online degrees” and “online education”, not only will the search provide information about those keywords, but it will also return information on many other similar terms.
A way of narrowing down the search is by using the checkbox underneath the search field:
Make sure that the check box is ticked to avoid getting a long list of keywords that may not be relevant to your business.
Google will automatically set your location and your language to provide you with the most relevant search results. These settings are found directly underneath the checkbox and can be changed by clicking on the “Advanced Options and Filters” tab.
Once you’re ready to perform the search, you just need to click on Search. However, this is where the confusion can begin:
Many users think these results mean that there are 1.830,000 monthly searches for “online schools” across the world. Similarly, it can appear that there are 1.220,000 local searches for the same search term. This is not the case – these results are just a broad match – in other words, it refers to the number of searches that involve the phrase.
If you look in the column on the left hand side of the screen, you will see the Match Types feature. By checking the box for “[Exact]” you can narrow down the results to return a much more realistic and manageable search volume. If you’re wondering why the keyword tool does not show the “Exact” search volume right at the beginning, this can be explained quite simply.
The default setting of “Broad” match type refers to the number of searches involving the particular phrase. As an example, you will be getting the search volume numbers for the keywords “online schools” as well as the search volume numbers for all of the other key phrases that contain your key words – such as “best online schools”, “online accredited schools” or “online high schools”.
As for the other match type offered in the Match Types field, “Phrase” will deliver keywords where the exact phrase of your keyword is used. This will include keywords where the term is used with other words within the phrase. For example, if the Phrase match type is checked when searching for “online schools”, you will be presented with search volume numbers for other keywords, such as “best online schools”, “online schools degrees”. However, it would not return results for phrases like “online high schools” or “online accredited schools” as the phrase has been broken up so that the keywords do not appear next to each other. This means that the “[Exact” match option is best to use if you need to know how many users search using a specific keyword.
Once the Match Type feature has been used to narrow down the results, you will be seeing a much more manageable and realistic picture and the number of searchers will have been drastically reduced:
Because some search terms are used worldwide, Google will show results on both a Global and Local basis. The results associated with Global will show the number of searches all over the world, averaged out over a period of 12 months. The numbers in the Local column are the searches within the locality that you specified when setting your location at the start of the search. These results too are averaged out over a period of 12 months.
This is a basic explanation of how to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. There are other effective ways of using this tool in order to improve keyword research and discover additional relevant keywords. In order to make keyword research more effective and more sophisticated you will need to determine the searchers’ intentions and analyse your online competition. You will then need to make informed decisions that will depend on how much time you can afford to spend on this, depending on your overall budget.
