New Google Keyword Tool Beta and Better?

Google released the beta for a new version of the venerable and ever reliable Adwords Keyword Tool in September last year so that we would have time to get use to the new features. Not content to sit on their laurels, they have just rolled out a new update and before looking at the latest update to the tool I thought I would give a quick run down of the tool so far.

Here’s an outline of what I’ll cover:

• A look at the new range of options you can choose before you start your search. This includes a screenshot so you know what to expect.
• Peeking at Keywords of your competitors’ websites.
• The mobile search statistics option. Hmmm.
• How integration with the Search based keyword tool explodes the keyword list. Assuming you have signed in. More about that below.
• Categories and how you can use it to improve slice and dice your list for better results. This is really cool.
• An example of how I used the category list to get a tighter list of keywords
• Separate additional keywords: a work around to help you isolate them. If you are curious about latent semantic indexing (and who isn’t really) I have a couple of links to some great blogs from SEObook and SEOmoz
• How to exclude Negative Keywords in the new Google tool
• How much more data Google throws at you with downloads. Pretty much the whole kit and caboodle.
• The difference between signing into you Adwords account to use the tool, and not signing in. My advice, sign in.
• My thoughts on the tool. I like it. There, but if you want to hear more pop on down here to read my opinion.

Let’s get started.

Getting In the Front Door

To get to the new Keyword Tool beta you can either click on the conveniently located link on the current site:

or go it directly by typing this address in your browser (or just click on the link here: New Google Keyword Tool Beta ).

What’s New or Different?

You’re Captcha ‘ed Before You Get In the Door

The first difference is that you will have to complete a captcha before you start your inquiries (even before you type in your first keyword). As before you only have to do this once.

Some of you may see this as a subtle message from Google about their position in the Search Engine world, others will see it as convenient.

 

Advanced Options Anyone?

Setting the country and language has become simpler and is done by clicking on Advanced Options. Clicking this text reveals a couple of few options as well, all of which I will touch on in this article:

Finally You Can Peek at Keywords by Website

The second difference is that now you can either look for keywords directly or look for keywords based on a website address (a good way to check out what your competitors are using, or more specifically (and importantly) which keywords Google associates with the site).

I use this when I am checking out sites (particularly those in the first page): partly to see what keywords they are ranking well for or Google associates with the site, and also I will se some of these words as seeds to build a wider or broader list – something that is remarkably easy to do when used on conjunction with the Google Wonder Wheel.

I am celebrating this option because it was not available if you browsed from some locations, for example if you had Australian IP.  Of course, you could fix this by clearing the cookies or if you set your cookies up right but now you don’t even have to think about it. And let’s be honest, if you are about to start a journey of 10,000 keywords (as Lao Tzu would have said, had he been an internet marketer) why expend precious grey matter on mucking around with cookies or settings.

 

Mobile Search Statistics Revealed…uh Sort Of

You can set the keyword tool to show only search statistics for mobile devices. Google notes that while this limits search statistics to mobile devices, it doesn’t affect performance reported performance statistics. Also, it excludes data from smartphone and handheld digital devices (read IPads) that have full internet capability – presumably because these count as ‘normal’ browser searches.

At this point I wonder how useful this option is going to be given this exclusion – especially with the prevalence of smart phones which arguably fall into the “full internet capability” category. However, I speak as a computer based online marketer.

 

Keywords, Keywords and More Keywords

This incarnation of the Keyword Tool is an amalgamation of the old tool and the Search-based keyword tool. As a result you now can choose whether you want to see results for keyword ideas OR for ideas containing only the keyword search terms.

If you want as wide a range of keyword phrases as possible, including phrases that do not include the keyword you have specified, choose the first option: All keyword ideas

Is there a big difference in the results? Though proof by anecdote is a contradiction in terms, I tested the keyword: “golf club”.

• Number of results with option one (“All keyword ideas”): 800 (including: driving range golf, country clubs, troon golf, golf break and wi golf [sic])
• Number of results with option two (‘Ideas containing my keywords”): 576 (all keywords including the term: golf club, and all the keywords in this list were also in the list generated by option one)

This suggests that if you want to go broad, check the first option, if you want a tighter subset, choose the second.

Finally you can set filters for local search… and you can set multiple or nested filters.

 

Slice and Dice – New Ways to Categories.

One obvious and welcome addition is a new sidebar on the left hand side that shows lets you filter you list by:

• Category (a feature previously found in the Search based Keyword Tool)
• Prominent Keyword
• (and change) Matching criteria – from Broad match (default) to Exact and Phrase.

In Affilorama recently, Matthew Carter wrote an excellent post on the New Google Keyword Tool pointing out that you can use the category breakdown to give you an insight into how Google categorizing keywords and build SEO stronger sites.

 

One Way to Use Categories to Tighten Your Keyword List – An Example

To expand on his point with an example:

Suppose you are doing keyword research to create a wide keyword list for a PPC campaign on Yeast Infection (a subject close to my heart – figuratively speaking only).

Casting my net wide I might look for keyword variations on some of the natural cures for yeast infections – such as apple cider, vinegar, garlic, yogurt – with the intention of finding cheap short and long tail keyword phrases to put on an ad on.

Let’s take the keyword “apple cider”.

My search results (after I have signed in – more about this below) were 345 different keyword combinations. Hurrah.

However, not all of these relate to apple cider as a curative or health food and using those words may be a waste of time and be detrimental to my quality score.

Wouldn’t it be great if I could tighten my list and select only keywords that Google reckons are health related.

I could do this by going to the category list and clicking on the Health category. The list is filtered to only 12 words, as you can see in the image at the end of this section.

You will notice that the list expands into sub-categories – which means I could tighten my list even more (my cup runneth over) (see the image on the left).

Now this might not always appropriate for keyword list building but you don’t just use the keyword tool for PPC list building.

Imagine, as Matthew Carter asks you too, the possibilities for building a tight website.

 

Where did all the “Additional Keywords” go?

The physical distinction between Related Keywords and Additional Keywords is gone, the beta version of the keyword tool puts them all together and ranks them by relevancy.

This might take some of us a while to get used to, the distinction between … and related words made it easier to identify possible directions we could go to either widen our net of keywords or give us keywords we could use to help with latent semantic indexing. (If you are not sure what latent semantic indexing is, may be well served by this post from Aaron Wall, SEO Guru or this one from SEOMoz

I think this is a bearable change – sure it will be a little less easy to spot the related words (hint: look for the keyword results that do not include the keyword you started the search with) but they are still there.

Teething Pains? Try “Miscellaneous terms”.

If you are hankering to get a list of those curious and apparently unrelated keywords but don’t want to eyeball a several hundred word list or write a spiffy macro in Excel*, head on down to the Contains list and look for, and tick only, “Miscellaneous terms”.

* And Yes, Mac users, Mac Office 2011 has VBA capability – so you too can enjoy the pleasure of recording and writing macros.

 

Accentuating the Negative

Trust Google to take the term negative keyword literally!

Wondering how to exclude words from your search results? In the current version of the Keyword Tool this is a filter, in the beta, you just add the “keyword to your list and prefix it with a negative.

For example, if I was looking for keywords around the topic Yeast Infection (purely for commercial reasons!) but want to exclude candida then add the phrase: “- candida” to the search box:

Downloading – now including the kitchen sink!

Downloading from the beta version is done by clicking on the “Download” button (logical, but I’ll admit being an old dog, I looked at the bottom of my results page first). Click on this and you’ll get a range of file formats to download in (including the old favourite: .csv files (and yes, I know favourite looks like it is spelled incorrectly but I am a Kiwi, so bear with me please).

If you choose .csv for excel the beta version creates a ZIP file for you to download. In the old days it was a simple (unzipped) .csv and you might wonder why the change, until you open the file and see that Google now gives you all the statistics (not just the ones you can see or columns you have made visible).

That is:

• Competition
• Global Monthly Searches (month by month for twelve months)
• Ad Share
• Search Share
• Estimated Daily Impressions
• Estimated Ad Position
• Estimated CTR
• Estimated Daily Clicks
• Estimated Daily Cost
• Estimated Avg. CPC
• Extracted From Webpage
• Local Monthly Searches

 

To log in or not log in? (Is 800 better than 100?)

Many of us have Adword accounts but may choose to use the adword keyword tool without logging in – I mean we already got distracted with the captcha, do we really need to log in too?

The main gain I got from logging in was that my keyword results were larger – for the search term: “golf club”, before I logged in I got 100 keywords, after I logged and used the tool again I got 800 results. You might wonder if quantity is better than quality but when it comes to keywords, quantity is king – well at least when you start. (Relevancy is pretty important too!)

Feature Packed or Features Made More Obvious

These are some of the key features of the new Keyword tool, mostly arising from the integration of the old Adword Keyword Tool and the Search Based Keyword Tool.

I like it.

• The layout is more intuitive in my opinion and arguably simpler (once I found the download button).
• The introduction of a category list makes it easier to tighten your keyword results; and
• the inclusion of a link to Google Insights means easier access to one of the most useful (other) tools for keyword search in Google.

The fact that you need to sign in to your Adwords account is a bit of a hassle but not a big one – it is after all the Adwords Keyword Tool so it targeted at Adwords account holders and as we have seen in the most recent change to the New Adwords Keyword Tool Google is heading towards further integration.

If you don’t have an Adwords account, it is easy to get one and free – and any serious internet marketer is going to use Adwords at some time (if only for experience).

The only cumbersome thing for me is having to refer to the current Google Adwords Tool as the old Google Adwords Tool when it is still the current one and the replacement as the New Google Keyword Tool Beta…still this old dog has time for a few new tricks.

For Google’s notes on the introduction of the Google Keyword Tool, check out there post: Updated Versions of the Keyword and Placement Tool

Comments

I am not perfect, despite what my mother thinks – or at least what I would like her to think.

So I welcome any comments or thoughts, corrections or questions you have about this article or it’s presentation – too long, too short, easy to read?

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Tagged as: Adword Keyword Tool, Keyword Research, PPC, SEO