The Google Keyword Tool

How It Can Help Your Keyword Search

By Kevin McKnelly

A very important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) is making sure both the content on your pages and your meta tags for each of those pages contain the best key words that people will use searching for your services and products.  If you are looking to see which keywords people are most likely to use looking for your business, here is a simple way get a good working list of keywords: 

 Log onto https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

1.  Type the characters you see in the picture for the security check.

2.  Where it says, “Enter one keyword or phrase per line” type in a keyword or phrase that best describes what your website is about.  For example, if your site is promoting your business of selling tee shirts on-line, type “tee-shirts” or “on-line tee shirts”.

2.  Submit.

3.  Scroll down, and you will see four column headings in blue:  “Keywords”, “Advertiser Competition”, “Local Search Volume” (and the previous month), and “Global Monthly Search Volume”. 

4.  The first thing I do is click on the “Local Search Volume” heading.  This will put the keyword list in order of popularity.  It will do the same for "Global Monthly Search".  You now have a list of the most popular key words and phrases that people used to find "tee shirts" or whatever keyword or phrase you entered above.  The number of "hits" or clicks for each keyword phrase is shown.

5.  lf you scroll down to the bottom of your list in “Local Search Volume” is another list titled, “Additional Keywords to Consider”.  Pay attention to this list also.  This has results of any keyword you used in your search.  So, if you entered “medical billing advocate”, you will see hits on any word or combination of those three words.

6.  In the lists you may have keywords that are not relevant to your search, so don’t use them.  For instance, if your search was for “medical billing advocate” you might see “medical coding” as popular keywords.  Since your business has little to do with medical coding, you don’t want to use those keywords on your website.  But if you saw “patients billing” you might want to consider this one since that is related to what you do.

7.  You can either write your best keywords down, or print the whole thing out.  Sometimes it gets scrambled when trying to print it because it is in columns.  Only use the most popular ones.

8.  Now, go back and put in another phrase or different word order and see if you get any other keyword results that might be relevant.

9.  After you have done this, you have your list of keywords. The trick now is to work those keywords into your content you have on your website, as well as using some of them in your title, keyword, and description meta tags.  For more on that, click on the “Back to Articles” link below.

If your eyes are glazing over, this is where Red Dragonfly can help.  We offer keyword analysis with every SEO package we offer.  If we do it, it will be done right.

Hope this helps!

Kevin McKnelly

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