Richard Goulde Writing

SEO Keyword Research Step 2.5: Expand the Keyword List via the Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Thursday, March 19th, 2009 | SEM, SEO

We’ve gone through an exhaustive process for building your keyword list, and by now you may already have a ton of terms. And we’re not even done yet!

But don’t despair – this is the last step in building the list. After this, we’ll begin the actual research that will enable us to transform an unwieldy spreadsheet of dozens, hundreds or thousands of keywords into a user-friendly handful.

In this step, we’re going to delve into a free online tool which will automatically generate keyword ideas for us: the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. It’s geared toward generating ideas for a Google AdWords pay-per-click campaign, but it also works for raw SEO.

In truth, you’ll find tons of online tools, but I’m trying to keep this step-by-step series both easy and no-cost, so we’re going to stick with the simple, tried and true.

Go to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

Keywords Based On Website Content

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

1. Select Website content.
2. Enter your own company’s web address.
3. Click Get keyword ideas.

The tool analyzes the page entered. First, it shows the terms it picked up on your site. This gives you some insight into what Google may see as the current keywords for your site. Don’t take that information to the bank; I’m always amazed at the random words the tool picks up.



Below that, it will show keyword ideas grouped according to the terms from your web page. Ignore the other columns of information for a moment, and just focus on the keywords the tool is suggesting.



You will notice an option to Add each keyword, or to Add all #». Ignore those. That’s if you want to use those keywords in an pay-per-click ad campaign with Google. Right now, we’re just doing research.

4. Just scroll on down and click Download all keywords. I recommend the .csv format for Excel, if that’s the spreadsheet program you’re using. It may ask if you want to save the information or open automatically with Excel. It’s up to you, but I recommend opening with Excel. It will create a new workbook.
   

   Download all keywords

5. Parse the new spreadsheet. (Expand the columns first, so you can actually see what you’re doing).
   

   Google AdWords Keyword Tool Output

   Delete any grouping of keywords or individual keywords that don’t fit your website, product or service. Keep any keywords that are already on your list; we want those columns of extra data. Select whatever rows you’re going to delete, right click with the mouse, and choose Delete.

   

   Delete inappropriate keywords

Are you starting to see why I organized the spreadsheet the way I did?

6. But there’s an additional step. Your common term and Google’s need to match. It doesn’t matter which you change; just make sure when you copy the info from Google into the Step 2 worksheet, that all the appropriate keywords will be together under the same common term (I prefer the header “Keyword Set”). For my part, I usually update the Google spreadsheet to match my common terms.
7. Now paste the keywords from Google’s spreadsheet into the Step 2 worksheet, at the bottom of the list. Make sure you get all 5 columns of information.
   

   Paste keywords from Google into spreadsheet

Keywords Based On Descriptive Words Or Phrases

Next, we’ll go back to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and use the Descriptive words or phrases (back at the top of the screen) to generate new ideas based on keywords that the tool didn’t identify in your website.

Unfortunately, this tends to generate a lot of keywords that are unrelated or inappropriate, and also a lot of the results tend to have “Not enough data” in the information columns, which is unhelpful. You might try for a few, scan through the results, and manually enter the handful that seem relevant. Or you might skip this part altogether. Up to you.

The return-on-investment on time spent on Descriptive words or phrases is lower than for Website Content. So I do this part quick. I look up a few terms and scan the results for items that might be useful. I don’t export in bulk unless there are a quite a few terms that strike me as appropriate. Otherwise, I just manually enter the handful I want to keep. If it’s a keyword of interest, still record them even if Google shows “Not enough data.” Down the road you may wonder if you considered a particular keyword; make a record of it and just notate “insuff.data.”

When you’re trying to determine if a keyword might be a good fit, always keep the following question in mind: is that a term or phrase someone might use to find your site, your service or your product?

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

1. Select Descriptive words or phrases.
2. Enter the keyword(s) you want. You can enter multiple keywords at a time, each on a separate line, but I recommend only 3 or 4 at a time. Only do this step for the important keywords that Google didn’t identify from your website.
3. When you first do this, you’ll have to enter a series of random letters to ensure you’re a real person using the tool.
4. Hit the Get keyword ideas button.
5. Parse through the results. Export in bulk if it makes sense; otherwise, just enter the appropriate results onto your spreadsheet manually.

Clean Up

1. Select the entire spreadsheet and sort according to the common term first and keyword second.
2. Scan down the list for duplicates. Pay special attention to black lines (the new data from Google) scattered among colored text (what was already in the spreadsheet). If there is a duplicate, keep the line with the data from the Google tool.
   

   Delete duplicates

3. Once that’s done, change the text color of the new additions to match the appropriate grouping.

Conclusion

Alrighty!

Congratulations! Pat yourself on the back! We’ve just done a lot of work, and we’re well on our way to uncovering the best keywords for your website or web page.

Next up: start researching and analyzing those terms.

Richard Goulde is a professional writer and SEO who combines compelling copy with Internet savvy -- sales, educational, PR and creative. He's based in Dallas but his words go global, so whether you're in Peoria or Paris, contact him to talk about how his work can serve your business needs.

Tags: Keyword Research, Keywords

2 Comments to SEO Keyword Research Step 2.5: Expand the Keyword List via the Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Nick
March 19, 2009

I think its worst these days to go with Google keyword tools as they are showing up broad results. I have switched to the SERP analytics tool for keywords..its free-http://www.serpanalytics.com/tools/top_keywords

I do not have problem with none other products from Google but keyword one is not reacting good.

Nice blog anyways..

Richard
March 22, 2009

@Nick

Thanks for your comment!

I agree the Google AdWords Keyword Tool has some shortcomings. Not least of which is, it’s a tool designed for use with pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns. As a result, Google has an incentive to return keyword results that skew toward more profitable keywords for them, i.e., keywords for which Google will be able to charge more per click.

Nevertheless, the tool yields good data from the predominant search engine, all for free. Other free tools tend to be more limited in the data they return. The one you mention, for example, only has data for the top 10,000 keywords. Unfortunately, that’s not enough for our needs here.

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