SEO Keyword Research Step 3.1: Research the List with the Google AdWords Tool

Fill in the missing data

Finally, we have arrived at the research and analysis portion of our step-by-step keyword research!

For the first step, we’re going to stick with the Google AdWords Keyword Tool in order to fill out our existing spreadsheet.

Many lines of your spreadsheet will now have data from Google, including Advertiser Competition and a couple of columns of Search Volume figures, but you probably still have some keywords without that info.

So we’re going to fill it in.

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

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

1. Select Descriptive words or phrases.
2. Enter the keyword(s) that we need data for. To be thorough, you can do all of them. However, if you need to prioritize for a time-crunch, skip the single-word keywords. I can pretty much tell you right off the bat single-word keywords will be nearly impossible to optimize for, and they’re the least effective at generating targeted traffic. So you can do this step only for keyword phrases composed of 2 or more words.
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. For each keyword, enter the three data points into the spreadsheet.

You may notice that Advertiser Competition isn’t given as a number but as a green bar. When the tool exports the data, it converts that bar into a number between 0 and 1. So if you’re filling in information manually, just estimate.

Also, you may come across keyword ideas you hadn’t considered. Although we’ve officially entered the research (as opposed to list-building) phase, we can still add keywords to our list. I commonly add new keywords to the list right up until the final selection.

Some Tips To Remember

1. We’re ultimately looking for a 2 to 5 word keyword phrase.
2. Terms showing “Not enough data” are generally not going to make good keywords because they have too little search volume, but you may still want to record that in your spreadsheet.
3. Ultimately, the research is not about absolute numbers but about relativity. How does one keyword compare to another? For example, I want to optimize for my basic service – copywriting. But do I use the term copywriter, copy writing, copy writer, copywriting service, copywriting services, writing services, and so forth?
   • I’m accumulating data so that I can compare those terms to see which one gets the most traffic while being the least competitive.
   • Try to gather all this data in one sitting. Because the figures from Google can change over time, it’s less useful to compare data gathered at different times.