Don’t worry – this is a simple step!

Go through your list, and enter keywords one at a time into your search engine of choice. That’s it!

Many times (though not always) search engines will offer “related terms” along with the search results. Just focus on the keywords that are particularly simple or broad (i.e., one- or two-word keywords). The search engines don’t usually offer “Related Searches” if the search phrase is too detailed.

Specific Search Engines

Google

Sometimes the related search terms will appear above the listings, sometimes below, sometimes never. Google is most likely to suggest related searches for generic, one-word searches.

Yahoo!

Yahoo! will return related terms both above and below the listings.

MSN

MSN Search, by contrast, will display the related terms on the side.

Quintura

Quintura is a search engine that uses a visual semantic map (like a tag cloud) to help users easily refine their search. For us, the cloud suggests related and alternative keywords.

For more information on using Quintura, read my post “SEO Keyword Research Tool – Quintura.”

Organizing the Keyword Research

Create a new worksheet named “Step 2,” then copy the contents of the “Step 1” worksheet into it. Then add any new keywords from this step into the “Step 2” worksheet.

I recommend this approach because it allows you to always “step back” to an earlier stage of research, if necessary. You keep all the information you accumulate, which may prove helpful when we start eliminating keywords.

But, here’s an alternative organization system if you prefer:

1. Give every keyword thematic group its own worksheet in a single Excel (or other spreadsheet program) workbook.
2. Color code each step – either the text, or the background color of the cell. So if the initial list of keywords are in black, the keywords you derive from this step might be blue, or the cell might be colored light blue. Then, keywords derived in the next step might be green.

Search for “Google AdWords Keyword Tool” or just visit directly https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

Generate Keywords

At this point, we have two choices. We can generate keyword ideas by entering keywords we already know, or we can use the tool to generate ideas based on our site’s current content. Select which you want to do.

1. Descriptive words or phrases
   • Enter the keyword in the appropriate box. Start with the keywords you think are strongest, most descriptive or are most desirable to you. Enter the anti-spam security characters. You can search for more than one keyword at a time, but don’t search for more than 2 or 3, otherwise the results are too confusing to navigate easily. Finally, click Get keyword ideas
     
2. Website content
   • Enter your website URL. In this case, I’m going to search my whole site by checking Include other pages on my site. By contrast, I can also search by individual pages, which is many times preferable. Click Get keyword ideas
     

Either way, you should now have a list of keywords related to the term(s) entered. If you scroll down, you’ll also find additional keywords to consider.

Export

One of the great things about the Google Adwords Keyword Tool is the ease with which you can export the data. Here again, you have two options.

1. Download all keywords. If you scroll down, you’ll see a link for downloading the whole list as a text or .csv file. Click on your preferred method, and all the data will export into a file with which you can work.
   
2. Download selected keywords. You can create a custom list of keywords manually. Click the Add link in the far right column.

   The keywords you select will appear in a list on the right side of the screen, in a pale green box. When you’re ready, click the appropriate link to download the keywords. However, there’s a big disadvantage to going this route: when you download these keywords, all you get is the list of keywords. You lose the additional search volume and competition info.

Sometimes it’s simplest just to browse through the list, identify the handful that interest you and enter them onto your spreadsheet manually.

Don’t worry about the box Sign up with these keywords. That’s if you want to create a pay-per-click ad campaign with Google AdWords. I’ll cover that in a future post; today we’re just interested in research.

Video tutorial

Here’s a nice video resource for the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. It provides a basic introduction to doing keyword research with the Google AdWords Keyword Tool (about 7 minutes long).

“How to Do Keyword Research With Google AdWords Keyword Tool” by InterMarketingSmarts:

Quintura is a search engine that uses a tag cloud (technically, a visual semantic map) to organize its results.

In theory, Quintura makes it easier to find the exact results you want by providing more specific keywords in a “cloud” around your search term. The different sizes and colors are intended to help indicate which keywords are most likely relevant to the search term.

For keyword research, we can use this “keyword cloud” to help uncover possible keywords (or keyword modifiers) to use.

For example, when I searched for copywriting, the terms “advice” and “impact” showed up. That makes me think, hm, maybe I should consider “copywriting advice” and “high-impact copywriting” as keywords to research.

I can click on the other keywords to have even more specific terms pop up. For example, when I look at “advice,” the terms “information” and “tips” also show up.

Which is a better keyword for me, “copywriting advice” or “copywriting tips”? Well, further research will tell, but for the time being, Quintura has given me a few ideas to add to my spreadsheet.

Since Quintura is also a search engine, you can also use this site to do the same kind of competitor research we discussed in Keyword Research Step 4.