Google’s New Search-based Keyword Tool

by Herb Firestone
Marketing Coordinator

It’s no secret that the first step of any SEO or PPC campaign is keyword research. Similar to the Adwords tool, Google’s new Search-based Keyword Tool works equally well for SEO as for pay-per-click.

Just like Superman it’s faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive. In fact the only thing it can’t do that Superman can is leap tall buildings.

Tried it out for our Directory One’s main website marketing site, and, if nothing else, it’s really fast. In less than two seconds after entering the URL and a small sampling of key phrases, it returned 800 more related key phrases – and that was without being logged into our Adwords account.

Similar to the Adwords tool, my first task was to eliminate the non-relevant key phrases. For example, I couldn’t really see a need for keeping seo spider, seo Japan, or seo chester. In fact, I don’t even know what seo chester is. And those were just some of the ones on the first page I deleted.

The easiest way to edit your keyword list is simply check the ones you want to keep and click the Save to draft button. These key phrases can then be found by clicking the My draft keywords tab in the green row at the top of the page. Unfortunately for me, however, I got the following error message when I clicked the Save to draft button: An error occurred while processing your request. Try again later. So, of course, I did, and it worked fine.

Probably the Search-based Keyword Tool’s best feature, other than the fact that it’s 100% free, is that if you sign into your Adwords account, it will generate new keywords related to your site that are not already in your account.

In addition you’ll find the tool’s filters both powerful and helpful. You can show partial matches to keywords already in your account, set a range of monthly searches and/or suggested Adwords bids, say for example, from x to y. You can choose between low, medium or high competition, and even see keywords matching only a specific page of your site.

Final Thought

Even though this was only my first time using the tool, it was easy to see exactly how it will help come up with long tail key phrases that have reasonable numbers of monthly searches but low competition.