by Mike Moran
Bill Hunt, my co-author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc. worked with his team at Global Strategies International to estimate keywords using Google"s free keyword tool. The good news is that this technique allows you to estimate keyword demand for any country where Google is used, not just the U.S., but the bad news is that it is an arcane and time-consuming procedure that requires you to click your heart out before you extract the information.
If you"re wondering why you"d want to project keyword demand, that"s simple. Keyword demand is the number of searches on a particular search keyword done in a period of time, such as "3,000 U.S. searches per month for the keyword Mike Moran" (I wish). By understanding the number of searches for a keyword, it can help you know which ones are most worth concentrating on.
For example, years ago when I worked with IBM to sell their ThinkPad computers online, it was extremely valuable to know that the keyword laptop was far more popular than notebook because then we could optimize for the word that more searchers used.
But you can do a lot more with keyword demand. If you have an estimate of how many searches are done each month, you can take guesses at how many visitors you might get to your site by improving your search marketing. And you can project from there how many people might buy something. Keyword demand is the basis of convincing yourself that the time, effort, and money required for successful search marketing is worth it.
Before moving on to the procedure, remember that even though we are using Google"s tool, Google is not promising that any of these numbers are accurate—in fact, there"s no real way to test the accuracy of these numbers anyway. But it gives you a good idea of where you stand—better than any other free tool can do.
Oh, and one more thing: What Google giveth, Google can taketh away. eth.
At any moment, Google might decide to change the way its tool works. If that happens, we"ll try to update the procedure so that you can do something else. But as we found out with Yahoo!"s treatment of the Overture tool, it"s hard to know what to do when the old method breaks. At first, the Overture keyword tool became a bit unreliable—it ran slowly and started to time out a lot—then the numbers were frozen in time in January of 2007. Later in 2007, the URL begin to yield 404s all the time. To this day, I am not sure that Yahoo! has made any announcement that the tool was ever withdrawn. The same thing could happen to this procedure that works with Google"s tool.
But, at least it works now, and it is the best free alternative you"ve got. If you"re willing to pay for information, Wordtracker, Trellian"s Keyword Discovery, and other tools provide numbers that help you estimate keyword demand, but my favorite price is always free.
So, check out the free guide to estimating keyword demand. Let me know if it works for you.
Want more from your web site?
Search Influence can help! Targeted Traffic. Increased Revenue. Results Guaranteed. Customized Internet Marketing you can afford.
>>Source Link
>>Blog: Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
>>Publish Date: 6/27/2008 7:03:21 AM
>>Keywords: keyword tool
Related Posts
>>Wordtracker Offers Free Keyword Suggestion Tool #
Wordtracker, the popular subscription based keyword research tool used by many professional search marketers, has announced a new free keyword suggestion tool that offers search estimates on up to 100
>>Wordtracker launches free keyword suggestion tool #
Wordtracker has launched a free keyword suggestion tool. The tool gives webmasters up to 100 keywords in each session.
>>Yahoo Keyword Tool Not Dead Yet #
Earlier reports that Yahoo"s keyword research tool is being discontinued are not true, according to a Yahoo spokesperson. Apparently, issues with the public Keyword Selector Tool being inaccessible ar
>>A Glance at Trellian"s Keyword Discovery Tool #
If you"re new to the search engine optimization game, you"ve probably heard a bit about the paid subscription keyword research tools, but you might not have had a chance to play with all of them. Whil
>>A Glance at Trellian"s Keyword Discovery Tool #
If you"re new to the search engine optimization game, you"ve probably heard a bit about the paid subscription keyword research tools, but you might not have had a chance to play with all of them. Whil
>>Copywriting With Google"s Dynamic Keyword Insertion Tool #
In case you"re unfamiliar with dynamic keyword insertion (DKI), it"s a feature of Google"s AdWords program. It is often used for large campaigns in order to automatically insert the keyword into the h
>>KeywordDiscovery offers free search term suggestion tool #
Trellian"s KeywordDiscovery.com is offering a free search term suggestion tool. Type in a seed keyword and the free tool generates the top 100 keywords from data complied and collected from more than
>>Yahoo Upgrades Panama"s Tools #
The keyword selector tool is offering suggestions, copying and moving keywords amongst groups, and an improved help section have been added to Panama"s features. The changes are detailed at the Yahoo
>>Google Testing Search Numbers in Keyword Tool #
Adam Parikh found Google providing search numbers for keywords in their Adwords Keyword Tool and posted the screen shot at his blog Interesting... and a godsend to those of us that do intense PPC mar