Google has always offered very valuable tools to advertisers, one of which that is extremely useful to organic keyword research, the Google AdWords Keyword Tool for discovering and building a keyword list. The only limitation is that it expressed search volume and search volume trends as a green bar. This was a great way to see the volume of traffic a particular keyword had in relation to the other keywords on the generated list, but without realistic quantitative data.
It was always a great place to start keyword research, like the Overture Keyword Selector Tool, however, this tool is still up unlike Overture. So after you built your list, after applying some common sense, you could import your list into Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, WordZe or another tool to rank them accordingly. Now you might not have to…
Last month, Google Trends, another valuable tool to understanding the seasonality of keywords, added the ability to see the search volume for websites and subsequently struck fear in the hearts of Alexa, Compete and Quantcast.
Google Trends for Websites
Back to the Keyword Tool…
Now Google actually offers numeric values instead of small green bars for search volume:
Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Will this replace all of the other keyword tools? Even if it doesn’t accomplish this, Google has definitely turned up the heat on the paid competition.
What keyword tools do you use? Feel free to share them to other readers.
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Google must keep up with the competition in offering new tools and resources for webmasters. Just look at the latest !Yahoo announcement:
“Yahoo is taking the next step in its “open” strategy with the launch today of BOSS: Build your Own Search Service. The BOSS program will allow third parties to build their own search engine using Yahoo’s index and ranking methodologies as a base.”
This is kinda revolutionary so i guess Google badly wants less competition, in any field. If they can do it why let others make money on it ?
@Enache: Thanks for the comment.
I would agree that Google must keep up with the competition, however, Google already has a “build your own engine” for site search and allows you to add the domains that you want to search from, however, this is a competitive environment that Google has no presence. In my opinion they are trying to push into the market and keep out third party efforts.
Google isn’t making money, just keeping others from making it.
I think Google new added feature of displaying actual numerical figures is a step forward in making their tool more useful especially at a time like now when Yahoo overture tool is no longer available.
An important factor to bear in mind is that the Google primarily factor in providing this tool is to enable it’s advertisers to have a set of keywords and key phrases that they can use in its Google Adword campaign.
I therefore strongly feel that the new added feature is not going to destroy the paid key words services if they continue to provide more advanced and detailed benefits and features that are otherwise still not available by using Google keyword tool.
@Joseph: Thanks for the comment.
I tend to agree that this does equate to added value for Google’s advertisers, however, when it comes to advertising, the rubber meets the road at the performance of these keywords because this ultimately determines the cost per click (CPC) and whether or not these keywords will convert is purely speculative until the traffic comes.
The concern that I voiced here is that the third-party keyword tools don’t really provide many more details or benefits other than discovery and search volume (which Google offers these). The third-party developers will need to be very proactive in adding value, in my opinion, very quickly.
I agree that adding the numerical values for recent month and average volumes makes a material difference for the terms important to my team.
@John; Camas Homes: Thanks for the comment John.
The heat has definitely been turned up on WordTracker, et al.
They’re going to need to start using the G #s along with plenty of extras to make maintaining a subscription worthwhile.
Has anyone else noticed how wildly different G’s own #s are compared to the estimated served up by WordTracker… Often they aren’t even close to one another.
Google is constantly trying to improve other tools and dominate the internet. I think that this tool can certainty provide competition against the other analysis sites/tools
@Syd McKeever: Thanks for the comment.
I have been working at exploring WordTracker, KeywordDiscovery and WordZe for some time, I guess it will just need to be extended to include Google’s numbers. Many say that Google’s numbers are based upon more than just search impressions. I guess we will see what the numbers say.
@Godaddy Coupons and Promo Codes: Agreed.
There are questions regarding these numbers and if I can get some time to explore them further. Thanks!
Yes, Google should display numeric values as it gives more competition idea to newbie
Pitfall, so in your opinion are these subscription based services offering any more value than what you can do in adwords and abit of excel?
Your advice would be helpful as I am considering my options for Keyword Analysis.
Cheers!!
Paul
@Paul: Great question. In my opinion, I think that this will be a valuable asset, however, you shouldn’t put you eggs all in the Google basket. It doesn’t give you insight into true search volume (content impressions are included) and it doesn’t give you the other engines.
I know that Google is the 800 pound elephant, but Yahoo!, MSN Live and Ask all have very different users. If these users are your target, then you might think that a keyword has less volume, to your demise, based upon the data this tool is providing. I think that the only fool-proof way of making sense still remains, targeting a set of keywords, getting traction (ranking) and see how the traffic converts, or if it sends traffic at all. If either are negative, move on to another keyword that is converting, or might convert better.
I hope this is helpful and thanks for the comment.
I noticed that Google Adwords keyword suggestion tool displays numeric values but I did not notice that Google Trends added the ability to see the search volume for websites. I haven’t been using for a while just because of this.
I do not think that Google will replace all the other keyword tools – he will try hard and I think it is number 1; but it has its own defects. Anyways, Yahoo and MSN still have some percent of the search market and other keyword tools give us a better opinion about what happens outside of Google.
I think that this tool will provide the competition to other analysis tools soon as Google is just the best
Great article, it seems like google is getting more competition each day in regards to their adwords program. They are pretty much up to par with yahoo at the moment.
Speaking of which here is an article you may enjoy, covering search engine techniques and website development.