Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Using the AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool

By Justin Harrison

The moment you log into your Google AdWords account, you will be confronted a large number of very useful but very intimidating tools. One Adwords tool will enable you to proof your ads for errors. Another tool will allow you to optimize your content. Yet other tools will allow you generate an astonishing number of useful reports. Adwords tools will empower you evaluate how well your ads are performing against other sites. Adwords will let you know how your ads are doing within their chosen demographics, and you can find free and user-friendly tools that allow you to do a whole lot more. But probably the most powerful tool you will find is the Google Adwords keyword suggestion tool. You will find this to be an indispensable aid taking ad data from across the Google network to generate a list of potent keywords along with their recent search data and cost.

To begin, you should generate your own list of some basic keywords. This list of no more than 15 words will give AdWords the data to generate new words and phrases for you. You can either find these keywords directly on your web pages, and Google can do that for you automatically, or you can brainstorm you own list based what you think your most profitable visitors would search for if they wanted what your website provides.

Your next step is to input your list into the keyword suggestion tool. Enter your keywords one at a time. You could input multiple keywords all at once, but if you do, there's a high probability the suggestion tool will return a list of hundreds of keywords that don't really relate to your Adwords campaign. It is far more efficient to limit yourself to only one keyword at a time, letting the the keyword suggestion tool generate related terms that you may be able to use.

Every time you search a word or phrase, Google will suggest other words or phrases that match websites with similar content, or Adwords campaigns that bid on the same words you chose. The suggestion tool will also provide an estimate of traffic per month, how much competition there is for the word or term, and current prices at various rankings on the page.

The Google Adwords keyword suggestion tool gives you several dozen more options that will give you even more useful information about your keywords. The tool allows you to generate monthly traffic charts. These inform you how the popularity of your keywords rises and falls throughout the year. You can also get an estimate of the position of your ad on the page at various bid prices, and you can retrieve an estimate of the number of clicks you can buy based on last month's search volume, average search volume, which month the search volume for that keyword is the highest, and your budget.

Every one of these bits of information is important as you choose your keywords, but it is still up to you to select search terms that you know match your content. Don't throw your money away on a low competition, high volume, cheap keyword that won't bring you any visitors who will appreciate your site and buy your products. But be assured that if you do diligent research and stay creative, every keyword you choose for your Adwords campaign will drive traffic to your site. - 15254

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