In the next few months Google announced that the external keyword tool (this one here) will be retired. This is the useful tool that anyone who wants to complete a bit of simple keyword research can use. They are replacing it with another service, but there is a but, for the new service you have to have a Google account and be signed in to your adwords account to use it…another ploy for getting users closer to one of the biggest online networks that is Google?!
So the new keyword tool (which you can find under the Tools and Analysis tab in your adwords account) is called keyword planner and actually whilst you do have to ‘get closer’ to Google to use it, the tool itself is much better than the external keyword tool, especially if you want to set up a PPC campaign which of course is the real reason Google produced the tool in the first place.
To use the tool you simply put in the keyword you think is relevant and the landing page of your website along with the overall business category (from a dropdown), you then complete the other parameters, geography etc.
What is then presented to you is two tabs, a keyword tab but usefully an adgroup ideas tab that groups the relevant keywords together, this is so useful if you are building an adwords campaign as it saves a lot of time, you can then easily add them to your campaigns. Easy to see as well is the keyword performance over the last few months, which is really handy for seasonal keywords it gives you an indication of the busy months where you may need to increase budget. The tool also gives you the average cost per click so that you can get a budget in mind in the first place!
What the tool will also be useful for is organising your own websites navigation and page names, its an easy way for you to see what synonym keywords you should be using on page for relevance. Very neat.
Overall our experience of using this keyword tool is excellent, we suggest you try it!