Using AdWords for Keyword Research

Here is a little tip about something I’ve found very useful over the years in regards to keyword research. I like to use Google AdWords to help me gather accurate data in regards to search volume and conversion rates for keywords.

You see, the problem is that just about all of the current keyword tools out there only give out information that’s based on a small portion of the total number of real searches. Because of this, the information that they give is often very inaccurate and incomplete. It’s possible that the numbers are completely off or maybe they just missing out on certain keywords altogether.

Assuming that you already have a good idea of what keywords you want to optimize your site for you can take that list and enter it into your Google AdWords account. I recommend using a combination of both exact match and broad match.

The reason I recommend using broad match is so you can find the keywords that people are searching for that you may not have thought of before. To do this accurately though you will need to watch your referrers in your server logs and analytics software. And once you have some good data from broad keywords you’ll need to enter those in as exact match so you can get exact data.

Now that you are gathering some data from your AdWords account you can start to narrow down the keywords that you will optimize your site for. It is important that you not only base decisions on the total traffic volume, but click-through and conversion rates as well. It’s possible that one keyword may have more volume than another but convert at a horrible rate. People often use different searching habits when they’re gathering information compared to when they actually want to make a purchase. So take those three things and calculate what a #1 ranking is worth to you and pick the appropriate keywords.

Using Google AdWords is very effective for keyword research as there is no other software or tool available that can give you this information quickly and accurately.