Keyword Tool: Overview

Keyword Analysis is the first step in SEO, to determine the best keywords to target based on the:
a) Relevance - pick keywords that are most relevant to your business.
b) Search Volume - choose popular keywords with high local search volume.
c) Competition - avoid keywords that are too competitive.

You require a keyword tool to perform Keyword Analysis, which basically returns an estimated search volume for the specified keywords and target market. There are many keyword tools on the Internet - some are even paid services like Wordtracker and Wordstream. One of the most popular free tool is the Google Keyword Tool, which was mostly created for their AdWords advertisers.


Google Keyword Tool: How to Use

1. Visit https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal



2. Start by inserting a list of relevant keywords (one keyword per line) into the search box provided. Alternatively, you can also enter your website and let Google generate the keywords.



3. Next, click on Advanced Options and Filters and pick your target market, e.g. Malaysia.



4. Enter the security code (you only need to do this once per session) and hit the Search button.



5. Since we are optimizing for the Malaysian market, click on Local Monthly Searches to order the keywords by Malaysian search volume. The search volume is based on a 12-month average.



6. Finally, you want to deselect Broad and select [Exact] instead, for the Match Types.
(Understand the different Keyword Match Types)


This is obviously a simplified guide on how to use the Google Keyword Tool, but which should suffice for beginners and also if you want to perform a quick check to see of your SEO company is indeed optimizing your website for the best possible keywords or not.

The accuracy of the search numbers from the Google Keyword Tool is arguable. Some users have observed that you get different search volumes when logged into AdWords compared to when you are not. Hence, you should not take the numbers as absolute but to use them to determine the popularity of the relevant keywords, "relative" to each other.

The tool is also notoriously known to NOT show all the possible keywords, so you should enter as many keywords as possible in step (2), in order not to miss out on the opportunities.

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