When starting with AdWords, it is incredible how many people do not take the time to do the proper keyword research. I know what it is like, you just want to get stuck in and start to make some money from your web site.
However, if you dont do your homework, many of the keywords you choose will be useless or wrong. Worst still, you will leave hundreds of keywords uncovered that could make a big difference to the success of your campaign.
The easiest way to remember how to do good keyword research for AdWords is too create a seed, then dig deep and go wide. I'll explain what this all means with examples in the rest of this post ...
Plant Your Seed
Keyword research always starts with a seed keyword and a good keyword selection tool.
A seed keyword is any short, popular keyword that is related to your market. It is usually a single word or sometimes two that describes the service or product you are selling.
For example, imagine you are running a small business that makes chocolates. To market your business with AdWords, you might choose chocolates as your seed keyword.
Once you have your seed keyword, you need to expand it into a high-level list of related keywords. You can do this with a keyword selection tool like the Google Keyword Tool.
When you type chocolates into the Google Keyword Tool, you might get a list of keywords to select from that starts like this:
The keyword tool provides many ideas that you can add to create your seed list. Keywords like ...
- luxury chocolates
- handmade chocolates
- chocolates by post
- chocolate hampers
- personalized chocolates
... are all very relevant to your business.
Dig Deep To Find Your Long Tail Keywords
Excellent as the keywords on your seed list maybe, they are still very general. For your AdWords campaign to be a success, you need keywords that are much more specific and targeted to what you have to sell.
You are now going to use the seed list you have just created to "dig deep" and find even more keywords for your campaign.
Enter each phrase from your seed list into the Google Keyword Tool and pick out from the results, all the relevant phrases that have three or more words in them. These are your long tail keywords.
Long tail keywords are generally not as popular as the more general keywords you have been looking at so far. However, they are usually much more targeted.
Remember, AdWords is not about being the most popular web site online. It is about selling your products at a profit. Keywords with low search volumes can be a good thing as they typically have less competition and attract a better-qualified visitor.
Returning to the chocolates manufacturer example, typing each phrase from your seed keyword list into the Google Keyword Tool provides you with these very useful long tail keywords ...
- personalized chocolate gifts
- handmade chocolate truffles
- chocolate hampers delivered
- hand made chocolates
- chocolate gifts by post
... and the list goes on.
You've Dug Deep, Now Go Wide
Your keyword list should by now be getting quite large. However, you can make your list even better by thinking wide. To "go wide, you need to think about the categories that people might search on in order to find your business.
For instance, consider the chocolate manufacturer example again. You might want to target occasions like Easter, Valentines Day, Christmas, or Halloween when people usually eat a lot of chocolate. You now have another seed keyword list that you can use that includes keywords like ...
- Easter chocolate
- Valentine's day chocolate
- Christmas chocolate
- Halloween chocolate
This new seed list can now be used to find hundreds more long tail keywords that you can use in your AdWords campaign.
It can take time and a lot of work to build a meaningful keyword list. However, good keyword research is the first and most basic step that every advertiser has to take before they can begin to run a successful AdWords campaign.
Get this first step wrong and your campaigns are almost certain to fail. At the very least, you are likely to be missing a considerable number of easy sales.
Great post. I liked the concept. But looks like you did a mistake while spelling the URL for this page. Good thing you are targeting the keyword for the keyword tool. Moreover, the whole concept of Adwords Keyword Tool from the introduction has helped me. Thanks.