Last night Google announced the release of a new AdWords keyword tool called the Search-Based Keyword Tool, which can be accessed from this link. There are a number of aspects that make this tool a step up from the existing keyword tool found in the UI. The new tool scrapes the website you enter into the field and combines the website content with Google’s search volume data to create a list of terms that, theoretically, should both be relevant to your site and drive traffic. (Unfortunately there will still be some completely irrelevant terms included in this list.) The Search-Based Keyword Tool (hereby abbreviated as SBKT – did Google have to choose a name that was such a mouthful?) also allows us to view keywords by search volume for various categories, which are surprisingly granular – for example, the Apparel category goes all the way down to Business Dresses and Occasion Dresses. Finally, the SBKT also contains a field labeled as Ad/Search Share, which is especially cool. If you are logged into your AdWords account, the tool will show you the percentage of time that you are ranked on the first page in both paid and organic listings for that particular term. This is the first time Google has really integrated the relationship between paid and natural rankings into one of its AdWords tools, and it gives me hope for seeing more of this sort of thing in other parts of the UI.
There are several potential uses for this tool, including:
- Keyword building: This is obviously the intended use of the tool, which by combining multiple sources of data should help to produce a more relevant and robust keyword list than the previous tool. Based on the results I’ve seen while playing with it, it should also help in adding plenty of negative keywords (perhaps more so than adding regular keywords).
- Optimization of current terms: By viewing the search tool without logging in to your AdWords account, your results will include all potential terms, including ones that already exist in your account. This gives you an opportunity to look at terms that could potentially drive a large amount of orders based on their Google traffic and make sure that you are bidding on them accordingly (if they're relevant, of course).
- Insight into both paid and natural search ranking: The Ad/Search Share column shows you the current Ad Share and Search Share for each potential term, which will give you an idea of how well you are covered by your current broad match paid search keywords and your SEO efforts. There are limitations as to where Google will give you this data (you have to be logged in, and it will only show it for your domain), and it would be more useful if it was given for terms already in the account, but it’s a step in the right direction. This tool may also be useful for webmasters who aren’t necessarily running an AdWords campaign, but are looking for a list of keywords they should optimize their website towards.
- Product opportunity analysis and competitive intelligence: By looking at the terms generated for your particular category, you’ll be able to see if there are any particularly popular products that you are not currently offering. For example, if you sell cotton t-shirts you would notice that the term “organic cotton” generates approximately 12,000 searches per month. You may also find some interesting competitive insights by looking at the results for your competitors’ websites.
- Linguistic analysis: As I will discuss in greater detail in a future blog entry, tools that show us actual search queries are incredibly useful in understanding consumers and the way they think about products.
It is important to note that as with any keyword tool, you can’t simply launch the results of it blindly. The lists are based on a computer algorithm looking at website text and search volume, not a human who understands your brand, and the results will reflect that. Make sure you carefully comb the keyword list to scrape out overly broad or irrelevant terms - you'll definitely find quite a few. Some of the search volume also looks a bit questionable and inconsistent with previous estimates, so this data should be taken with a grain of salt.
While not perfect, this is one more step in Google’s gradual progression towards sharing its goldmine of search and user data. Even if this trend continues to raise some concerns about privacy (which I will give my opinion on in a later entry), developments along these lines are excellent for the online marketer. Every tool such as this one gives us greater insight into our consumers, and it is crucial that we leverage this knowledge to make our marketing strategy as effective as possible.
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