Using Keyword Tool Finder- It’s All About The Numbers

by Becky Jorgenson

Dig out your notes from step 1 showing your keywords or subjects that are special to you and your site.  You will be using these today.  If you haven’t found your special phrases and topics that google is already ranking you for, hop on over to the first post where you will find out all about those.

The list you will want to have handy for today’s keyword lesson.  Google is rolling out a new keyword tool soon.  The same steps will apply though, so phew…no worries!  Quick background with Google keywords- it is a program that they use to measure the popularity of a phrase or word so they know what to charge for adsense.  We aren’t running any ads, but will use the same info to find out what kind of use our phrases have.

The new home page for the keyword tool will give you three options.  For what we need for our blogs, we are going to use the first option- Search for keyword and ad group ideas.

As always, you will want to login to your account prior to starting.  You get more data when you do.

Grab that list and type the first phrase or word in the box—we won’t be changing any of the parameters here, but you can play around with the settings if you’d like. Click get ideas.

We will want to change a few things before we get all excited about the numbers we are seeing.  1- click on keyword ideas tab. 2- on the right side click on the pencil for the drop down, 3- click on EXACT and then ok.

Check those numbers out!  On the column of Ave. Monthly Searches it will show you how many times this word or phrase is searched for each month. Competition is where the adsense pops in.  How many people are bidding for that specific target, and the average cpc rate is the price it is going for. {we aren’t paying attention to these today} The squiggly lines right before the ave. monthly searches number shows what kind of trends the word/phrase gets searched.  Ex. School supplies is heavily searched during the start of school- not at the end. This can help you plan ahead with your topics and posts.

So- how does this help you? Well, after you type in and see the numbers for the your first word/phrase…you can truly find out if this is the word/phrase that you want to work hard on building links and ranking for.

If you find that it gets under 100 per month, that is not the ideal scenario for you.  You will be doing a lot of work with not much reward because there isn’t enough people out there interested in it.   Before you have a tizzy, and toss that looser keyword out the window, use it to help you find a replacement.

Below the word, you will find other suggestions.  These are combinations that have been used during searches.  This is where you can find the new replacement word/phrase.  I try to keep the numbers over 600 and under 3000.  This is a nice spot to be, according to me.  After a little bit you could rank in the top 10 and on the front page of the search results.  If you go for a monster word, chances are a little slimmer on ranking for them.

So, maybe the exact keyword or phrase that you are already getting traffic for {see step 1} isn’t the greatest to continue posting with, but maybe changing a word or two and you have a golden ticket that you can plan a few posts around.

You can look around further by typing in the new word you found into the big box and seeing what other combinations come up.  This could lead to a few new and different ones that you hadn’t thought of, but would be great to work into your blog.

Photo Credit: CarbonNYC via Compfight cc

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Becky Jorgenson – Website Building and Maintenance – Utah

With a quirky sense of style and a busy brain to drive the creativity, Becky is a self-taught website builder and tweaker.  Her blogs have resided on Blogger, WordPress and Joomla, having built a handful of sites and blogs. Her experience allows her to combine coding with creativity, a rare combination.  Her skill set includes knowledge in basic html coding and web site design. She loves to design, sew, quilt and connect with others.

Connect with Becky:

Twitter: patchworkposse

Facebook: patchworkposse

Sewing Blog: Patchwork Posse

Google+: Becky Jorgensen

Becky Jorgensen

With a quirky sense of style and a busy brain to drive the creativity, Becky is a self-taught website builder and tweaker.  Her blogs have resided on Blogger, WordPress and Joomla, having built a handful of sites and blogs. Her experience allows her to combine coding with creativity, a rare combination.  Her skill set includes knowledge in basic html coding and web site design. She loves to design, sew, quilt and connect with others.