At one point or another, we’ve all probably used the Google Adwords keyword tool to get a feel of what competing for our target keywords would be like. Most of us love how simple it is to use and how powerful it is when it comes to generating useful data that will give us a sense of direction for both organic and paid campaigns.
As good as this tool is, we’ve known for years that it’s not entirely accurate. We know that out of the time, search volumes associated with keywords are a little inflated and we’re not likely to consistently hit the tragic numbers that Google thinks we could get with a top placement.
A post by Rand Fishkin over at SEOMoz illustrates how some results from the keyword tool can be either a little off or missing when referenced against Google Analytics. In his post, Fishkin explains that the most glaring thing he saw was the absence of keywords his site was ranking for in the suggested keyword ideas by Google. This is despite the strong relevance between the keyword that he ran a little research on.
See the post here to get an eyeful what I’m talking about. What you’ll see may surprise you.
It seems that Google knows a lot of long-tailed keywords but doesn’t always display them in keyword research results. Is this by design? It’s hard to say.
What I love about Rand’s post is this nice nugget of a takeaway:
If you have the budget, my top recommendation is to buy a few, very broad keywords in AdWords, send them to a relevant landing page on your site, but realize you probably will lose money on the campaign. The goal isn’t conversions, but rather to learn by watching the keyword terms/phrases for which you get impressions. This is also great conversion-testing if you have the budget to invest, but even a week or two of data can be highly valuable for future keyword targeting.
Neat move, huh? Sure, it may cost you a few bucks, but the potential discovery of keywords that other people can’t even begin to research is certainly worth the gamble. Imagine finding several keywords with significant search volumes and very low competition levels and cost per click rates. What will that mean for your AdWords and organic campaigns? It could be that edge that you’ve always wanted to have for you to separate yourself from your competitors.
What do you think? Got any other cool keyword research tricks that you can share? Let me know in the comments section.
Until then,
Andy
