Google AdWords: Free KeywordToolExternal

Google’s free AdWords tool: “Keyword Tool External” shows everyone’s SEO dream — which keywords and phrases they’d like to optimize for. There are a few ways to analyze these results — and they’re discussed through this article in comparison to other major keyword tools.

Overture search inventory

Overture hasn’t been updated since January 2007, and has excessive timeouts. Regarding their accuracy, their data is highly lacking — relying on their data can certainly be costly. When a competitor relies on this data it can be most beneficial to you — since you’ll see many webmasters optimizing for keywords that just aren’t searched as much as they’ve been in the past.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker is “better” than Overture but still has many inaccuracies. I had searched for “SEO” and it turned up saying that there were 37 searches per day for “blackhat seo expert” (approx. 46 searches per day on Google — according to SEOBook’s estimates). I’m currently ranked number 1 for that term on Google. I then waited a few days and my referrer tracking has shown no visitors from that key term. So, Google’s Keyword Tool External shows that there is “no data”.

Google AdWords: keyword tool external

Getting started

First, go to Google’s Keyword Tool and put in your desired keyword to optimize for. If you don’t know what keyword or phrase to optimize for and if you already have a website, you can choose their second option to get Google’s take on your site, or go to Google Rankings and insert your domain name — and you’ll be given a list of keywords. Choose whatever phrase you’d like; then, put this keyword/phrase in Google’s AdWords tool.

Actual search numbers

With Google AdWords you can now get the actual number searches for each term (per month). But, if you want an estimate of the clicks you’ll possibly receive, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the bottom of the screen, and click:
2. Copy all of those keywords and go to Google’s Traffic Estimator.
3. Paste them:
   
4. Add an irrational CPC (just to see full traffic estimates — you’re actually not allowed to put in over $100):
   
5. Make sure you click “Add >>”:
   

Now you can check their clicks per day estimates. You can assume that you’ll receive more than their estimates when ranking high in the organic results.