Keyword Research for Max Revenue: 8 Steps in Using Google External Keyword Tool

Successful Internet marketing uses solid keyword research as its foundation. When people conduct searches online, more than 65% use Google. Consequently, you should pay close attention to Google’s keyword information.

Phase One: Develop a seed list of relevant keywords.

Think like a potential customer. What problems do they need to solve? What search phrases will they use when seeking information to solve their problems? To get a seed list of relevant keywords:

• Brainstorm with your team (especially sales and customer service staff)
• Review your Web logs (what phrases are customers using to find your Web site)
• Look at Adwords results (if you run PPC campaigns, look at the keywords that convert)

Phase Two: Get an expanded keyword list and popularity information

Take your seed list and run it through a keyword research tool. You will initially want to capture keyword information in two main areas, expanded-related terms and popularity. The best tools will take your seed list and give you a listing of related search terms that people are entering in the search engines. The tools will also tell you how many times people searched on each keyword during the past 30 days.

You can actually use Google’s own external keyword tool for this (see below).

Phase Three: Look at the competition for each keyword

To get a top ranking on Google, you must create a page that out-ranks the competition. When you face less competition, you increase the likelihood of a first-page ranking. We suggest you target relevant and popular keywords with 100,000 or fewer competitors, less than 30,000 is good and less than 10,000 is great.

The Google's external keyword research tool (see link below) will show a bar graph that depicts the number of competitors for each keyword. I consider this tool an estimate.

To see the current number of competitors for each keyword, use Google search. For example go to the Google search box and enter your search phrase in quotes such as: “home expenses”. In this example, you will see that Google currently lists 125,000 competitors for this keyword.

To maximize your Adsense revenue and/ or to minimize your PPC spending, you can use Google to capture information on popularity, competitors and estimated average CPC by using the following 8 step process.

Eight Steps To Use Google External Keyword Tool for Maximum CPC Keyword Research.

To complete the following steps, go to Google's External Keyword Tool.

To learn more about additional keyword tools, visit our page on the best internet marketing tools.

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Additional Internet Marketing Tool Information:

Visit this hub for a list of the top Internet marketing tools.

Visit this page for information on competitive research tools.