Let’s face it, nearly EVERYONE uses the Google keyword tool as their primary keyword research approach. And nearly every tool from Market Samurai to MicroNicheFinder gets its keyword list from Google.
After all, the data comes from Google so it has to be the best available… Right?
Well, as with most things the real answer is “it depends”. Actually the really real answer is that the Google tool is great at some things most of the time and not so great at others. It’s largely a matter of “when” not “how”.
Take Farmville.
Farmville is a huge online phenomenon for Facebook users and like Mafia Wars, Bejeweled Blitz, and other games is driving tons of people to the Facebook platform.
So if you’re a smart and enterprising internet marketer you might start thinking about taking advantage of the Farmville phenomenon and promote information products around “Farmville Secrets” and the like.
If you’re been following trends for a while you might have been doing this with World of Warcraft, Mafia Wars, and countless other games.
In fact, even a cursory glance on Clickbank indicates there is a market for Farmville information products.
Now, you can do some further analysis and maybe you’ll conclude that the market is declining or the commissions aren’t where you need them to be or lots of things. But right here, right now, there are people buying Farmville infoproducts online. So what does the Google Keyword Tool tell us about “farmville”?
A whole lot of nothing. Look at the keywords they reported — very generic and non-targeted.
You’ll tend to see this with trendy keywords and with 1 word keywords.
Last Christmas season the Amazon Kindle was a hot product (still is). Google didn’t return many good keywords from a stem of “kindle” or even “amazon kindle.”
Maybe it was trending too fast or the single root keyword “kindle” was too generic. Doesn’t matter. Bottom line – the keywords returned sucked putty balls.
Here’s the thing…
Google does NOT have the best keyword tool!
The best keyword tool on the planet is what’s between your ears. The second best keyword tool is your stats and analytics once you have a site up and running.
But remember — your brain and your ability to surf, look through information, learn about a market and get a “feel” for what works is the single best tool you have as an internet marketer.
Now don’t get me wrong. The Google Keyword Tool doesn’t suck.
But it’s not always the best first step. Hell, it’s rarely the best first step.
Tools like Market Samurai are freakin awesome because they can help you discover keywords and let you look at various rankability factors. But generating raw keyword lists from the Google tool isn’t always productive.
What’s better is to get a feel for a market. See what the main terms are that keep coming up. Make a small keyword list and use THAT list (or the top few sites in the SERPS for each of those keywords) to drive out a deeper list of long tail keywords that have the traffic costs you want, the rankability you want, etc.
Capece?
Now I do need to go a little “old school” on your ass and remind you about something.
Once upon a time a short time ago we didn’t even HAVE a Google Keyword Tool.
I shit you not.
Budding and pro SEOs and internet marketers used tools like the Overture Keyword Tool (RIP), Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, etc. to build keyword lists. A big shift happened once Google exposed some of its search data. Largely this is a good thing when you use it in one of the two ways I talked about above.
But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. That’s what everyone else did.
Let’s look at our friends at Wordtracker. Wordtracker’s changed alot of the years. Most people haven’t been paying attention. They’ve partnered with an independant search engine spidering firm and have their own index. They model their index and traffic prediction against Google’s to make sure they are statistically significant. Think of this as a search equivalent to an “index fund” in the investing market.
My point to all this is that Wordtracker is using a credible representation of the internet and in many cases is returning as good if not BETTER data…
Remember our little “farmville” discussion?
Look at Wordtracker’s free list (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com).
Now, this is purely a stem list. But that’s ok. This is the free tool and they have a synonym tool in the main product along with a gazillion other features.
My point with all this is that there’s no “magic” to the Google tools. We can’t as good marketers ascribe near-perfect status to them. They are good but need to be used properly for maximal effect. And a long time ago in a land not so far away there were plenty of good keyword tools out there. Many are still around and are better than G in lots of cases.
‘Bet this is the place where you think I am going to drop an affiliate link on you… Tell you to check out Wordtracker, get the free trial, yada yada.
Well, yeah — You should check out Wordtracker. But no affiliate link. Just go do it.
P.S. You should also check out Nichebot and some of the other tools. There’s value there for you with a little investment. Just go check them out for your next “Farmville”.
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Missed your wisdom Dave. Great to have you back. Where are you hanging out these days (now that you’re not in the NicheRockets forum)?