The Google Keyword Tool is a free tool published by Google to help you to perform Market And Keyword Research – arguably the most crucial factor of any search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.

The Google keyword tool helps you find different keyphrases based on a seed keyword, or keyword phrases, but more importantly, displays competition according to those keywords.

You dont have to have a Google account to use this tool, as Google offers an external website. Simply search for “External Google Keyword Tool” and you can begin to use it immediately.

Note, there are other keyword research tools out there, which do offer more advanced functions and make it somewhat easier to find good keyword phrases (after undergoing a gentle learning curve). For those getting started, Id strongly suggest utilizing the Google Keyword Tool to get used to keyword phrase research and exactly how it plays its part in SEO before spending on premium tools.

What Constitutes a Good Keyword?

There are 2 main factors you should look at when selecting keywords and key phrases, and the Google Keyword Tool helps in each of these:

Traffic – how much traffic does your chosen keyword phrase get every month? If youre targeting keyword phrases that get not a lot of searches, you will likely get very limited traffic. On the other hand, a very high search rate is usually suggestive of very high competition, which makes it challenging to get ranked for.

The Google Keyword tool reports how many searches each month are conducted for each keyword phrase. I generally aim for keywords which are over 500 per month, 2,000 being better.

Competition – too much competition and youll find it difficult it or unattainable to position high enough in the search engine rankings to produce traffic from those keyword phrases.

The Google Keyword Tool also reports competition for each keyword or keyword phrase. I always target low-medium competition keywords phrases.

Using the Google Keyword Tool to “Spy” on the Competition!

The Google Keyword Tool comes with an updated function where you can actually see what keywords the competition is utilizing! To do this, rather than inputting keywords, there is a space for “website”. You can enter the website address here and see what keywords your competition is getting ranked for!

This doesnt imply you could copy the competing website and expect to obtain the same ranking, sorry, if only it were that easy! But you can usually get a general idea for what content is used. If you did copy the content directly, Google would not award you with any credit for it – Google stores one copy of original content and gives credit to the first website page it found it on – a good reason to write completely unique content!

Additional Features of the Google Keyword Tool

Here are some neat additional little features

- You can download keywords into an excel spreadsheet and manipulate them
- You can search for keyword phrases based upon location and language
- You can search for keyword phrases determined by categories
- The keyword tool produces both local and global search volume
- Can now exclude certain terms from the keyword results

Google Keyword Tool Summary

Firstly, this is a free tool. Free is good! Additionally the data is straight from Google, so while not always 100% accurate, its safe to say its the most accurate data we will get.

The Google Keyword Tool provides a relatively friendly user interface with a short learning curve. Despite demonstrating various premium keyword research tools, I always double check with the Google keyword Tool before committing to any keyword phrases.

I would suggest the Google Keyword Tool to anyone who runs a web site and has even a slight interest in keyword research and SEO!

Thanks for reading, see you on the web!

Stephanie is the co-webmaster of howtobeginawebsite.com – a site dedicated to helping you build a successful website!
For further information on the Google Keyword Tool, including a step-by-step, real world example, please see How to Begin a Websites page on Keyword Research using the Google Keyword Tool