Keyword Search: Beyond a Free Keyword Search Tool

Keyword search tools are supposed to help you reach potential customers by telling you how they search for what you're offering. The problem is, typical search-based keyword tools only return the most searched keywords, which are not only highly competitive but may not even be relevant to your business.

The only way you can know for sure that you're using the right keywords for search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns is to base keyword research on real data. WordStream's keyword management solution goes beyond a typical keyword search tool to provide your most relevant keywords and help you organize and manage all your website keyword search data.

The Value of Real, Personalized Keyword Search Data

Publicly available keyword tools have limited value for serious search marketers. First, they provide only the most searched keywords—these are obvious and highly competitive, and everyone else has access to the same terms. (There goes your competitive edge.) Secondly, the keyword search statistics are dubious at best. You get rough estimates based on global keyword search volumes. The numbers mean little to nothing for your specific business.

WordStream offers a far better source of keyword search data: your actual site visitors. You can import search queries from your own Web server log files to build a database of keyword searches that real people have used to find your website. These are your most relevant, most qualified keywords, and the keyword search statistics are guaranteed to be accurate. You can actually make well-informed decisions on keyword search volume (keyword traffic) and frequency data. You can even track goals.

Continuous Keyword Research: Never Miss a Keyword Search

Aside from lacking privacy and accuracy, most keyword search tools are made for one-time or occasional, dilettantish keyword research. But to succeed in the long term, your SEO and PPC efforts should be continuous and iterative.

When you start using WordStream, you install a JavaScript tracker on the footer of your website, enabling WordStream to collect keyword search data from the new visitors finding your site through paid and organic search on a daily basis. What this means for you is a continuous stream of high-value keyword opportunities that you can put to use for SEO or in your paid search campaigns. Continuous keyword discovery enables you to grow your database and hone your search marketing campaigns for increasing traffic and conversions. It's a far cry better than a brief, static list of commonly searched keywords.

Don't Stop There – Group and Organize Your Keyword Search Data

As your keyword database grows over time into the thousands or hundreds of thousands, you'll need a way to manage them—a better way than a messy Excel spreadsheet that requires constant manual updating.

WordStream's keyword grouping tools make it fast and easy to segment a huge, growing keyword database into small, manageable groups. When you decide to create a group, WordStream sorts all the relevant keywords together in a matter of seconds—manually, this task could take hours.

Soon, instead of a cumbersome list of keyword searches, you'll have a neatly organized taxonomy as shown below.

This isn't just a nice-to-have; keyword grouping is crucial to long-term search marketing success. Segmenting keywords into tightly related, logically organized groups will benefit your SEO and PPC efforts in a number of ways:

More user-friendly information architecture: Your keyword hierarchy suggests a navigable site organization.
Better landing pages: Write high-quality, specific landing pages around the keyword searches in each keyword group.
More clickable text ads: Similarly, create relevant, compelling PPC ads for each keyword group.

And all these improvements in design and content contribute to: