[Suzanne Morrison]

Hi PIPsters,

If you are using the Google Adwords Keyword tool to do keyword research for your websites (as described in my FREE SEO Ebook in the PIPS bonus area) then there is something that you need to be careful of...

I see people make this mistake almost every day either when they are ordering an SEO update from me or asking SEO related questions in a forum so I just wanted to try and make sure that more people are aware of this mistake and how to avoid it :-)

When you enter your keyword phrases in the box and then click on the "Get Keyword Ideas" button you will see a big list of keywords along with the average number of searches per month.

Before you start choosing your keywords, there is one important thing that you need to do...

Select "Exact" from the drop down menu on the top right hand side above the keyword list

If you don't do this the total monthly searches will be massively inflated.

Why?

Lets just say you are looking at the total number of searches for the keyword phrase "home business".

If you don't choose "Exact" from this menu it will use Broad match. This means that the total will not just be for the searches on "Home Business" - it will also include the total searches for every other phrase that happens to contain the phrase "home business". E.g. "home business ideas", "home business opportunities", "home businesses", "top home business", "internet home business", "best home business" etc.

If I do a broad match on home business the total number of searches is 1,830,000.

If I change it to exact match the total is 450,000 searches per month - a big difference.

So before you decide on a keyword phrase, be sure to choose this option and make sure your decision is based on accurate data.

Hope this makes sense, but if not feel free to ask any questions.

Cheers,
Suzanne

P.S My 2000th post - wey hey!

[Patoo]

Thanks for the tip and gratz to 2000th post

[BIll S]

Thanks for the info and congrats on your 2,000'th post!

Look forward to your next thousand or more posts!

Cheers,

[TheTiny1]

Thanks for the tip.
I accidentally found that out when I went through you book.

Bright Blessings
TheTiny1

[MBeshr]

thanks for your tips,
congratulation on your 2000'th post

thanks
MBeshr

[Trent Brownrigg]

VERY good point and one most people miss. Thanks for making everyone aware of that. And congrats on your 2000th post!

[GT]

Hi, Suzanne:

Thanks for the insight - I always value the ideas and tips you pass along to us.

And congratulations on your 2,000th post! Wow ... awesome!

GT

[Matt Helphrey]

Hi Suzanne,

Great advice! I've never heard that explained so well before but now it makes complete since. I use this tool a lot and its good to know how to use it correctly.

Have you heard of Traffic Travis? I use this too and it gives me a lot of keyword ideas that the Google tool doesn't. It also lets me track where I rank for my keywords, competitors, and much more. Its a free download and I would suggest giving it a try...
Free SEO Software | Traffic Travis

Best,

Matt

[SuccessForFree]

Ah, so much easier to pick keywords now!

[Leon Bowes]

And to your next very informative posts

Leon

[Malcolm Tindle]

Hi Suzanne,

I was lucky enough to read your SEO eboook which is great and this is a valuable piece of advice. Well done on hitting the big 2K.

regards,

Mal.

[GreenEyes]

Thanks Suzanne!

Not sure what you would think about this idea, but I got this idea from Andrew Hansen (I believe).

Anyway, I click on "Advertiser Competition" showing the least amount of competition first. Then I scroll down looking for high searches, (or anything over 500) which helps me to find long-tail keywords. I've been doing keyword research for my patio site almost a year now and I have to say, I found a LOT of longtail keywords this way.

Thanks again for your tip! And kudos to your 2k!

[AndrewL]

I sometimes do hundreds of searches per day with the Google adwords tool and I sometimes make the mistake of not searching exact.