Tag: google keyword tool

Transforming Google Keyword Planner in a massive keyword scrapper
Recently, Google decided to drop the bomb and ended the famous (and trusted), Google Keyword Tool from service. It was replaced by the new version which is called Google Keyword Planner.

I would be lying to you if I say that I love Google Keyword Planner at first. In fact, I hated so much due to so many obvious reasons. When I heard that Google Keyword Tool is going ‘off’, I told myself to stick to a few SEO tools such as Scribe, Long Tail Pro and SEMRush.

Early this month, I decided to try on it and promised to sit in front of my old HP Pavilion laptop trying to learn everything about it.

Without much delay, this blog post is all about Keyword Planner and how you can really use it for your advantage when it comes to keyword research. I am not going to deny that for starters, it has slight learning curve compared to the previous version.

What is Google Keyword Planner?

It is the new replacement of Google Keyword Tool (duh!) and it is said to provide great experience for bloggers who are trying to find quality keywords.

Now, how true is this?

Google Keyword Planner is a double edge blade. It works pretty well if you know what you are looking for. If you are hoping that this keyword planner will give you some good keywords with just some clicks, then you better stick to premium SEO tools like this one.

Here are a few things I like about the almighty Google Keyword Planner:
- Chances of finding long tail keywords
- Easier keyword finding once you get used to it
- Multiple ways to search for a specific keyword or niche
- Merging Google AdWords with Keyword Planner is great for paid advertisements
Google Keyword Planner – The basic

There are four very easy but different ways you can find perform keyword research on Keyword Planner which are:
1. Searching for keywords and ad groups ideas
2. Enter or upload keywords to see how they perform
3. Get traffic estimates for a list of keywords
4. Multiply keyword lists
This is probably the place where most bloggers and keyword searchers give up!

Everything looks so complicated here and for newbie, this can be a very huge disappointment considering that Keyword Planner is said to be better than the previous keyword tool right?

Yup, that happened to me too and continue reading the below for more information.

4 different ways to use Keyword Planner for keyword research

1. Searching for keywords and ad groups ideas

Advantages: Finding long tail keywords and possible keywords to use (using ad groups)

Disadvantages: Figures are not specific and there is a possibility of having a low searched keyword in the ad groups

This is the part where you can find groups of keywords which could be very useful for you in blogging and each groups of keywords would have roughly between 5 to 12 different long tail keywords.

For example, you are searching for the keyword ‘blogging’ and Keyword Planner gives you probably a dozen or more keyword groups.

Now, let’s take the first keyword group with an average of 71,000 average monthly searches. The group is consisted of several keywords such as:
- Blogging software
- Blogging tips
- Blogging jobs
- How to blog
- What is blogging
- Paid blogging
- Blogging tools
- Blogging for dummies
- Personal blogs
- Blog maker
- Blog software
- Blogs
- Blogs about life
This means that, these are some keywords which are highly related to the term you are searching, ‘blogging’ and has a total of about 71,000 searches monthly.

Now, read the above sentence again and tell me what you had actually read.

The total number of searches on this ad group is 71,000 and it is a combination of all the above keywords. This means that there is a high chance that some keywords are actually searched more than the other.

Does this make any sense to you?

Here’s what it looks like for a clearer picture:

Step by step guide when it comes to finding keyword groups using Google Keyword Planner

2. Enter or upload keywords to see how they (keywords) perform

Advantages: Able to determine the exact number of searches and CPC for that specific keyword

Disadvantages: Slightly complicated as it highly dependable to symbols

I uses this more than the previous one. In fact, this is a great SEO tool if you want to have exact (not estimated) keyword search or CPC cost per keyword.

Here are the legends you need to know in order to use this function:

Broad match – Blogging

Phrase match – “Blogging”

Exact match – [Blogging]

In broad match, keywords found could be related and non related to blogging. This gives you a general result and honestly speaking, it doesn’t help much when it comes to finding the exact keyword.

Keywords found using phrase match are highly related to the term ‘blogging’. This means that it could have the basic word of ‘blog’ in the keyword or simple having the same meaning as ‘blog’ or ‘blogging’.

Exact match keywords is what we are looking for. For example, searching for the term [blogging] would give us 14,800 searches. This is a strip down of the whooping, 71,000 searches that we had found earlier.

When it comes to finding the best or the most profitable keyword, it is highly recommended that you uses Exact Match feature to get the best results.

Does this look similar to the old Google Keyword Tool?

3. Get traffic estimates for a list of keywords

Advantages: This feature provides bloggers with number of clicks, impressions and cost per day.

Disadvantages: It is very ‘sales oriented’ and is more focus to Google Adwords users.

I would say this is pretty clear cut. Enter a keyword or more and Google Keyword Planner will give you an estimation of traffic.

Regardless of the disadvantages, I would still consider this as a great tool especially when you are looking to invest into into Google Adwords.

Google Adwords is easier to manage and bid with the help of Keyword Planner

4. Multiply keyword lists

Advantages: This is good for cross matching keywords

Disadvantages: Chance of wrongly matched keywords is high and this is a rather ‘advance’ feature

Basically, this particular Keyword Planner feature helps you to create multiple keywords and in some ways, this increase the chances of finding long tail keywords.

All you need to do is to place two different sets of keywords in List 1 and List 2 as seen in the image below. After that, click on the ‘Get search volume’ as below:

Multiple keywords lists are great when it comes to finding long tail keywords

This feature is great especially when you are trying to find different keywords (mix and match) and if you are lucky enough, you might land yourself a low competition keyword.

How do you find keywords using Google Keyword Planner – Video form

Did I miss out anything about Google Keyword Planner?

I hope the above explanation would be worth a little especially when it comes to keyword research. Personally, Keyword Planner is a great tool especially when it has several more features compared to the previous version.

What do you think about Google Keyword Planner? Hit the reply button below and tell me what you think.
January 20, 2024
3 Killer SEO Tips When Using Google Keyword Tool
Take a moment and think what your favorite SEO tool when it comes to keyword research? Could be some paid SEO tools, so called ‘best SEO tools’ or the famous Google Keyword Tool? For me, I use Google Keyword Tool nearly every day of my blogging life and I am pretty sure you can’t find a free SEO tool better than the Google Keyword Tool.

Now, if you are a beginner or have not heard about Google Keyword Tool, you probably should visit the site once you finish reading this. Alternatively, you can bookmark this page, head over to Google Keyword Tool website (which is called Google Adwords by the way), scout around and come back here to continue reading.

So, what is Google Keyword Tool?

It is a God send, heavenly free and probably one of the best SEO tools which offers many (and I really mean many) functions for bloggers. Want to perform some keyword research, search engine optimization techniques or simply find a profitable niche and don’t want to fork out a single cent? Google Keyword Tool is your best friend!

Google Keyword Tool is one of the best SEO tools for beginners and webmasters

Not convinced that Google Keyword Tool plays a huge role on search engine optimization? See the image below:

Google Keyword Tool is the best SEO tool for bloggers

Google captures roughly 246,000 exact search queries monthly and 90,500 searches originated from the United States alone. This easily means that the term Google Keyword Tool is receiving at least 8,200 searches in a day! I wish my blog can get such traffic. Okay, I’s dreaming here.

*p/s Kindly ignore the term ‘exact search’ as I will be explaining below.

Now, do you believe that Google Keyword Tool is probably the best SEO tool (and on top of all, free) for bloggers like you and me?

What is Match Types?

When you are performing keyword research on Google Keyword Tool, it offers three very distinct reports which extremely useful; broad, phrase and exact. Don’t worry, Google isn’t going to leave you in the dark. Here’s what they meant:
- Broad: The sum of the search volumes for the keyword, related grammatical forms, synonyms, and related words
- Phrase: The sum of search volumes that include the whole phrase or near variants of the whole phrase
- Exact: The search volume for that specific keyword and close variants
Makes any sense to you?

I didn’t get it at first either. Like it or not, these three different keyword research reports are the ones that make or break your website SEO.

Let me give you some examples to further increase your understanding (taking ‘dog collar’ as an example)

Broad keywords

Broad keyword will always have the highest search queries

Broad keywords are selected by default and this research will tell you how many people are searching for words related or closely related to the keyword ‘dog collar’. Broad keywords usually have a highest number of searches as it is very general and not a focus keyword. Example of broad keyword for ‘dog collar’ are ‘pet collars’, ‘dog harness’ and ‘dog tag’.

Phrase keywords

Phrase keywords plays a huge role especially when it comes to choosing tags and keywords

Phrase keywords on the other hand, will always be the second in the ladder. Phrase keywords means that searches are done with regards to the keyword ‘dog collar’. In phrase keywords, it is not that general compared to broad setting and each keywords are closely related to the word ‘dog collar’. Example of phrase keyword for ‘dog collar’ are ‘yellow dog collars’, ‘designer pet accessories’ and ‘dog leather collars’.

Exact keywords

Exact keyword research will help to pinpoint keywords which could worth a lot when it comes to finding the right keyword

Exact keywords are the keywords that bloggers and content writers should focused on. Usually, the search results for exact keywords are the lowest among all. The number of searches represents the number of people searching for that specific keyword, ‘dog collar’ or words that have ‘dog collar’ in them. Example of exact keyword for ‘dog collar’ are ‘toy dog collars’, ‘best dog collars’ and ‘fashion dog collars’.

Let’s take a quick, 5 minutes break. A little quiz for you to keep you occupied:
1. From the above article, what have you learned about Google Keyword Tool?
2. Do you know how to differentiate broad keywords with phrase and exact keywords?
3. Are you using Google Keyword Tool for your keyword research?
Now that you are ready, let’s head over to the next section, shall we?

How to use Google Keyword Tool correctly?

Ever wonder what makes Google Keyword Tool the one of the best SEO tools?

I beat you are using Google Keyword Tool as well but the question here is, are you using Google Keyword Tool correctly? I’m not sure about you but for me, I try to avoid any mistakes as much as I can when it comes to doing search engine optimization.

What are the three best SEO tips when using Google Keyword Tool?

SEO tips #1 – Always use the Exact Match keyword search

This is the most common mistake done by bloggers when it comes to search engine optimization. Just because Google Keyword Tool default the search criteria to Broad Match, it doesn’t mean that you have to follow it by the books!

Let’s assume that you read the above (if you have not, then scroll up half a page and read what I wrote about the match criteria). When it comes to searching for the right keywords, always…always use the Exact Match keywords.

Why?

Simply because you want your keyword search to be as close as possible to the real deal. In the world of search engine optimization, having an exact match keyword (or at least Phrase Match keyword) could easily differentiate you between the top 10 ranking and top 100 ranking on the search engine result pages (SERPs).

It is a known fact that search engines such as Google gives ranking priority to exact match keywords first before others.

Do you think you think that you need to change your keywords now? You probably should!

SEO tips #2 – Healthy match of keywords for the best search engine optimization

This is one part I got wrong in the past. There is absolutely no point stuffing your article, blog or websites with just quality keywords or in this case, exact keywords. Instead, you want to have a healthy dose of keywords!

Firstly, you got to understand that you are going to rank well when you use exact keyword ONLY when people search using that exact term. Out of the millions and billions of people out there, how many would actually key in the exact keywords?

Don’t ever put all your eggs in one basket – English proverb

It doesn’t matter if you are a blogger, content writer or a SEO writer. The bottom line is you want to grab as many opportunities possible to have some ‘limelight’ on your website.

If you are doing the right content optimization technique, then you would probably be ranking especially well when people are searching for the exact keyword. Now, you need to mix and match your keywords (phrase and broad keywords) to further enrich your website.

Personally, I would go for 25% exact keyword match, 50% phrase match and 25% broad keyword match. And so, my question to you now is what’s your mix and match keyword ratio that you use for your website?

SEO tips #3 – Use Google Keyword Tool to ‘spoon feed’ you with quality keywords choices

Believe it or not, Google Keyword Tool is able to tell you what keywords your competitors are using to rank on search engines. Pretty impressive right?

See the image below. Do you see the red box?

Know what your competitors are ranking for using Google Keyword Tool

What you need to do is key in your competitor’s website in that box and with a click of the button, you got yourself a list of keywords which your competitors are trying to rank. Not only that, the results also includes the keywords which your competitors are buying on Google Adwords.

The below are one of my search engine optimization techniques to farm quality keywords for my blogs:
1. Find my closest 20 to 50 competitors
2. Use Google Keyword Tool and collect a list of 20 keywords each competitors are using
3. Compile the list of keywords and search again on Google Keyword Tool and my list of personal paid SEO tools
4. Shortlist the set of keywords to 10 to 30 keywords to rank for (the bigger the website, the more keywords to rank for)
Yes, this is a very lazy way of farming keywords but trust me that this is very useful. The results you collected are raw data which you would need to enrich them further using more SEO tools (optional).

If you are wondering why it is stated optional, it’s because you could still rank well on search engines if you are doing the right SEO strategy but why don’t adding in a little bit of hard work to get the top rank on SERPs right?

Over to you

Go get yourself a cold beer or a simple pat on the back. I am pretty sure you learned something here today. If yes, good for you!

Do you use Google Keyword Tools for other purposes and do you have any tricks you want to share with us? I am very eager to hear your reply!

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December 21, 2023
Top 12 Killer (Must Have) Blogging Tools For Bloggers
As a blogger, have you ever wonder what are good blogging tools you need? I bet you do and that’s why you are here right? Well, don’t worry about it as I was in the same boat as you in the past. It happens to all of us, especially when we are desperate to find great blogging tools to enrich our blogs and websites.

What are blogging tools that worth your time and effort?

Through my blogging experience, there are many blogging tools where we can use for blogging. And yes, most of these tools are free but there are some which are paid tools (or premium blogging tools as we call it). Without much delay, the below are the blogging tools that I am currently using in my daily blogging life and I do hope that these tools will work well for you as well.

What are the best blogging tools available?

Free blogging tools for bloggers

1. Google Drive

It is best to write draft and keep it for later revision before posting on your blog

Google Drive is one of the best free blogging tool I ever used. Before this, I was using the old school way which is using Microsoft Words and saving each file on my laptop. Why i love Google Drive so much is because I could easily compose an article or blog spot on it, save it and adjust later when I have the time. It is absolutely great since I can be blogging nearly every position on Earth as long as I have Internet connection.

Try Google Drive now!

2. Google Keywords Tool

Google Keyword Tool is a great way for bloggers to find quality keywords

People talk about Market Samurai, Micro Niche Finder and even SEMrush. Well, I use all of them three honestly but trust me when I tell you that nothing beats Google Keywords Tool. While the three are absolutely doing great in my blogging career, I cannot deny the fact that I uses Google Keywords Tool more than any of these three combined.

Just a few clicks, I am able to sort out keywords relevant to my writing and improve the content optimization of my blog. Do I need to remind you that it is free as well?

Nothing beats free stuff, huh? Check out Google Keywords Tool here.

3. Evernote

Bloggers can easily retrieve back blogging drafts kept in Evernote

I bet nearly 95% of bloggers in this world would have Evernote app in their smartphones, tablets and even laptops. Thought of a great idea or blogging inspiration? Why don’t use Evernote to jot notes down?

I travel and move a lot. Whenever I get an idea on a topic, I would just pop up Evernote and write that down. It doesn’t matter if I am not using those notes at the moment but I am pretty sure (and happened before) that I would use them one day in the future.

Give Evernote a try and sign up for free account now!

4. Dropbox

Share your articles, documents and images between devices thanks to Dropbox

I can’t deny the fact that Dropbox is playing a huge role in my blogging career. When it comes to saving pictures or photos to use for my blogging, I will definitely keep them in Dropbox. The ability to sync across devices makes Dropbox an even more worthwhile application for any bloggers or webmasters.

I am currently using the free one which 62 GB of space (thanks to my Note 2) and you can imagine where I am going from there. A must have for all bloggers. Period.

Get a free 2 GB Dropbox account for free and start sync data across devices and computer.

5. Yahoo smush.it

Yahoo smush.it will help to reduce image size and improve website loading speed

There is a WordPress plugin for smush.it but I am using the web one instead. Every photos or images uploaded can be compressed and optimized to reduce it size. And what’s the use of it?

The smaller the picture or image is, the faster it loads up. I am not sure about you but this is definitely one of the must have blogging tool for me.

*p/s Do note that at times, the Yahoo servers might be slow and thus, uploading images could be a little hassle thought.

See how Yahoo Smush.it works here.

6. WordPress SEO by Yoast

WordPress SEO offers free and unlimited use of SEO tools to boost website ranking and content optimization

I am pretty sure the term search engine optimization or SEO is no longer a stranger to all of you. In fact, there are many SEO companies or SEO agents which you can use to improve your blog’s SEO and ranking.

However, have you asked yourself if that is truly necessary?

WordPress SEO by yoast is a free WordPress plugin that offers great SEO functions for your blogs and websites. What it actually does is doing multiple analysis on your content and determine the SEO level through it.

Once an analysis is done, it will then give you suggestions which may help you boost your SEO score even further. Sounds good? Certainly is for me!

If you are looking for a free but GREAT SEO plugin for WordPress, I truly recommend this from the bottom of my heart. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

Yoast’s official website.

7. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is a one of the best WordPress cache plugins of all time
- Google – 500 milliseconds of extra load time caused 20% fewer searches
- For Yahoo – 400 milliseconds of extra load time caused a 5-9% increase in the number of people who clicked ‘back’ before the page even loaded
- For Amazon – 100 milliseconds of extra load time resulted in a 1% drop in sales
Optimizing website to improve loading time is important. It optimizing your website is not inside your book, then you should do it right now. Nowadays, website that loads slower could easily affect their website ranking on search result pages.

W3 Total Cache is often named as the best WordPress cache plugin. I got to agree with this as my website loads a second faster (maybe more) when this plugin is activated. High recommended for bloggers who are interested to boost their website loading speed.

Check out W3 Total Cache on WordPress.org.

8. Flickr

Flickr enables bloggers to share photos and images without taking up server space

I am not sure how many of you uses Flickr but I can tell you that I use it pretty much. I am a previous imgur user until the free storage capacity blocks me from using it to the max. Okay, I can’t be spending all my earnings on blogging only right?

Run and controlled by Yahoo Inc, I am pretty sure my photos are in good hands. What makes the cut even further is the latest free ‘giveaway’ which is awarding all users 1TB of memory space which makes photo sharing for bloggers even juicier!

Try Flickr today for free!

Premium blogging tools

9. Scribe Content Optimization

Scribe is one of the best content optimization tools for bloggers

Let’s say you want to bring SEO to the next level. This is where I recommend you this ‘˜state-of-the-art’ content optimization tool by CopyBlogger, Scribe. I personally use Scribe for all my money blogs and it proves to be more than just a great investment.

Don’t get me wrong as I uses WordPress SEO by yoast as well. However, the final SEO analysis is done using Scribe and it will pinpoint on keywords or SEO opportunities which I might accidentally left out.

I am always worried of my SEO (even though I know I shouldn’t) for my money blogs. I want my blogs to rank well and get good organic traffic to them. With Scribe, I knew I am already half way there. You can read more the product here: Scribe Content Optimization.

Don’t forget to request for your free SEO report using this link!

10. Thirsty Affiliates

Say goodbye to ugly URL thanks to Thirsty Affiliates

Thirsty Affiliate is the latest plugin I bought for myself. Reading through my previous blogs and you will notice that I am a member of ShareASale (affiliate program). I always wonder how other bloggers share their affiliate links using so a nice URL.

A little Google-ing and I found out that most of them are using Thirsty Affiliate. Well, what this WordPress plugin do is changing the ugly url to something beautiful. Example as below:

Ugly URL: https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=185140&c=ib&aff=250804

Beautiful URL: https://www.reginaldchan.net/recommends/thirsty-affiliates/

See the difference? This doesn’t only protects my affiliate links but at the same time, making it very pleasant to the eyes. Not only that, it could even improve the chances of getting an affiliate sale right? You can have a look at what Thirsty Affiliate is offering by clicking this link: Thirsty Affiliate Website.

11. Hybrid Connect

Hybrid Connect is the latest OptinSkin alternative that provides great service, value and customer support

People say building a mailing list is important and I certainly cannot disagree with any further.

I read about Hybrid Connect on Adam Connell’s website, Blogging Wizard (you can find the link here). Adam, if you are reading this, thank you for your recommendation!

I am pretty sure most of you are aware of a plugin called OptinSkin. Well, Hybrid Connect works exactly like OptinSkin with more features packed in it. It offers the ability to put sign up box for mailing and newsletters nearly every inch of the blog.

What makes it better is the customer support. When I purchased Hybrid Connect, it wouldn’t work my Dynamik theme (due to my customizations) and they fixed it up. They didn’t stop there. Instead, they even offered me help when they noticed there was an issue with one of my codes.

I was more than just ‘wow-ed’. Thank you Hybrid Connect team!

Try out risk free Hybrid Connect with 30-days money back guarantee!

12. Dynamik Website Builder for Genesis Framework

Start building your own customized WordPress themes using Dynamik website builder

I am pretty sure you are well aware that if you want to attract your readers, you need to have more than just a normal blog theme. Good themes are hard to come by but thanks to Dynamik team, building a custom theme for WordPress is as easy as click the drop down buttons. Want to know more about Dynamik Website Builder?

You can also head over to their official website, Dynamik Theme and Genesis Framework for more information.

Over to you

I hope the blogging tools listed above will provide you more than just great experience in your blogging life. Have you used any of these tools? Share with me by replying the comment form below.

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December 21, 2023