Summary:

This post is about using Google Ad Words as a tool for Keyword Research. If you are unfamiliar, Ad Words is a tool that allows you to buy advertising on Google. Today, however, we are going to use this as a tool for keyword research. Watch the video and follow the steps below.

Step-by-step guide:

1. Create a free Adwords account at adwords.google.com.
2. Brainstorm keywords that you want to target, and create a list.
3. Log in to your Google Adwords account and go to the “Tools & Analysis” keyword tool.
4. Take your list of words and drop a word (or many words) into the “Word or Phrase” box, then hit search.
5.  Find the keywords that make the most sense for your website. You can analyze the keywords by their search volume and the amount of competition each keyword has. On the Adwords interface, you will see these numbers listed by each keyword, to the right. You are looking for words that are a good fit for your site, but that you also have a good chance of getting ranked for. Those words are the words with a large search volume, but a small amount of competition.
6. You can save each word to the “Saved ideas” list, readdress when you are ready, and scale down as necessary.
7. Once you have your “Saved Ideas” complete, you can download the list to a CSV file. Click on download and choose which list you want to download. Here you have the option to download ALL of the keywords, or just your Saved Ideas.
8. Now you have a spreadsheet that can be used as a cheat sheet for creating content. You can reference the document when writing blog posts or other content for your site. By utilizing these keywords in your content, you are strengthening your larger SEO effort.