For SEO how accurate is Google Keyword Tool?
Keyword research is a vital part of any SEO service and in the past we have been trying to accumulate data that show past search histories so that we can figure out what might be in the future.
The process works like this.
You head over to the Google Keyword Tool and type in a URL or some basic keywords that you are thinking about doing SEO for and then Google runs its magic and you get a list of other keywords and their approximate search volumes. Now these numbers are based on last years trends. So they take the total amount of searches for a particular word over a year and devide it by twelve which is the months of the year.
Now this works just fine for some keyword research such as academic and business keywords. But what if you are looking up Christmas keywords or Travel Keywords. Don’t you think that “Christmas tree decorating tips” or “Tropical Vacations”or “what to wear to the beach” is searched for more often during one time of year than the other? This is when the devide by twelve method does work so well.
Well now Google has launched a new keyword research tool that allows you to see monthly search spikes and also lets you forecast for the future. It is called the Insights for Search tool. I had some fun and played with the Christmas tree decorating tips idea and I could clearly see the trends year after year. No search volumne until October and then a massive spike in Oct, Nov and of course Dec.
This is just another tool us as SEO specialists have in our arsenal to see what is really worth doing SEO for and now you can see when it is worth doing SEO for. With the forecasting I haven’t had a chance to play with quite yet on the new keyword tool but I will give it a go and cover it next time for all the SEO specialists out there.
