Why Keyphrase or Keyword analysis?

Keyphrase analysis is the crucial starting point for both search engine optimisation and pay per click marketing. Both require you to get into the mind of your potential customers, understanding what they type when searching and then working hard to make sure you're visible in the search results for the most relevant terms for your business.

Notice that I say keyphrase (short for keyword phrase) rather than keyword. This is because search engines such as Google attribute more relevance when there is an exact phrase match on a web page (a phrase that matches the users’ search term). So analysis needs to cover keyphrases, not keywords.

The free Google Keyword Tool and Google Traffic Estimator are great for giving estimates on the popularity of searches for different products and brands online.

They are included on my complete list of keyphrase analysis tools for SEO and PPC in different categories.

These examples use the example of the laser eye treatment market.

Using the Google Keyword Tool for keyphrase analysis

The Google Keyword tool ( https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) shows the relative number of searches for a phrase.

Tip You may also want to try the Yahoo! Keyword assistant. This used to be one of the best free tools, but it is limited to Yahoo! and can be unreliable.

It is best to start with typing a generic phrase into the Keyword Variations Tab such as “laser eye” to understand the most important terms (when ranked by ‘search volume’ and the range of qualifiers for that term which searchers use to describe it. It is also helpful for pay per click advertising since it shows the terms where there is the greatest and least competition.

Tip Use synonyms is checked by default, which maximizes the number of results you'll get from the Keyword Tool. If you uncheck the box, the tool will only suggest keywords that contain at least one of the terms that you entered.

This example shows that these tools are also great for understanding customer search behaviours and some of the factors which are important within their buying decision. It is useful to build-up a list of qualifiers or adjectives which describe the search.

Typical keyphrase variants used by search engine searchers are: 1. Comparison/quality – Compare laser eye treatment 2. Adjective (price/product qualifiers) – Cheap laser eye treatment 3. Intended use / application – short sight laser eye treatment 4. Product type – Lasik laser eye treatment 5. Vendor/brand – Ultralase laser eye treatment 6. Location – laser eye uk or laser eye treatment london 7. Action request – Select laser eye treatment (or buy)

You can summarise qualifiers like so: compare + term + + term

Remember the negatives You should also identify keywords you don’t want your ads to display for in Google AdWords or pay per click marketing, for example ‘compare’ or ‘cheap’. These can then be added as negative keywords (see section on pay per click marketing).

Tip For low volume phrases it may be best to include other English language sites - not just UK or US.

The Site Related tab

It is also useful for competitively analysis of sites since it you what Google thinks your page(s) are about when this particular algorithm (likely related to analysis used for ranking in the natural listings) analyses them. This can be useful to check they are consistent with the keyphrases you are optimizing for on a page and also to compare for competitors.

Here is an example:

Compare this list to the one above, there are some obvious terms missing which the site owner might want on their home page.

This example is for a competitor, to show the difference between pages:

Finally, note that you can perform the analysis for a single page or check the box for all linked pages which will broaden the number of keyphrases.

The Google Help Centre also gives advice on using the Google Keyword tool

Google tips for using the keyword analysis tool for AdWords setup

View details of these keyword analysis tips are

1. Find keywords based on your site content. Instead of entering your own keywords, try using the Website Content option. It lets you enter the URL of your business website, or of any site related to your business. The AdWords system will then scan your page and then suggest relevant keywords. (This feature is available only in some languages.)
2. Create new, separate ad groups with similar keywords. Google recommend creating several ad groups in each campaign, each with a small, narrowly-focused set of similar keywords. Use the Keyword Tool to discover relevant keywords, then divide them into lists of 5 to 20 similar terms.

   Examples - single product or service or multiple products and services

3. Identify negative keywords. The Keyword Tool can show you off-topic keywords that users may be thinking about.
4. Find synonyms - or not The Use synonyms box in the Descriptive words or phrases option is always checked by default. (This means it might suggest "bed and breakfast" as a synonym for the keyword "hotel.")

   If the synonym box is unchecked, the tool will suggest only keywords that contain at least one of the terms that you entered.

5. Start broad and then get specific Try broad terms like "flowers" in the Keyword Tool first. Then try specific terms like "red roses" or "miniature cactus."

Using the Google Traffic Estimator for keyphrase analysis

The Google Traffic Estimator (https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox) adds to the keyword tool in that, as the name suggests, it gives an indication of the numbers of searches. It also gives costs for specific positions in the Sponsored listings.

Tip If you are already doing some AdWords advertising, you can avoid all of this by viewing the reports on Impressions within the account (assuming there is full delivery of ads) and you are using the maximum daily budget.

The five most important things to note about using the traffic estimator to estimate search volume, are that:

1. The numbers it gives are not numbers of searches (impressions in Adwords) ut number of clicks. 2. The number of clicks are dependent on the position. 3. The number of clicks are dependent on match type 4. It is country specific, so choose the right country(ies) 5. It is only an estimator, and tends to work best for higher volume phrases. You also need to remember seasonality.

OK, so how do I get an indication of number of searches. Well these are the steps.

Traffic estimator data entry

1. In the first box enter your keyphrases as an exact match (in square brackets). I have also entered other match types here for comparison.
2. Choose local currency and then the maximum value to force the ads to be displayed at position 1. The values GBP 50 for the UK.
3. Daily budget - leave blank, except when budget is limited.
4. Choose a. language, e.g. English and b. Location targeting (countries and territories). Note that the local targeting is relatively inaccurate outside of US. Then add c. Your countries.

Understanding the results

You should see these results:

The important column is "Estimated Clicks Per Day" for each keyword:

If you have set max CPC to 50 you get the number of clicks per day for ad position 1.

By making assumptions about Clickthrough rate (CTR), e.g. 5% is an average you can work back to estimate of overall search volumes (Twenty times the number of daily clicks shown). Of course, CTR will vary according to type of phrases and competition. But this approach certainly gives a good indication of relative importance of keyphrases.

Tip By reviewing the differences between exact, phrase and broad match, you can gain further insights into behaviour. Here, unsurprisingly there are relatively few people just typing in laser eye as an exact, so you should optimise and on three word phrases like laser eye treatment or laser eye surgery.