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11.8: Tools of the trade

  • Page ID
    42104
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    The foundation of search marketing is keyword research, and there are a number of tools that will help you grow your keyword list, and also to determine keyword volumes. Some are free and some require payment. All these tools should be used as guidelines only. They usually provide trends and estimates rather than specific values. Test the data with your own campaigns to determine what works best for you.

    Ad management tools

    Keyword volume tools

    • tools.seobook.com/general/keyword

    Keyword suggestion tools

    • adwords.google.com/keywordplanner (free account required)
    • www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
    • tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

    Google AdWords has an Ad Preview Tool, which allows you to see whether your advert is appearing on the page without using the search engine and thereby skewing quality score data. This can be accessed at adwords.google.com/select/ AdTargetingPreviewTool.

    Some paid services that aid with keyword research are: www.wordtracker.com

    • www.advancedwebranking.com
    • Also consider other ways to research your industry and brand, for example, Google Trends (http://google.com/trends) can show keyword search volume over time.

    Spreadsheets, such as Microsoft’s Excel, are useful to aid you in building your keyword lists. Getting to grips with functions such as Concatenate and Vlookup will be useful.


    This page titled 11.8: Tools of the trade is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Rob Stokes via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.