How to find keywords getting significant traffic
-
How can we check with the Google Keyword Tool to figure out which keywords are getting significant traffic. Needs explanation for the bolded part.
I am referring to the Q and A at -
The best way to see the information you're looking for is to take all keywords that sent you an organic search visit for a given time period in your analytics and run them through a rank checker. You can then cross-check this data with the Google Keyword Tool to figure out which keywords are getting significant traffic.
-
I've found Wordtracker to be the easiest to get started with. You can enter in keyword phrases on their home page and get instant, actionable advice. Then, after you've made a few choices in Wordtracker, go to AdWords to compare and refine your results.
However, here is a down-and-dirty way to find out high-traffic keywords:
- Go to Google.com and log out of your Google account.
- Start typing in your search terms
- Google automatically returns the most-searched terms while you're typing.
-
I discovered what Atticus is suggesting by accident with ADwords. I also use Wordtracker a great tool to discover long tail keyword combinations. Some folks use SEO Samaruai. Good Luck.
-
Great answer. Thanks
-
Ok basically what he is saying is your website might be generating clicks from a keyword which has more potential if it moved up the rankings a little.
So he is saying take all the keywords from Google analytics which generated a click from organic (say over a 3 month period) and paste them into Adwords keyword tool as exact match.
You might find a keyword which generated 20 clicks actually has a monthly search volume of 5,000.
Because this keyword has 5, 10, 20 clicks it must not be that far away from page 1 as users don't really dive deeper then page 2 of Google (in general) and your getting clicks for it.
So that would be a good keyword to aim for in your SEO efforts (as long as its relevant to your industry).
If you find a keyword like this, you could most likely search for it in Google and find your result within the first couple of pages.
Hope this makes sense.
-
This may not be the answer you're looking for but....
The best keyword research tool is AdWords. Yes...it cost money, but think about it this way...You get a client that's paying $2K/month. You use all the keyword tools and decide on a several keywords, but really go after 2-3 which you target on the homepage. 2-3 months later when you links start kicking in you realize that the kewyord volumes reported by all the keyowrd tools (especially Google!) were wrong. You've now wasted 3 months and $3K of your clients budget on optimizing for the wrong terms.
In reality, you could have run a PPC campaign to get almost perfect keyword volumes (especially with by using the impression shares and search terms reports). Sure, it matters how much the PPC costs are for that keyword, but the idea when doing a campaign like this is to get your ad on the front page, but NOT get it clicked. Do things like bid high but write the worst possible copy you can. (It's actually kind of fun!) Also, get a coupon to get a $100 of free research.
It's best to do this for a month, but if you can only afford to do it for a week, nine times out of ten it's far more accurate than Google's keyword tool. Also, when you do this you can get your server logs to determine every keyword that TRIGGERED your ad, not just keywords that resulted in a click.
****If you have the budget to actually try to generate clicks, this had an additional benefit. Try as many ad copy/headlines as possible. The copy with the highest CTR will likely be an excellent choice for your meta description and title tag.
Another option is to do this on AdCenter. It's cheaper and they'll give you every keyword that triggered an ad with Excel add-on (only if your using a PC....argh!). If you use AdCenter, just multiply your results by 3 to get an estimate. Again, it may not be perfect, but it's way more accurate than the keyword tool.
I'm at the point where this is pretty much the only way I do keyword research. It's a small investment for the potential benefits.
If folks find this interesting/helpful, I'll write a step by step blog post....I've also been collecting all of the keyword volumes I'm finding with Adwords/AdCenter (and confirming with GA) and comparing them with keyword research tools, particularly Google's. From what I found this far, I honestly don't use Google's keyword tool for anything other than finding other keywords and getting a very, very general idea of which keywords should have the most volume.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
I'm finding it difficult to make a decision on keywords to select to target for new site?
Hi, I'm doing keyword research for a small site and followed the standard keyword process of using Ahrefs and Google's keyword planner tools to see what keywords are being searched for my service. There are keywords that have a higher avg monthly search volume but they are aren't as relevant as ones that include the word cheap or affordable for example but those ones are only 300 monthly searches per month which seems very small for the main page of the site. Any advice what I should do in this scenario? Do I choose a more relevant keyword with lower search volume or go for one with much higher avg monthly search volume which is much more competitive?
Keyword Research | | TZ19820 -
How is it possible to rank first for a keyword, when the keyword isn't written on the page?
I noticed that one of our competitors is ranking in first position for a keyword but when looking on the page grader. The exact keyword is not used on the page at all (or in title, URL etc.). How is this possible, when other sites have content with those exact words?
Keyword Research | | Jesssherl3 -
Is it a bad idea to hyphenate keywords?
Hello, my understanding was that Google reads hyphens in keywords as spaces, but if that's accurate how come keywords with hyphens that I research with Keyword Explorer — for instance, hospital-acquired infections — rank lower when I include the hyphen? If the hyphen hurts SEO, do I have to remove them all from the blog or page in question? Removing hyphens means a blog or page will have punctuation errors, which is irritating to an editor, but I don't want to sacrifice the effectiveness of keywords, either. Thanks, in advance, for your response!
Keyword Research | | SallieJ0 -
How to Find a Competitor's Target Keyword for a Particular Webpage
I understand how to do basic keyword research and how to review a competitor's code (meta tags, etc.). But what is the best method for finding out what a competitor's target keyword is for a particular web page? For example, the URL www.example.com/about-us, what is the best method for finding out what their target keyword is? I have been using a keyword density tool to run the URLs and find the keyword or phase that appears most often but would think there is a better way?
Keyword Research | | rx3000 -
How to do a comprehensive SEO Keyword Research
Hi, What are the best tools and techniques to do a comprehensive keyword research on all the relevant search engines? There are times when there are no stats available on the Google keyword planner tool, in that case what do you suggest? Thanks
Keyword Research | | LaythDajani0 -
Ranking a homepage for keywords
We recently found a handful of keywords we would like our homepage to rank for (for example - customer experience). On our homepage we have articles (4-5 posted daily) that feature the keywords we are targeting (one being customer experience). How do the keywords we are using in our daily articles that are posted to the homepage affect the overall keyword ranking for the homepage? In other words do the keywords used in the articles (title, first 2-3 paragraphs, meta description, etc.) all roll up/build up to the homepage's keywords or how does that work?
Keyword Research | | carlystemmer0 -
Identifying Keywords - Longtail
I need some clarification as to how exactly keywords work. I learned that I should focus on more specifically targeted long-tail keywords. However I am uncertain of how this actually works. Say I decide to use the longtail keyword "online dyslexia test for children". Will my page only be found by people when they enter that exact search term or will it also be found when people search for any of the other terms containing the same words? For example like all the phrases below: free online dyslexia test
Keyword Research | | EJDekkers
online dyslexia test
online dyslexia test children
dyslexia test online
dyslexia test
dyslexia testing
dyslexia test for children
dyslexia tests for children
free dyslexia test for children
test for dyslexia in children
dyslexia online test
testing for dyslexia in children
free online dyslexia test for children
free dyslexia test
online test for dyslexia in children
online dyslexia test free
dyslexia tests online
online dyslexia testing
test for dyslexia for children
how to test for dyslexia in children online
online testing for dyslexia
dyslexia online test for children
child dyslexia test
dyslexia test online free
free dyslexia test online
how do you test for dyslexia in children Also if I have a page that I optimize for "online dyslexia test free" can I create another page for "free dyslexia test online" or will this be creating competition? In other words are these both unique keywords that will independently rank. Last question about keywords is are they still important and what is the search volume you should be targeting with your keywords. (Allot of my long tail keywords only have around 20 monthly US searches) Thanks! Joy0 -
Run a batch of keywords 1 by 1 through Adwords Keyword tool
Hi, I'm looking for a tool that will be able to run a list of keywords 1 by 1 through the Google Adwords keyword tool and place them together in a list, in order to get as much long tail keywords as possible. Thanks for any suggestion!
Keyword Research | | DeptAgency0