How To Use The Google External Keyword Properly

Hi all,

I'm sure when most people start out in the SEO game they don't know what tool to use to find good keywords to rank for, and how to use said tools. The best keyword research tool is Google's External Keyword Tool. Before I get into the different match types, please make sure you know which countries you want your visitors to come from.

When you are on Google's External Keyword Tool page, the first option you will see is to tailor search results to specific countries or territories. Select which countries you want your visitors to come from (i choose All countries and territories unless im geotargetting). Once you've set your countries and/or territories, Google's External Keyword Tool will only show the monthly search numbers for those countries and/ord territories you have set.

Ok, now that the country tailoring is sorted let's move on to match types.

When you enter a keyword or keyphrase into Google's External Keyword Tool there will be a drop down menu above and to the right of your keyword results titled "Match Types:". Click on the drop down menu and you will see that there are four different match types: Broad, Phrase, Exact, Negative.

When you select the Broad match type google will show you how many times per month your keyphrase has been searched. However, google will also include into it's search traffic calculations different combinations of your keyphrase. For example, if your keyphrase is 'spongebob squarepants movie', then google will also include different combinations such as 'spongebob movie squarepants', 'movie spongebob squarepants'. On top of this, google will also include search results for all the words in your keyphrase plus other keywords. For example: 'where can i find the spongebob squarepants movie' will be included in google's external keyword's results. This is why the broad match search volume will be larger than any other match type. Don't use broad match for your keyword research.

When you select the Phrase match type google will only show search volume results for your keyphrase without the different combinations. However google will still show you search volume results for your keyphrase plus any other keywords. So, even though phrase match type is more accurate than broad, dont use it.

When you select the exact match type google will only show the search volume for your exact keyphrase without different combinations and additional keywords (modifiers). This means that if you rank number one for this keyphrase, your site listing in google for that keyphrase should get x number of views depending on what the search volume is for your phrase. This is what you want to use for accurate search volume results.

The negative keyword option just shows you the additional keywords i have mentioned above. These are known as keyphrase modifiers. You won't need to worry about negative keywords if you are focussing on exact match keywords as they are irrelevant.

If you have any questions please feel free to shoot me a pm on bhw or comment here.

Peace.