google adwords keyword tool

Search volume study – can you trust Google’s Keyword Planner?

One of the many problems facing SEO’s these days is how to carry out effective keyword research.

With [not provided] now accounting for about 80-90% of organic keyword data in Google Analytics, we’re effectively working blind when it comes to trustable data on what search terms are being used.

There are lots of ways to shed light on keyword data – from studying the landing page data in Analytics to relying on data from Bing/Yahoo and using the search query reports in Google Webmaster Tools (which are ridiculously rubbish if you ask me). (more…)

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How to use Google’s Keyword Planner for SEO research

After using Google’s Keyword Tool for several years I had developed quite a slick and effective keyword research process – allowing me to quickly identify good [exact match] phrases for SEO campaigns. It wasn’t the only keyword research tool I used, but it was the one I used the most and found most effective.

So when Google announced they were replacing it with something called the Keyword Planner, I was both anxious and intrigued. It’s never good as an SEO to rely too heavily on one tool or process, so I welcomed the arrival of a new tool to play with. The worrying part for me though was the danger of a fiddly new tool taking a big slice out of my day to do a task that I had managed to streamline and scale so well. (more…)

You are what you read – the best SEO articles from the past week (1 – 6 July)

I was away at Glastonbury last week (yes, even I get to have some days off!), so I missed an edition of You Are What You Read unfortunately. Not to worry though, as there has been the usual high volume of quality SEO tips, advice and news to catch up on this week – so let’s dive straight in… (more…)

My favourite on-site SEO tools

The one question I get asked more than any other about SEO is ‘what tools do you use?’.

Unlike a lot of SEOs I know I’m not a big fan of letting tools do too much of the work, as I never fully trust a heavily automated process and I actually quite enjoy the slow and sometimes mundane task of manually crunching through data! But even so, I naturally have to depend on some tools to do a lot of the heavy lifting. (more…)