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…)