by Elance

There is a research tool for keywords in Google. You can get to it by clicking on “Tools” at the top of the screen, in the green stripe. Option one is this, if you have your website already up and running and don’t desire to start from the beginning with your keywords, select “Site-Related Keywords” tab and then enter the web address for one or more of the pages from your site. Then Google will browse through your site and make up a keyword list for you.

However, if you want to reach people with keywords that you know aren’t obviously found on your web site, click the “Keyword Variations” tab and enter one of your core keywords. Google doesn’t just give you variations of that keyword. Check the tiny box to the right marked “Use synonyms,” and it also gives you a host of related suggested themes. This is no hack job, either. Google’s results here are just the results you’d expect from a world-class search engine.

Some of the results you’ll find immediately relevant; others you won’t have use for. But Google gives you plenty more still helping your Google AdWords management. They won’t give you the explicit numbers of searches for these terms on their system, but they will show you the relative amount of traffic they generate. To see this, click on the “Show columns” dropdown menu and select “Keyword popularity”.

Along with the amount of competitors vying for each keyword shown in the partly shaded rectangle, you will also get the relative amount of searches that each term gets.

“Another really cool innovation that Google offers is “Global Search Volume Trends”, a graphic showing a month by month account of average searches your keyword gets.

That is sharp and quite useful in your Adwords management. Overture can’t give you the variations that Google gives nor can you the information on your competition from any other free service. It doesn’t even cost another dime.

As For Wordtracker

If you use Overture’s tool to find all of the searched-on variations of “learn German,” then every result it lists for you will have those two words in it:

1,371 learn to speak german

916 learn german free

598 learn german online free

383 learn to speak german for free

108 learn to speak german online

100 german language learn online

73 learn swiss german

71 learn german software

69 learn german cd

But aren’t there people who want to learn German who don’t use that exact phrase?

Of course there are. How about the guy who wants to “study German” or “study in German”. There is also the individual who might type in, “learn Deutsch” or even “sprechen sie Deutsch”.

How are you going to find those other keyword variations? Look at Wordtracker’s Wide Search.

Perhaps you are compiling a keyword list for cell phone. If you head to Wordtracker these are the variations they suggest.

mobile phone

nokia

cellphone

cellular phone

ringtones

wireless

sony

ericsson

samsung

sanyo

motorola

bluetooth

accessories

The terms you get from Wordtracker can open up new market that might never have considered, all you have to do is let loose your imagination. You might be like others looking at the keyword list and decide that selling the accessories for Nokia phones is more profitable than selling the phones themselves. This kind of unexpected revelation is only one of many. Doing the research helps bring these to light. Keep your eyes open!

Wordtracker doesn’t try to give you a profitability estimate or projections of cost per click. It is designed to highlight the possible directions that your keywords can take you. Wordtracker does this by

showing you all the variations people have typed in over the last 60 days, and

advising you of the number of searches each term has had by Dogpile and Metacrawler.

Other than plurals and singulars, other variations in spelling are not included. Phrases like “cell”, cell phone” and “cellular” will have to be done in separate tasks.

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