Adwords is the Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising option from Google. All the major search engines have their own version of PPC advertising. The basic concept is this: you place an ad that targets a specific keyword related to the product, service, or website you are trying to get traffic to. When someone types in that keyword into the search engine they will see ads at the top, bottom and sides of the results page (if you've done it properly one of those ads will be yours).
They will click on an ad and be taken to the website of whoever placed that ad. The advertiser will then be charged, hence the term pay per click. In order to make this work you need to choose the keywords you're going to use carefully, and that's where the adwords keyword research tool can come in handy.
Even if you're not running a PPC campaign, you'll still need a list of good keyword to use in all of your online marketing. Keywords are used in virtually every form of online advertising there is. They are needed for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), article marketing and PPC. So having access to a cutting edge keyword research is vital.
And who better to trust your searches to than the online giant, Google? The keyword tool is free to use. It's also easy to use. Just type in the base keyword you want more information on.
For example, let's say you are promoting dog grooming equipment. You would go to the keyword tool, type in 'dog grooming equipment' and let the results load. There are several fields you can either enable or disable. You can get information on the number of monthly searches, the estimated cost per click (CPC), the amount of competition to name just a few.
You will also see a list of hundreds of other keywords combination's all derived from your base keyword search. I personally find that to be one of the biggest benefits of this tool Sometimes I just can't think of all the word combinations that people might be searching for, so having this tool show me other possible keywords is extremely helpful.
Another neat thing you can do is to type in the URL of a website that sells the same types of products you do. You will see the results and you can get ideas of what keywords they are using, this is really helpful if a certain website is ranking well. It can give you a glimpse into what they're doing with their SEO.
Make sure to focus more on 3, 4, and 5 words keyword phrases (long tail keywords) since they will get less competition. I know many people like to go out and target the one and two words keywords that get hundreds of thousands of monthly searches, but that is a waste of time. Unless you're incredibly lucky you won't be able to compete or get ranked for those keywords. You're better off finding slightly less searched for terms that you may actually be able to get a ranking for.
Hey, take advantage of all the internet has to offer, that includes the many free tools that you can use to grow your business such as the Google Adwords keyword research tool.
