Step 2 : Google Keyword Tool

Last time we talked you were working on a list of keywords, terms that people would use to find your business online. By now you should have a pretty good list.  Now let’s take that list and expand it.
 
I want to introduce you to the Google Adwords keyword suggestion tool. This tool will give you an idea on how many times your terms are searched per month. So the first step is to visit:
 
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
 
You will then see a page where you can enter your keywords that you listed in the previous step. You can add them all line by line into the box that is titled “Word or Phrase”. Leave the website field blank for now and choose your country of residence.
 
Underneath the box where you enter your keywords, is a check box. Check this if you want to limit the results to only terms that include the keywords you have entered.  If you have a big list you can check this, if you struggled to think about keywords, leave this box unchecked and it might come up with some great ideas you didn’t even think of.
 
Once you have your list entered and the box checked (or not), enter the security code and click search.  Once you do that you will get a list of keywords.  Click on “local monthly searches”.  This will sort the keywords by how many searches they get in your country. These numbers will be pretty high.
 
***NOTE***This is why we didn’t include any local search terms.  Many times these terms won’t even show up in the rankings, even though they are getting searched.  It really depends on the size of your local area.
 
Now that you have this list in order of local searches, make a note of the top ten or so terms. In fact, download the whole list as a CSV (or other) file. You will be able to make use of this later on in a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel. Just click on “Download”, which can be found at the top left of the keyword list.

Action Item:

• Visit the Google keyword tool here 
• Follow the steps to expand your list of potential keywords
• Finally download your list as a CSV for viewing later