However, this tool isn’t the only tool you can use to research your keywords. In fact there are quite a few tools out there, some better than others, and you may want to try some of them out as an alternative or an addition to using the Google Adwords research tool.

Google Insights for Search – (image above) in fact this one could be used as an additional tool to the Google Adwords tool. This gives you an idea of keyword trends rather than approximate search volumes and is very useful, particularly if you work in an industry that has more seasonal searches, such as travel. The tool can show you trends over your specified time period, top searches during the period and you can compare search terms.

Google Trends is similar to Insights for Search, but with less information. You can see trends for specific websites as well as your keywords in a specified time frame.

Google Zeitgeist is a fun tool where you can find out how the world searched in the last year. Data for 2010 is now available on the site showing the most popular searches, which included the football World Cup, Winter Olympics and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. You can also find out what searches were popular throughout the year, many of which include entertainment, sport & celebrities.

There are also other free keyword research tools, which include:

Wordtracker free keyword tool (Wordtracker also has a paid version)

Keyword Discovery free search term suggestion tool

Firefox Free KGen Add On – this is an add on to the Firefox browser.

Keyword research is a really important part of promoting your website, so any additional tools to help you with your research are a bonus! It’s well worth trying them out to see what other variations you might get on your search terms.

If you want to learn more about how to research the best keywords to use on your website, then take a look at our brand new guide ‘Getting Started with Keyword Research’. This will help you to identify the best keywords for the existing content on your site, how you can further develop your website and even your business offering, plus an additional video tutorial and worksheets.

Which keyword research tools do you use? Please share any tips you have on researching the best keywords for your site!

Firstly, check out your competitors’ ads. It’s worth finding out what they’re including in their ads, if they include any benefits and calls to action and if they include prices. If your products are particularly competitively priced then why not add them in? Including prices can also pre-qualify visitors who are only looking at buying the cheapest.

Once you’ve got an idea of what your competitors are including in their ad text, then start drafting your own words. Make sure the headline of the ad includes the main keywords you’re targeting, and keywords are also in the description. You get 25 characters for the title and 35 for each descriptive line. I also tend to capitalize the first letter of each word. Here’s an example:

Customer Service Training   (25 character title)
Innovative Quality Customer Service     (35 character description per line)
Training for Call Centre Staff

Ensure your ads reflect the theme of the keywords in your ad group and write several variations. One ad is not enough to work out whether or not it’s going to be effective, so try at least 4 different ads to start with.

One useful tool is the keyword insertion tool, which means Google will automatically use the query the user is searching on for the headline of the ad, as long as it’s 25 characters or less. If it’s over 25 characters, Google will use the default headline text specified by you. For example:

{keyword:Customer Service Training}
Innovative Quality Customer Service
Training for Call Centre Staff

In this example, ‘Customer Service Training’ could be replaced with ‘customer staff training’ if that’s what the searcher typed in. It’s a very useful tool as people are more likely to click on ad text that relates closely to what they’re searching for!

For more on ad text and the keyword insertion tool, visit the Adwords help centre:
How Much Text Can I Have in my Ads?
How Do I Use Keyword Insertion?

The ‘search’ network means that your ads will appear to the right or above search results on Google and their search partners which include AOL, Ask Jeeves and other search engines who display Google ads. In fact you can opt to have your ads appear on Google only and not the other search engines.

The ‘content’ network is a whole network of websites who opt to display Google ads on their site in return for a commission from Google if someone clicks on them. Google automatically matches your ads with the content displayed on the website – it’s the general theme of the website and the theme of your keywords that Google uses to decide the match. This can be a bit hit and miss, so it’s worth checking which sites your ads are being shown on.

Before you decide to continue with these default settings (i.e having your ads on both search and content networks) consider how much you’re spending and if you really want your ads on the content network (certainly to begin with). If your budget is fairly small, then just concentrate on the search network and disable your ads showing on the content network.

If you really want your ads on the content network too, then I find it works best to set up a separate campaign for the content network and allocate its own separate budget. So disable the content network in your settings for the campaign to be shown on the search network only, then set up a brand new campaign for the content network (so you may need to disable the search network on that one). You’ll find it easier to control and keep tabs on the sites displaying your ads than having them all lumped together with the search ads.

You can then see how your content network ads are faring with their own budget and adjust budgets accordingly for both networks separately depending on the return you’re getting from your ads.

You can read more about the search and content networks in the Google Adwords Help Centre.

One of the first things to learn is keyword settings. Adwords has four settings you can use for your keywords or key phrases: broad match, phrase match, exact match & negative. The default setting is broad match.

What these settings mean is that your keywords can trigger your ads for different keyword combinations depending on which settings you use, which are as follows:

Broad match: Keywords on this setting will mean your ads will show for the keywords you input into your list plus variations of the keyword, synonyms and a range of combinations of your key phrases. For example, a physiotherapist sponsoring the keyword ‘neck pain’ in a broad search could find the ads triggered for keywords such as ‘neck pain and dizziness’, ‘neck pain in pregnancy’ and ‘neck shoulder arm pain’. You may even find your ads triggered for keywords such as ‘neck brace’ so when leaving keywords on a broad match setting, you need to ensure that the keywords don’t trigger your ads for untargeted searches.

Phrase match: This setting is more targeted than broad match and means your ads will be triggered for your keywords exactly with perhaps a word or two before or after your keyword. Using the above example, ‘neck pain’, this keyword on a phrase match could trigger your ads for ‘neck pain in pregnancy’ but not ‘neck shoulder arm pain’. Your keywords will be listed in quotation marks e.g “neck pain”

Exact match: Your keywords will only be shown exactly as you input them into your campaign, so for example, ‘neck pain’ will only trigger your ads for ‘neck pain’ and no other keywords at all. Your keywords will be listed in square brackets, e.g [neck pain].

Many of my campaign keywords usually end up as phrase or exact matches, but there’s no harm in experimenting with broad match, as long as the keywords that trigger your ads are relevant to your offering.

Negative: these are keywords that you don’t want to trigger your ads at all. Using the ‘neck pain’ example, a physiotherapist may not want ads triggered for ‘neck brace’, so ‘brace’ would be included in the negative keyword list.

For more on keyword settings, you can read up on the Google Adwords website.

1. Not dedicating enough time
Setting up an Adwords campaign and forgetting about it is one mistake I see too often. Businesses set up their account, put in a few keywords and hope for the best. Too often have I come across accounts that are rarely looked at and performing badly. When you commit to an Adwords campaign, you must dedicate time to managing to make sure you get the best return from it.

2. Creating one ad
Google Adwords allows you to create as many ads as you want per ad group but in many cases, I find only one ad written. When setting up an Adwords campaign, make sure you test ad text as some ads will always perform better than others, even with the smallest variations in the wording of the ads. Start off with at least 3 or 4 ads and if the click through rates on the ads is low, keep introducing new text until you get more satisfactory click through rates.

3. Not researching keywords
Many campaigns I come across haven’t researched keywords adequately or put in just a few variations, at worse single word keywords. Google Adwords has an excellent keyword research tool, so use it to ensure you’re targeting the right keywords. Make sure you include singular and plural variations too. You can find out how competitive keywords are and roughly how much they might cost so you can do all the research you need before setting up your campaigns. Separate your keywords into ad groups and write targeted ad text for those groups, you’ll find your campaign performs much better.

4. Sending traffic to the home page
I don’t come across this mistake as often as some of the others, but businesses still do it nonetheless. When setting up your ads, make sure the ads click through to the relevant page of your website, depending on what you’re advertising. It’s no good sending visitors to the home page of your website and expecting them to find the information for themselves, they’ll soon get bored, go elsewhere, resulting in a wasted click. Make sure you present your visitors with exactly what they’re looking for and if your website doesn’t lend itself to this very well, then create specific landing pages for your ads.

These are some of the most basic errors I find with Google Adwords, and it’s well worth ensuring your campaigns are set up correctly, particularly as Adwords is now very competitive and clicks are expensive. Don’t waste money by targeting the wrong keywords or sending visitors on a wild goose chase! There’s an excellent help centre in the Adwords interface, and you’ll find answers to most questions you may have there.