There is bad news and good news.
The bad news is that Google Keyword Tool is phasing out coming July 2013. For all who have enjoying fragmenting data using this awesome free tool, it is important to note as it will gradually disappear.
The good news is that the Keyword Tool is replaced by Keyword Planner under the Adwords system. The Keyword Planner amalgamates data from both Keyword Tool and Traffic estimator, which both will be retired in around a month’s time.
For those who have been using the Keyword Tool frequently, you will now need to log into your Adwords Account to use the Keyword Planner. The steps are as follow:
Adwords >> Tools and Analysis >> Keyword Planner
Inside Keyword Planner, you should be able to see this:
If you are a user using keyword tool to find the search volume of keywords, you would be likely to spend most of the time in the Search for Keyword and Ad group ideas.
The Keyword Planner functions mainly as an Adwords machine to churn out keywords and ad group ideas with its respective bid price.
To churn out the keyword ideas, just type in and paste your list of keywords under “Your Product or Service” and click “Get Ideas”, it will produce a list of ad group and keyword ideas which is similar to the Keyword Tool. Do note that the results produce are in Exact Match. In the case of Keyword Planner, it actually no longer provides the results for Broad and Phrase Match.
One positive attribute of Keyword Planner is its ability to add the keywords directly into the Adwords system. It is also able to filter out duplicate keywords of the same match types should the selected keyword already exist in the Adwords campaign.
The Keyword Planner also provides other research tabs that include Your Landing Page and Your Product Category. You can insert your website or competitor’s site URL into Your Landing Page search tab to find highly relevant ad group or keyword ideas. Similarly, the Product Category allows you to search from a vast selection of categories that Google Keyword Planner identifies.9
Do remember to set your targeting to your preferred location (e.g. Country, language etc) to procure the most accurate estimates. Keyword planner allow you to filter your results base on average monthly searches and average CPC which can be useful if you have a target number of search volume that you desire and perhaps a maximum cap of Cost Per Click that you would limit it to.
Last but not least, remember to keep practising the Keyword Planner before the Keyword Tool retires on late July! This way, you would be more well equipped and not be caught unprepared when Keyword Tool bid its final goodbye to its loyal fans.