PPC FAQ – Action Packed PPC Keyword Research
Elizabeth Marsten Jun 11 2008
I answered a bunch of questions about PPC keywords and realized others may find these useful. I’ll post them here, on the Portent Interactive Blog, over the next several days. You can also ask your own question in the comments. Depending on how many questions I receive I’ll answer either all or the best ones in future blog posts.
How Do I Find Great PPC keywords?
Know what you are selling. Bid on your products and services and avoid buying keywords for products or services you do not carry.
Most search engines offer a free keyword tool to help you generate keywords. In some cases these will estimate search volume for new keywords.
You can generate additional keywords by
- current keyword list
- keywords you type in
- URL submission
- topic or category
Begin by using the Google AdWords: Keyword Tool to create a keyword universe then cut away PPC keywords with no search volume or queries that will not work for your company.
- Begin with an accurate, basic search query and sort the results by relevance.
- Take the most relevant results and run Google Search queries on them.
- Research the top web site results in the Google AdWords: Keyword Tool.
- Keep repeating the process with new search queries and new web sites until you only get repetitions.
- Throughout your research keep exporting the results as CSV files. Later you can merge these and sort the results to uncover the most popular, most relevant, most expensive, and bargain PPC keywords for your business.
Keep in mind that a shotgun approach will cost you dollars. You become less relevant in the eyes of the search engine algorithms, your web site will get penalized and you will pay a elevated cost per click prices.
Do not bid on every possible keyword. This creates a horrible user experience. If someone searching for “women’s sandals” arrives on your web site and discovers that you only sell sneakers they will leave angry likely never return.
Finally, you may wish to use a pay service to acquire alternative spellings, related keywords and predicted search volume.
Elizabeth Marsten
Vice President of Search Marketing
Elizabeth supervises the overall search division at Portent, which includes PPC, SEO, Social Media and Analytics. If you really want to know more about her check out her bit.ly bundle. Elizabeth has written several ebooks, is a ClickZ columnist, a Lynda.com course author, a Dummies book author and speaks on PPC across the USA at various conferences including the SMX shows, mozCon and Hero Con. Read More
