Keyword research can be tough so you need all the help you can find. Google Webmaster Tools is a handy adjunct to any web site owners tool kit, particularly if you use to further enhance your site. One function of Webmaster Tools that many people don’t understand is the ‘Top Search Queries’ that can be found under the Statistics tab. This function can be a real bonus to your keyword research if you can understand the data.

The results are listed in two separate columns. The first column shows the top twenty keywords that are found in search results. The second column shows the top twenty keywords used to generate traffic.

There are a couple of interesting points to note. You may find that a keyword appears quite high in the search results column yet gains little in the way of clicks (the second column). There could be a number of reasons for this but my first thoughts would be – is your page title catchy and is your meta description catchy. Obviously the page is appearing in the search results so why aren’t people clicking? Answer – the information that appears with the search results are no appealing enough to catch a click.

When it comes to keyword research, you will see from the list keywords that you may not have thought about promoting. By taking those keywords and building further content around them you may increase their position in the search results pages and at the same time gain more traffic.

If you learn how to read the information provided in this tool, particularly the relationship between the keyword “impressions” and the keyword “traffic”, you will often find their numerous opportunities for increasing your search positions and the amount of traffic you are receiving. Google’s Webmaster Tools really are just that, a set of tools that can be a real aid to SEO – keyword research in particular.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 3:07 am and is filed under Keyword Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.