New Google Keyword Tool: Our Views

The upgraded keyword tool is making waves in and around the worldwide SEO community. The new ‘lower’ rankings for keywords that once commanded high positions on the keyword list are taking some getting used to. Although, if you scratch deeper under the surface of the new Google keyword tool then you will find gold – Google issued this statement regarding the AdWords keyword tool, “the previous version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com search traffic and traffic from search partners, while the updated version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com traffic only”. This sheds some light on the situation.

In turn, online business will no longer be able to base their overall growth on hyper-inflated keyword statistics. The keyword tool paints a more accurate picture in this case, with little room error if used correctly. Google is trying its best to advance their ranking data, but more information from Google needs to pass onto the keyword tool community before its power can truly be harnessed.

Yet what of long tail keywords – the previous version of the keyword tool was excellent for discovering extra long tail keywords that were associated with the primary keyword. The new keyword tool merely displays all associated keywords and suggested keywords in a mixed list. The older Google AdWords keyword tool was certainly easier on the eyes in this respect and much fiddling with tools such as Google Insights and Google Suggest will be needed in order to validate suggested long tails from this point on. The process is certainly made more frustrating for the inexperienced SEO user; hopefully Google will continue to develop the new keyword tool until it points us all in the right direction.