Keyword phrase research is the first step in conducting search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing campaigns. You need to be able to “speak the searcher’s language” to help them find what they're looking for – and what you're offering. But too often, search marketers make the mistake of looking at keyword phrase discovery as a one-time activity. Adding insult to injury, they use the wrong keyword tools: usually public keyword phrase generators that only return the most popular keywords and vague estimates of search volume. Not only are these likely the same keywords your competitors are targeting, but there's no guarantee that they'll be relevant to your business.

1. Keyword Phrase – Finding Your Business’s
Best Keyword Phrases
Keyword phrase research is the first step in conducting search engine optimization and pay-per-
click marketing campaigns. You need to be able to “speak the searcher’s language” to help them
find what they're looking for – and what you're offering.
But too often, search marketers make the mistake of looking at keyword phrase discovery as a
one-time activity. Adding insult to injury, they use the wrong keyword tools: usually public
keyword phrase generators that only return the most popular keywords and vague estimates of
search volume. Not only are these likely the same keywords your competitors are targeting, but
there's no guarantee that they'll be relevant to your business.
Proper keyword phrase research should be:
Personalized
Based on real data
Continuous and ongoing
Keep doing keyword research the old way and you'll be sabotaging your SEO and PPC efforts
from the outset. The good news is, there's a better way. The WordStream keyword management
solution can improve every aspect of your keyword research process. Read on to see how.
The Old Way of Finding Keyword Phrases
Typically, businesses use one or more of a handful of publicly available tools to perform their
keyword phrase research, all of which have shortcomings:
Keyword suggestion tools (such as Google's keyword tool)
These favor historical popularity over relevance. Just because a keyword has a high
search volume doesn’t mean it’s relevant to your business.
Search volume estimates are dubious at best.
Results are just a sampling of the vast array of real search terms that are typed into
Google every day. You'll miss out on hundreds of variations that could apply to your
search campaigns.
Competitive keyword tools
These tools are based on the questionable premise that because a keyword is relevant to a
competing vendor, it will be relevant to you – but every business is different.
If your competitors aren't doing a great job at keyword research, you'll just be copying
their mistakes.

2. Typical keyword phrase generator tools
Mashed-up keywords bear little resemblance to real keyword searches.
Furthermore, all of these tools are static and built for one-time use. Even if they did give you
useful data, that data would quickly grow out-of-date and eventually fall into virtual
obsolescence.
Our own Free Keyword Tool is a vast improvement over other available keyword phrase
generators. Because we aggregate over a billion unique keywords and constantly update our
database, our keyword suggestions are far more relevant and accurate. Our tool is also faster and
returns more keywords than even some paid tools, but it's always 100% free.
However, even with this much longer, more relevant keyword list, you still need a way to
incorporate private keyword data. How?
Finding Keyword Phrases the WordStream Way
The WordStream keyword phrase generator overcomes all these weaknesses. First of all, your
keyword data is completely personalized and unique. When you sign up for WordStream, you'll
be prompted to import a list of keyword phrases to get started. We recommend that you import
keywords and phrases from your Web server log files. What this means is that your data will be
100% accurate and relevant to you – these are words and phrases that have already brought
searchers to your website. Even better, this keyword data is completely private, so your
competitors won't have access to it.
Secondly, the numbers in your WordStream account are actual traffic numbers. No more
guessing at how many people are searching on a given query and wondering what (if anything)
those numbers mean to you. You'll be able to see at a glance how many visitors are arriving at
your site from your top keyword phrases. You can also view keywords by number of
conversions, according to goals you set yourself.

3. A third benefit of using WordStream to find keyword phrases is the tool's dynamic nature. By
adding the WordStream Tracker JavaScript to your website footer, which takes only seconds,
you enable WordStream to continuously collect new keyword phrases that are driving traffic to
your pages on a daily basis. No longer will your keyword research be static and stagnant. Your
private, proprietary keyword phrase database will be growing and updating all the time, and
you’ll be able to use that fresh data to keep your PPC campaigns, ad groups, landing pages and
so on as relevant as possible.
Use WordStream to Identify Longer, Niche Keyword
Phrases
Yet another way WordStream's keyword tools beat out the competition is by allowing you to
capitalize on the long tail of search.
Studies show that search engine users are getting more advanced and using longer, more detailed
keyword phrases. This is great for search marketers, since long keyword phrases show more
intent and often indicate that the user is late in the buying cycle.

4. But your typical free keyword tool isn't going to show you all those hundreds of long-tail, niche
keyword phrases. You'll mostly get a short list of very high-volume, one- or two-word keywords
that are totally obvious, with tons of keyword competition in the SERPs. By looking at the long
tail, you'll have a much better chance of ranking high in search results, and your AdWords ads
and landing pages will be more specific and relevant to the search queries. Increased relevance is
good for organic SEO, improves your Quality Score, kickstarts conversions, lowers your ad
spend and adds more value to your entire account.
Why Wait? Try WordStream as Your Keyword Phrase
Generator Today!
Sign up for a free trial of WordStream and realize the value of private, personalized, relevant
keyword phrase data that grows continuously and never goes out of date.
Try WordStream Free Today
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