Using Google Tools for Keyword Research

Google has numerous tools available for web authors to do research about topics. In this article I will highlight three, namely Google Keywords, Google Trends and Google Correlate. Many web authors still consider Google's keyword tool box as the starting point to identify search phrases in demand on the Internet but there are also other helpful tools available.

Here are the steps that I follow to establish how relevant a topic is before I start writing an article.

Google's Keyword Tool Box

When I do research about any topic I want to write about, I first start with the Google keyword tool box to identify how strong the competition is both locally and globally. If you have a Google account, you should preferably sign in, but you can also use this tool as a non account holder. Type in any phrase that you want to write about and click on search. Google Adwords will now show you related keywords to your search. Choose the low competition keywords as the high competition keywords will not be profitable as your article will be competing too much with other similar content. Once you have identified the most profitable keywords, you are ready to move on to the next step.

Google Trends

After I have chosen low competition keywords, I use Google Trends to establish how relevant they are and how searches are done globally. The Google Trends tools page is really valuable to establish how in demand your keywords are by checking real-time data which are updated daily. You can check your keywords for searches in any country and can explore the following trends:

• Interest in the keywords over time (you choose the dates as early as 2003).
• Actual web searches being done.
• Regional interest. Here you can click on the map on any region in the world to establish the particular interest in the topic per region, city and how it changed over time.
• Related terms and which ones are rising in interest (which you could claim early enough).

You can also skip the first step and only start with the Google Trends tool to find relevant keywords and searches or to to establish which topics are currently high in demand. I however, still find the keyword tool box useful for my own articles in terms of what the global competition is for a specific keyword.

Google Correlate

You can further refine your keyword search by also using Google Correlate. What is Google Correlate? Google Correlate is another interesting trend tool which identifies search patterns for real-world trends. You can choose to export this data to your computer for further analysis. You can, for example, identify the following:

• How popular a search is during a specific time of the year.
• Compare US states since some phrases might be more popular in some states and not in others.
• Compare weekly and monthly shift series.
• Search per some countries (I wish more countries were included).
• You can also choose to enter your own curve (search by drawing) to find query terms whose demand over time equals the shape you sketched.

Some of the correlations seem really bizarre, but it represents real-time data which you could use to your advantage.

Although other writers here might be more successful with the Exclusives option for authors with a high Hubscore, the one Exclusive topic which I claimed is actually the article in my portfolio here at Hubpages with the fewest views ever since I joined more than a year ago.

I therefore still prefer doing my own research to find topics in demand on the Internet and will continue to do so.