Hot for Local! NEW Google Keyword Planner - KW Research by City

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kristen,
I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. I definitely think there is something wrong with the tool at this point. I've tried performing a bunch of searches for major cities and all Google will show me is '10' as the number of searches for any of them. There are no geo terms in the results, either. It just isn't rendering data like the screenshots I've seen here and elsewhere. Too bad. I wanted to use this tool for a client project today, but I guess I'm going to head on back to the old Adwords Keyword Tool.

If anyone hears of a known bug with this, I would surely appreciate an update...also if the tool gets fixed and you are able to see the type of results in Linda's screenshots. Thanks!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Miriam, I remember having to play around a bit to get what I wanted out of it. But I don't remember exactly how I got there. Am off today with family in from out of state and the Grandkids want to play so can't log in right now. I'll try to tomorrow if I get a chance.

 

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Linda,
I really appreciate that - and I'm so glad you're having time with those cute little grandchildren! Have a ball!

 

[sergiuliano]

Hi @Kristen @Miriam

In my opinion the tool is pretty accurate with the searches. All those numbers are averages, not exact. In order to get insights for the exact keywords, you have to click first on keywords ideas.

Explicit Keywords including GeoLocation ( ex: accounting Connecticut ) have 10 results only because they have up to 10 searches per month only from that location. You can double check this with Google Trends.

Here are 2 print screens one from the Keyword Planner Tool and the other one from Google Trends

Planner




Trends



Both screenshots state the same:

Avg Monthly Search No for Implicit Keywords is several times bigger than the Avg Monthly Search No for Explicit Keywords - from the same GeoLocation

ex:

pizza delivery > pizza delivery Connecticut ( on searches done from Connecticut )

private detective > private detective Connecticut ( on searches done from Connecticut )

and so on...

The thing is that most of the websites with a local presence on the internet are optimized for keywords including location name, most of the time via basic SEO strategies using those keywords as anchor-terms on backlinks, which is wrong, because they are missing over 80% of the local number of users searching for their services, which can be reached by optimizing the website for the implicit keywords with a customized Local SEO strategy, where backlinks have a very small impact on rankings and where citations+review+SM+OnSite are doing the job

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well except I don't think many search for KW + State because you'd get results too far away.
Most will search KW city.

But in your case Miriam, there just are not many accountants in that small town so I don't think any tool is really going go help drill down that far. But what you'd want to do is just the nearest large metro in that area just to determine things like do more search for account, bookkeeper, accounting service or whatever...

 

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Linda and Sergiuliano,
I so appreciate both of you taking the time to reply. The thing is, guys, even when I tried running searches for places like Denver, San Diego or LA (big cities, right), my results were totally devoid of those geo terms - unlike Linda's OP which shows those terms in the results. So in addition to the numbers seeming really low to me for the big cities, the results were not including city terms.

Linda, remember how you used the tool to compare kw+city vs. city+kw? There was no way I could do that with my searches because no city terms were included. Thus, my thinking that I was either doing something wrongly or the tool was not working as expected. Haven't tested again today, but this is what I saw trying to use the tool over a two day period last week.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry Miriam, I never got a chance, with fam in town to log back in and tell you how to get there. One sec. Will try to do it now.

 

[Linda Buquet]

OK Miriam, same thing happened to me the 1st run I just tried.

So to add to your steps above.

1st want to be sure you selected "Keyword ideas" tab not "ad group ideas" once you are in the planner???

Next when the KW list 1st came up it showed me generic KWs. Change the sort order by clicking "Avg Monthly Searches" at that top of that column - once I did that it started showing the most popular KWs, many with GEO. (At least in bigger cities, didn't have time to check the city your client is in but that should set you on the right path.)

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Miriam,

I checked a couple clients of mine who have Adwords accounts and so far the tool seems to be super accurate.

Using the example that the last guy posted, There would be 210 people physically located in CT that were searching for "attorney". If you wanted to know how many people in the United States typed in "attorney Connecticut" you would want to change your location to the USA so it shows an accurate number.

If you're seeing a massive difference between the keyword tool and this one it's probably b/c the keyword tool defaults to broad match and this one uses exact match. Also, the keyword tool includes searches from the Search Partners by default, this one does not.

---------- Post Merged at 03:22 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 03:22 PM ----------

P.S. if you want to give me a specific keyword I can give some visuals.

 

[MiriamEllis]

Presto! Voila! Ta-da!

Linda, that was the secret missing step, mentioned by no tutorial I've seen. Finally, I was able to replicate your original screenshot by clicking on the avg. monthly search tab. I see exactly what was in your San Diego Personal Injury Attorney screenshot.

Unfortunately, no, for a small city like the one my client is in, the same cannot be said. The only geographic term showing up is for the state, not the city.

So, my conclusion is that this tool will be helpful for Local SEOs with clients in major cities, but not smaller ones. And I would say that the search volume still seems incredibly low. Only 10 searches a month in a city of 30,000 residents for an accountant? That doesn't sit right with me. What do you all think? Does that number seem low?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Ya I never read instructions. When I 1st got there and saw results unlike what I expected, changing the sort order was just the 1st thing I thought of. But I didn't realize that was the problem. So I got lucky 1st try.

 

[jerry]

Just read this in search engine land

Google is working toward the complete phase out of the Adwords Keyword Tool and phasing in the new AdWords Keyword Planner

 

[Weve Got Your Customers]

Just read this in search engine land

How will tools like Places Scout, Market Samurai, etc be affected by the switch from Old Faithful (AdWords KW Tool) to the New Kid on the Block (AdWords KW Planner)?

 

[Weve Got Your Customers]

Good Article explaining G KW Planner - How to Use The Keyword Planner -- The New Keyword Tool From Google AdWords

 

[Larry]

I would like to learn how to use the new Keyword Planner but it doesn`t seem to work for me. I tried following the screenshots to make sure I was i n the proper section and I remove Canada and enter my local town of Whitby, ON under Targeting. I then enter chiropractor under product or service, and the results under Keyword Ideas, none of them contain the phrase Whitby. And the seaches all seem very low less than 10. I am I doing something wrong here.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Larry,

Not sure how big Whitby, ON is. But Miriam on previous page had a similar problem and my advice in post #28 did the trick.

"Change the sort order by clicking "Avg Monthly Searches" at that top of that column - once I did that it started showing the most popular KWs, many with GEO. (At least in bigger cities, didn't have time to check the city your client is in but that should set you on the right path.)"

There are other good tips on the previous page too. Did you read those? Plus the link in the post above yours has more detail about how to use it.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Oh and meant to post earlier, the MOZ blog just did a post about local KW research too.

Using The New Adwords Keyword Planner For Local SEO Keyword Research - Moz

 

[Larry]

Thanks for your reply Linda, your suggestion of changing the sort or of the "Avg Monthly Searches" helps me. I guess by default it displays the results with the least amount of searches first.

Like Miriam it did not help me with the geographical http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/members/miriamellis.htmlterm of "Whitby" in my searches. Whitby is a town with a population of 122,000 according to the 2011 census. The Keyword Planner shows that 50 people in Whitby search for the term "chiropractor" each month. Does this mean that most searchers did not include a geographical locator in their searches?

 

[Linda Buquet]

I would go to the biggest nearby metro and search to be sure for this market and KW.

But the majority of searches in the research I've done are just KW without city. But again it varies to some degree based on on KW and city.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Just thought I'd share this for those that were wondering why there was a difference between the numbers of the old Keyword Tool vs. the New Keyword Planner:

"In general, you'll notice that the average search volume data is higher in Keyword Planner as compared to the exact match search volume data you got with Keyword Tool. That's because we'll show you the average number of searches for a keyword idea on all devices (desktop and laptop computers, tablets, and mobile phones)"

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/3141229