Paving in for the next generation keyword tool, the popular search-based keyword tool by Google, also known as the SKTool, will soon be discontinued, making way for the updated keyword tool (launched in beta since April of this year). If you use Google’s keyword tool as much as I do, then you might have recently noticed the following alert as shown below:

google_keyword_tool_old

What’s New In Google’s Revamped Keyword Tool?

From what I can immediately see, the updated Keyword Tool allows you to search by words or phrases, websites, and even categories (where available), getting results of both the Keyword Tool and the Search-based Keyword Tool in one central location.

google_keyword_tool_new

The category section of the revamped tool is particular interesting to identify keywords that might be of interest if you decide among other things to filter your AdSense categories. The information that the new keyword tool provides is also more complete than that of the previous tool. As an example, I have tried to “search” for the keyword “SEO” to compare results (without signing in your AdWords accounts).

Before:

keyword_tool_results_seo_old

After:

keyword_tool_results_seo_new

As you can see from the results above, the difference is clear from the old to the new keyword tool. In the new keyword tool, the results appear to be more relevant to your search and, aside from the categories that are more orderly, you can see related results under the “contains” box. Further down, you can immediately choose to search for “match types” which can be broad, exact or a phrase. It is no longer needed to do this manually.

Hint: Try using the keyword tool using your websites URL. It should return the “main” keywords of your website. Once you have the results, select to include on your results the “average CPC” and analyze those data. That should give you an idea of what type of AdSense ads you will get displayed on your website and “how much does Google pay you” if someone clicks on them (more on this later – just a heads up!).

The other new cool feature is the traffic estimator. Using the traffic estimator with the same example as above, you get results such as estimated CPC, position, daily clicks, competition and more. From here, you can have an idea of how your chosen keyword may perform. Although this is tailored more from an advertisers point of view, it is equally an important data that you can use, specially if you are monetizing your website.

There you have it. This is just a glimpse of the Google keyword tool and some ways where it can be useful for you. As you know, there are many ways that this tool can be useful for you. One of them is finding and selling domain names for a profit.

So, have you heard about the new Google keyword tool already? Have you tried it. What do think about it and what do you use it for? Your comments will help me elaborate further on my future posts that I will be sharing on how to use it to your benefit.

In the mean time, here is something you might want to consider using. I have it and it works like a charm. Keyword winner does help a lot.

DiTesco

DiTesco is a Business and Inbound Marketing Consultant, and founder of iBlogzone.com. iBlogzone's main objective is to help startups and small business owners achieve success in their online ventures. | More About Me and my Digital Marketing Services in SP Brazil.

27 thoughts on “Google Search Based Keyword Tool To Be Discontinued

  • I was a little peeved when they first took away the previous interface – and for a while there the results were all messed up. I’m getting used to the new one though and it does have some features that I like. However, the previous interface had better recommendations…

    • Hi Curtis. Welcome to my blog. Interesting that you mentioning that the previous interface has better recommendations. Maybe it is because that the results where more broad and combined all of Google’s search partners. The new tool eliminates “search partners” and is more concentrated on Google database only. I have gone used to it now and feel that I get more relevant results than the previous one. But hey, what would be of the color “blue” if everybody only preferred “white”, right 🙂 Thanks for taking your time to comment. Appreciate it.

  • This is important and people need to adapt and change on how they search for keywords to target with the Instant Search changing the SEO game a little.

    • Hi Justin. So good to see you here. You have a point about using this tool more effectively, particularly now that SEO might have changed a bit due to Google’s Instant feature. Thanks for stopping by.

  • I think it’s a bad decision on their part. I’ve used old keyword tool with great success. New one gives weird results, shows keyword suggestions for WHOLE site, instead of particular page, doesn’t show many of long tail keywords.

  • I been using the new tool for over a month.. and I like the way it works.

    I like that I can still use it as is, or benefit from all the extra information they offer.

    If you look closely.. keyword volumes for 2-3 word keys has has a huge jump since instant release.lol Hope things relaxxes soon.

  • You always seem to be a step ahead of me DiTesco. =)

    Thanks for sharing your “hint”…very interesting indeed. Although I’ve used PPC via Adwords in the past, I haven’t used this tool yet to evaluate CPC. Great to know since I’m contemplating using it in the near future for a new site I’m working on. I expect this will come in very handy.

    Thanks for sharing your this. You have a great talent for analyzing these things!

    • Hi Michele. Being a step ahead of you is definitely a compliment for me 🙂 As for the hint, sharp eye, yeah.. use it to do just what you have said. You will see some amazing things happening, specially if you run Adsense. Thanks for stopping by.

  • Hi DiTesco,

    Great post. You’ve covered Google new keyword search tool interface very well. Have you ever used Google’s AdPlanner before? To me left sidebar sort has an uncanny resemblance to the old Google Adplanner interface. Its highly intuitive and fairly simple. I really like it.

    Don’t know about anyone else but lately I’ve been finding myself using the AdWords keyword tool more than any other keyword tool-love it or hate it Google still has it goin on! 🙂

    • Hi Benin. Thanks for stopping by. Like you I am also using Google’s keyword tool a lot, mainly for “looking” for profitable keywords and also to set up domains where I occasionally flip.

      Yes, I have used Ad Planner before. As a matter of fact I have a post about it. Might be slightly outdated, but 90% of the goods are there. You can check it our here if you want to: Increase Your Earning Potential With Ad Planner

  • You’ve covered it all. This newbie is now better informed and I love it when you techies do posts like this that make it easier for me to understand.

    It’s times like this I am glad I am in a small niche and not got the competition of a lot of bloggers. Means I have to work harder to get more traffic though.

    Thanks for such an informative post. Will need to bookmark as reference.

    Patricia Perth Australia

    • Hi Patricia. Good to see you here and you are welcome. I’m glad you found this article informative and hopefully I can see more for you here in the future.

  • Well i am not okey to heard that keyword tool of Google, which is known as the SKTool, will soon be discontinued, making way for the updated keyword tool (launched in beta since April of this year). If you use Google’s keyword tool frequently than you might find some alerts in this tools.

  • I like the new interface a lot! So for me, it’s a welcome change. And yes, just yesterday I noticed the section “Contains” with the checkmarks.

    Great tool. I rely on keyword tools a lot as well.

    Cheers,
    Tia

    • Hi Tia. Good to see you here. Glad you found the new interface better than the previous one. And I agree with you, it is a welcome change. Cheers

  • Good to know! I don’t follow keyword tracking much, but I know at least one really good SEO person (Joost de Valk) who mostly uses the Google tools. That’s good to know, considering how many other tools we get pitched in this field.

    • Hi Dave. How are you? Good to see you here. I use this tool a lot, as I have many websites to manage, and being free and all I am of the opinion that this is one of the best keyword tool out there. Thanks for stopping by.

  • I have used the google keyword tool but i have stopped using it. But the news that you are telling about the new one that is enhanced version of the older tool. I am really looking forward to it and i will tell my friends to try it.

  • Nicely written article my friend,…I have found this tool and others as well useful in keyword research. Tools such as these are a necessity!
    -John

  • I love this AdWords tool a lot. This is one of the best research tool whether you are looking to optimize for your site or using for AdWords campaign. It has updated with so many features now.
    Great article and research by you.

  • Hi DiTesco,

    Although it’s an improvement and it works better then before, the Keyword Ads tool is overrated, let me explain – to find number of searches per month is not always good because searches vary too much each day or each month can be high and the next day or month can be low, but regardless even if you target high searches it is too competitive.

    Keyword Winner tool is a good example of what I would like to explain – it is designed to help you target low competition pages and compare using Google Insights which tells you the overall percentage of searches on the current month and add this up with Google Trends to see how popular the keyword searches are over a period of time.

    I have made lots of money by targeting low competition keywords just when products launched before they were highly searched, absolutely dominate and maintain position, much easier then trying to get top position much later.

    You can use something like cbtrends.com as an example, you can target Clickbank products that have just launched and have no searches and watch their gravity increase, so you know it will be a big hit and later highly searched because it is being promoted in other forms such as email, social networking and other things, then later it starts coming out on the search engines.

    So always remember – 1. Google Insights 2. Google Competition and 3. Google Trends and finally to get in on the action before it get’s hot!

  • Google Search Based Keyword Tool To Be Discontinued http://su.pr/1HT0cu RT @ditesco (…it sucked badly anyway.)

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