AdWords Keyword Tool may be viable again for SEO. The debilitating short-tail-only problems seem to have been fixed. Long live SEO!
On October 7th 2010, we published a post in AIMCLEAR Blog entitled, “R.I.P. Google Keyword Tool. Long Live SEO!” Baris Gultekin, Group Product Manager, Google AdWords, Google, Inc. had just dropped a big stink bomb at #SMX East, confirming what many of us had already figured out. The omnipresent AdWords Keyword Tool had changed and only was returning keywords Google deemed “commercial.”
We understood the meaning. Modified Broad Match, AdWords newest match type, may have rendered the need for exhaustive long tail PPC research less important. The pervasive search suggest box was herding users like cats to dumbed down inventory.  Arguably PPC-only marketers didn’t need to see the long tail as specifically any more. At the time, the most respected PPC trainers in the world were quietly preaching a de-emphasis on intensive keyword focus. Still, a lot of professional search marketers, PPC and SEO alike, were pretty bummed out at the KW tool changes.
Google Listened
Wednesday, December 08, after weeks of complaining from accomplished users and bloggers, Google’s Inside AdWords blog, published, “The Keyword Tool – when you talk, we listen.” This’s official Google blog for news, information and tips on AdWords, offered, “We want to thank you for all the feedback you’ve given us on the Keyword Tool.” “The first thing you told us is that you want more keywords that are better targeted to your account and searches, and we’ve made improvements in this area.”
Upon a review of changes, made to Adwords Keyword Tool earlier this month, we’re happy to report that the most dumbass problems seem to have been fixed, making AdWord KW Tool a viable SEO go-to utility once again.
They’ve seemed to have removed the lame-sauce, making the tool serious once once, by adding depth back into the tool. Now marketers have access to a relatively deep slice of Google’s mid and long tail search inventory. Thanks for listening Google. Good decision.
Back in October, the newly modified KW tool only returned 12 semantic permutations worldwide of “Facebook,” logged in, at phrase, broad and exact match. You heard it right…the entire world.
October 7th, 2010
Now using the same settings, AdWords KW tool yields over 800 keywords in the United States alone, with plenty of search frequency to spare. Whew, that’s a relief.
December 21, 2010
There were a few other improvements announced in the December 08 Inside AdWords “we listen and care” post. Google added stars to keywords and a useful “View as text button.” These tweaks are nice but not nearly as significant as Google’s sensitivity to negative buzz, responding and dialing the mid and longer-tails back in.
It seems Google even has Feedback form for marketers wanting to contribute to the AdWords Keyword Research Tool.  I plan on using it. Thanks Google. It’s good listening to customers, given the incredible gobs of money we spend on AdWords. The benefit to SEO is an added bonus, and we’ll take it.  Thank you for listening Baris.
Of course AdWords KW tool is only one of many sources SEOs shold use to locate choice keywords. Stil it’s nice, once again, to have deeper insight into Google’s search inventory. Long live SEO.
photo credit: jaci XIII
