(Part III in a series on keyword best practices in Google Adwords)

In the last couple of “Keywords 101″ posts (part I and part 2), I have talked about the different match types available in Google Adwords and how they work. It is important to have an idea of how you will approach search queries before you start targeting them. A good understanding of how Google matches search queries to search results is a solid foundation. Now we will look into how to do keyword research, starting with the top 5 tips I have learned from running paid search campaigns and performing keyword research for on-site optimizing and page focus.

Keyword Research Tip #1 – Use a Spreadsheet

You may think that spreadsheets are good only for crunching numbers, but you would be wrong. They are outstanding for managing keyword lists.

Most of the tools you will be using to get keyword ideas from will output to either a Comma Separated Value (CSV) format or a Microsoft Excel format (XLS or XLSX). It will be easy to work with this information in either format. The keyword tools creators do it that way for a reason: There is no better way to sort and filter large amounts of data you’ll be working with.

On this sample spreadsheet I demonstrate how I begin to break up keywords. In this example, I target “TV lawyers,” and I already have broken the big list into smaller categories, but it is still fairly early in the process. As you can see, themes are beginning to emerge. Some are specific (“Perry Mason”) and some are broad (“TV lawyers”). This list is by no means complete—I would further refine it by looking at some of the phrases and re-categorizing them. For example, phrases such as:

• television lawyer names

• famous television lawyers

• famous tv attorneys

• old lawyer tv shows

would be good to use if you were targeting people who were doing research about the most popular TV lawyers of all time—maybe put them in a “research” category. You may have some keywords that fit in to several different categories, and that is fine. The idea here is to look at the variations, break them into concepts and then build out from that.

Keyword Research Tip #2 – Use Google Webmaster Tools

You should be using Webmaster Tools to evaluate and monitor your website, but if you are not doing so, please start! The system is easy to set up, and it is free.

There is a lot of information in there, and you may find yourself overwhelmed. However, I recommend you start with the Search Queries Report, which you can download:

This report will give you the query phrases for which your site was shown. This report is an aggregate, so it will not break down the data to an individual user/keyword level. The information is still useful. Download it and save it in a spreadsheet.

Keyword Research Tip #3 – Use The Adwords Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner, another free tool, requires only that you have a Google account to access it. I could write an entire article on all the different ways you can use the Keyword planner (upcoming article hint—keep an eye on the blog), because you can do quite a lot with it. For now, start with typing in a phrase like “car accident injuries” or “accident compensation” and let it generate ideas for you. You also can combine some words using the “Multiply keyword lists to get new keyword ideas” option.

Once you have a good list created, download it and add it to your spreadsheet.

Keyword Research Tip #4 – Use Auto Complete

This is an easy tip, and you do not even need an account or any special tools to do it. Just go to Google, start typing a keyword and see what suggestions the search engine makes to complete your partial query. These auto-complete options are generated by an algorithm that is based on various factors, including how often users in the past have searched for a term, so you can get a whole list of related ideas this way. This keyword research tip works for Bing and Yahoo, too. Copy and paste any you like into your spreadsheet.

Keyword Research Tip #5 – Look for Themes

By now, your spreadsheet should be filled with a big list of keyword ideas. Use the filtering options available and start to separate the words based on common phrases—for example, you might start with “personal injury + location” or “injury compensation.” People search for the same idea using many different words and combinations of words, so your goal here is to find the common ground between them. It may help to assign them to categories, such as “informational” or “actionable.” The point here is that you are going to start to see ideas and concepts emerge from this list of words—some broad, and some much more specific. Address these concepts, rather than blindly plugging in a bunch of keywords, and you will find yourself on much more solid ground.

A lot of information and tools exist for finding and managing keywords. In a future post I will discuss keyword research tools and software, including soovle, SpyFu, Keyword Tool and TermExplorer. It is easy to become overwhelmed. I hope these keyword research tips have provided some insights into how I work with keywords and have given you some ideas and guidance that you can use to find better ways to connect with the people who are looking for your services.