Wordstream Keyword Tool Helps PPC Management Processes

I recently got a demo from a product called WordStream, a search marketing tool that can be used for a range of keyword and PPC management processes, and I was really impressed by its capabilities. I just want to share a few thoughts here to invite people to check it out. Where the tool sounds really helpful is in keyword grouping and organization, which is a crucial elements of PPC account categorization. Larry Kim, founder of Wordstream, claims this is the most overlooked process in both paid and organic search.

Like most search marketers I know, I use Excel for organizing my keywords. WordStream is meant to replace Excel, but it’s not a spreadsheet. It’s a dynamic, Web-based database that lets you not just group related keywords but also set rules so the software can automatically sort new keywords into the right groups as you expand your research.

Here’s how it works. First you upload your keywords into a private database.  The product offers a few options on how to do this:

* Use the keyword suggestion tool
* Paste keywords into a text block or upload a file
* Use the “advanced” options which pull keywords from your log files and Web analytics.

Next you segment your keywords down from one big list into high-level groups and then smaller subgroups to get a branching tree structure (what Larry calls “a keyword taxonomy"). Yes, you can do this in Excel but the cool thing about WordStream is that it has tools that suggest groupings based on keyword frequency/traffic volume. In the screenshot below, you can see that you can create multiple groups at once. When you create a “bird food” group for example, the software instantly groups together all the keywords that contain both “bird” and “food” including plurals, misspellings, etc. I can see this being a huge timesaver.

WordStream also includes a JavaScript tracker (like the Google Analytics tracker code) that adds new keywords to your database as visitors find your site. (It also tracks conversions.) The idea is to continuously expand your keyword research while refining your organization by creating more specific groups and subgroups.

The point of creating these tightly related groups is two-fold:

* To turn keyword groups into ad groups for PPC:  Larry’s theory is that starting out with a highly organized keyword structure makes your ad groups more likely to get high Quality Scores, because you can better target more closely-related keywords with more relevant ads and landing pages.
* To create SEO-focused content pages: Using WordStream you can easily break down the lists of keywords you want to rank for into specific groupings, and target those terms by authoring one themed content page for each group.

And WordStream provides integrated tools for doing this work: just select a group and do something with it, like publishing an ad group or creating Web content.

There are a few other features of note including a negative keyword tool for scrubbing your keyword lists and workflow tools to help diagnose possible problem areas and suggest optimization approaches. I think the main selling point for search marketers will be the ease of creating keyword groups from very large keyword lists, as well as the continuous expansion capabilities.

Anyway, here are a few links to learn more about WordStream!

* Free Trial
* Request a Demo
* Online Video Tutorial

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