Stage 5. Get Search Volume for Keyword Lists

When to use this strategy: Anytime you are doing keyword research

This is the last thing you do after slicing and dicing data, turning over every rock and finding every keyword that is relevant to your purpose. This will give you the average monthly search volume for every term in your list. Once you have the average monthly search volume for your keywords, you will be ready for the final step in the keyword research process, creating keyword assignments for specific pages. We'll be doing that in the next lesson. But, for now, here is how you get the keyword search volume.

  • If your keyword list includes less than 100 keywords, then you may want to use the “Search for new keyword and ad group ideas”. However, if your keyword list includes over 100 keywords then use the “Get search volume for a list of keywords or group them into ad groups” option.
    • If you use the “Search for new keyword and ad group ideas” option, it will give you up to 800 keyword suggestions.
      • If using this option it is typically best to scroll through all of the keyword suggestions and only select the ones that are the best fit for your purpose.
    • If you use the ‘Get search volume for a list of keywords or group them into ad groups” option, the tool will only give you search volumes for up to 800 words at a time. While the tool says that you can cut and paste up to 1,000 keywords at a time, and upload a file with up to 3,000 keywords, the tool will only give you the search volume for up to 800 words at a time. So, break your keyword lists up into 800 word chunks, enter them into the tool, download the entire results report, export it as a .csv file and put all of the results, list-by-list back into a new tab in the Keyword Patterns Workbook.
      • If using this option it is typically best to just download the entire list of suggestions.
    • Download the keyword report from the “Keyword Ideas Tab” and export it as a .csv file for Excel.
    • Format the reports
      • Most of the time the only information you will need to keep from these reports are the Keyword column and the Avg. Monthly Searches column.
      • If you are looking at the value of each keyword from a conversion perspective, then the Estimated CPC can give you a good idea as to what other companies have shown they are willing to pay for traffic from each term. A higher estimated CPC may indicate a better conversion rate.
      • Cut and paste the chosen columns into the appropriate keyword report.


    You have now completed the gathering of all keyword research

    Now It’s Time To Choose Your Final Keywords!


    Next In the next lesson we will review the important considerations and selection process for creating a keyword assignment for a specific page.

    Are you ready? It’s time to start