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Google AdWords Keyword Tool Update: Adds New Features & Changes UI

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

If you have used the Google AdWords Keyword Tool lately, chances are you stumbled upon a few newly added features. If you haven’t, then you should check them out.

The biggest change you will notice is when you do a search for a keyword or phrase, next to your results will be a small down pointing triangle, signifying that if you click it, there is more to see.

The arrow reveals 4 new keyword tool options:

  • Google Search
  • Google Insights for Search
  • Exclude Term
  • Show More Like This
  • New Keyword Level Drop Down Menu in AdWords Keyword Tool

    Google AdWords Keyword Tool: New Keyword Level Feature

    Here is a larger screen capture of what it looks like on a full page:

    New Drop Down Menu Under Keywords in the Google AdWords Keyword Tool

    New Drop Down Menu Under Keywords in the Google AdWords Keyword Tool

    Google Search

    Google AdWords Keyword Tool Option: Google Search

    AdWords Keyword Option: Google Search

    The first option under your keyword is “Google Search.” Selecting this option will, as you could probably guess, cause your browser to open a new tab and perform a Google search for the keyword term you chose. For me this is very handy especially working in any kind of niche field where you may not know what results a particular search will pull up. It is also useful to quickly see if you are already in the top 3 paid search results, or top 10 organic results for that search term. I wonder if a keyword I am bidding on shows up after clicking on this will count as an “impression” or not in AdWords. We’ll see.

    Google Search Engine Result Page with My Keyword

    Google Search Engine Result Page with My Keyword

    Google Insights for Search

    Google Insights for Search Option from the AdWords Keyword Tool

    AdWords Keyword Option: Google Insights for Search

    The next option is “Google Insights for Search.” This option will open a new tab on your browser with the Insights data for the keyword term or phrase.

    Google Insights is a great option to have because you can easily see if the term in question has any kind of seasonal results. It will also give you a quick view of the top searches that are closely (most of the time) related to your search, as well as a list of searches that are rising in popularity.

    Google Insights for Search Result Page with My Keyword

    Google Insights for Search Result Page with My Keyword

    Exclude Term

    Exclude Term Option from the AdWords Keyword Tool

    AdWords Keyword Option: Exclude Term

    Option number 3 in the new drop-down is “Exclude term.” For those not familiar with this feature, let me brief you. If you are doing keyword research, and you are seeing words that just don’t apply to your search, you can add them to the “Exclude terms” list on the left side of the page. That’s what this option does for you, without making you type it in by hand. While this won’t do anything to eliminate large sets of keywords in that list, it will keep that excluded term in there for future keyword research you do, as long as you don’t refresh the page.

    Exclude Term Option from the AdWords Keyword Tool

    Google AdWords Keyword Tool Option: Exclude term

    Show More Like This

    Google AdWords Keyword Tool Option: Show More Like This

    AdWords Keyword Option: Show More Like This

    The final option in the drop-down menu is “Show more like this.” This option replaces your current search term, or terms, with the keyword you just selected. So if you were doing a search on more than one word or phrase, and you select this option, your phrases will be replaced with just the one you selected. Very useful for if you find a keyword that you didn’t think of before, and you want to see if there are others like it that you also did not think of.

    Google Keyword Tool Show More Like This with My Keyword

    Google Keyword Tool Show More Like This with My Keyword

    Changes to Google Keyword Tool Pagination & Page Size UI

    Google also changed the Page Size (amount of keywords shown on a page) and Pagination user interface for the Next / Previous page functions. They removed the paginated navigation from the bottom of the pages and placed it at the top. The “Go to Page (##)” feature has also disappeared.

    Here is a screen capture from the original version with the “Go to Page” option:

    AdWords Keyword Tool's Previous Location of the Page Size Buttons

    Here's what the buttons looked like before the change. They were at the bottom of the results.

    Here is the new version where you can clearly see a much cleaner UI without the “Go to Page” option:

    Page Size option in a new location.

    Selecting Page Size (number of items to view) without scrolling to the bottom

    Additional Google Keyword Tool Button: View as Text

    Another new option is next to the “Estimate search traffic” button. It’s named “View as text.” This option is grayed out and not clickable until you select 1 or more keywords, but either checking them or clicking the star. Once you’ve selected a keyword, you can now click the “View as text” button. Clicking it will reveal 2 options: Starred, and Selected, with the number corresponding to the number of keywords you selected.

    AdWords Keyword Tool View As Text button

    'View as text' drop down menu

    Clicking on one of the options will bring up a light box with a plain text list of the keywords you selected, in case you want to copy them to your clipboard and edit them in your notepad or something.

    Copy Plain Text Keywords to Clipboard

    Lightbox with the plain text list of keyword you selected.

    Additional Google Keyword Tool Button: More Like These

    The next button over is the “More like these” button. This works in much the same was as the new “Show more like this” option under each keyword, except with this button you can check multiple keywords, and it’ll replace your list of words or phrases with the newly checked ones.

    AdWords More Like These Button

    Using the 'More like these' drop down on the selected keywords

    Now you can see below what the new search looks like after I clicked on “More like these”:

    AdWords More Like These New Option

    Here is the new search after selecting the'More like these' option

    Is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool More Accurate?

    Although we do not have any screen captures of recent keyword results to compare the new version to, it appears as though the results might be more accurate in returning keywords related to your original query’s theme. Nothing scientific in this discovery, just considering several recent searches to what we are seeing now.

    Go take a look and play around with the new features. I find them very helpful, I hope you do as well!

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    Reader Comments

    • SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 28, 2012 | Keyword Tool External | February 28, 2012

      […] Google AdWords Keyword Tool Update: Adds New Features Changes UI, webranking.com […]

    • Pedro Pereira | March 01, 2012

      Awesome Adwords article 🙂

      Tks for the sharing 🙂

    • Chris | March 04, 2012

      Google should know that a better keyword tool means more keywords added in adwords. I hope they do their best to get the keyword tool better an better. These new features are a good start!

      Thanks for your article!

    • Alex | July 16, 2012

      Hi Paul,

      it seems, that google eliminate the “more like these” button on it´s keywordtool interface.
      Can you give me a hint where I can find it?
      It is not on the place like above described from you.

      Thanks
      Alex

    • Paul.K | July 16, 2012

      Alex,

      Good catch, it looks like since the design change came out that option was removed, I am not seeing it anymore either. I’ll keep poking around and if I find it, I’ll let you know.

    • Alex | July 16, 2012

      Hi Paul,

      thx for the fast answer. It would be super, if you can find the “more like these” button.
      In the moment, drilling down from keywords it´s not possible 🙁

      Yes, let me know it 🙂 (thanks in advance)

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