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vangogh
11-07-2008, 12:44 PM
WordTracker just released a new keyword tool called Keyword Questions (http://labs.wordtracker.com/keyword-questions), which looks like it will be rather useful.

You type in a word or phrase and the tool returns a list of questions people are asking search engines about your word or phrase.

For example typing 'small business' returns these top 5 results



1. how to start a small business (51)
2. how to get money to start a small business (19)
3. free books on how to start a small business (16)
4. how to start small business (11)
5. how to get a small business loan (10)


Numbers in parenthesis are the number of times the question was asked over the last 140 days, though as with all keyword tools, I wouldn't trust the numbers as absolutes, but rather relative to the number of other questions asked.

Each of the above could easily be a blog post simply by answering the question. Other searches should lead you to new business ideas and new ways to differentiate your products.

Those questions can usually be found with any keyword tool, but it's nice to have them separated since searches that are questions often have different motivations behind them than searches not phrased as a question.

Do you think you'd find this keyword tool useful for your market research? What ways can you see this tool helping your research.

KristineS
11-07-2008, 03:36 PM
That is a very cool tool. I can see how it would be helpful if you were designing instructional material or whitepapers or videos on a particular topic. You could enter keywords and see what people were asking and then answer those questions.

vangogh
11-07-2008, 07:50 PM
Exactly. The main thing about the questions is that when people phrase a search phrase as a question they have a different goal in mind than just searching a string of words. What they're looking for us usually more clear with the question search.

I's nice to have those types of phrases separated out and easier to mine. It makes for easy blog topic ideas and even more so they make a good idea for creating link bait.

I used small business as my search above to keep it generic, but also on topic here. If you experiment a little you can find more and better questions returned. Some are suggesting article and blog ideas, but others seem to suggest ideas for products or selling points for your existing products.

KristineS
11-10-2008, 12:55 PM
I did some searches related to our machine embroidery business. The results that came back gave me some terrific ideas for some instructional material and blog posts. I can see where this sort of tool could be very useful. I've bookmarked it so I can use it later when I'm working on video ideas.

Business Attorney
11-10-2008, 01:10 PM
My initial reaction is that the tool is somewhat useful but highly distorted, probably due to a very small sample size.

I tried a number of searches and almost all had some clearly unique searches at or very near the top, in quite large numbers. For example:

Keyword: CORPORATION


1 who founded apple computer corporation 64
2 who owns apple corporation 27
3 who founded the target corporation 23
4 what was the reconstruction finance corporation 23
5 when was the hilton hotels corporation founded 18

A less specific question "what is a corporation" came in sixth.

Keyword: ATTORNEY


1 who is the attorney general 124
2 lawyer who sues corporations attorney tulsa 28
3 who is the district attorney of orange county 27
4 who is the us attorney general 26
5 lawyer who sues corporations attorney oklahoma 24
6 lawyer who sues companies attorney tulsa 22
7 lawyer who sues companies attorney oklahoma 21
8 lawyer who sues corporations attorney oklahoma city 21
9 who is the united states attorney general 20
10 lawyer who sues companies attorney oklahoma city 19

Six of the top 10 searches related to Oklahoma and one was about Orange County.

Keyword: VACATION


1 how to plan a vacation 61
2 where can i book a vacation to hawaii 27
3 where are the best vacation spots in the usa 17
4 where is the cheapest place to go on vacation 17
5 how to plan a cheap vacation 17
6 where is the best beach vacation in florida 16
7 how i spent my summer vacation by mark teague 15
8 how to pack for vacation 12
9 where is the best place for a family vacation 11
10 how to plan a scuba vacation 10

This was a little better, but even these results are suspect. Even if people were looking to vacation in Hawaii, it seems likely that they would be searching for information on Hawaii itself, not asking "where can i book a vacation to hawaii". Also note question 7!

I tried other searches with similar results. It seems that a single person doing a large number of searches can skew the results. I would not put a lot of weight on the numbers, even as they relate just to the other questions asked.

On the other hand, looking at the list simply to understand what questions are being asked (without giving much weight to the relative numbers) can give you some insight.

KristineS
11-10-2008, 04:08 PM
David,

That's would be more what I would be doing. For me it's not so much how many people are asking the questions as what questions are being asked. This tool wouldn't be the only factor I would consider when making a decision about a video topic, but it does present another thing to think about when making that decision.

vangogh
11-11-2008, 09:41 AM
Yeah, I wouldn't trust the numbers as absolute predictions of how many people will search using those phrases, but I would trust that each of those phrases was searched for by someone. I know some might sound strange and it's hard to see how someone would use a specific phrase, but I have confidence that everyone of the phrases listed was typed by someone.

Sometimes with keywords it just depends on the words or phrase you type into the tool. The more often the phrase is searched in general, the more likely the results from the tool will seem more realistic. Even if you can't trust the numbers just seeing the questions can help generate some ideas.

Business Attorney
11-12-2008, 03:56 PM
I didn't mean to imply that the phrases came out of thin air. I am sure someone searched "lawyer who sues corporations attorney tulsa", but I would be very surprised if 28 people searched that phrase.

In the examples I gave, it seems likely that a single persistent searcher accounted for the high number of searches for many of the top questions. For that reason, I would look down the entire list for good questions and not focus on those that simply happen to be at the top.

vangogh
11-12-2008, 05:17 PM
Gotcha. That's why you shouldn't trust any of the numbers in absolute. For example 'lawyer who sues corporations attorney tulsa' could have been searched 28 times all by the same person who's hoping to rank for that phrase. It's not just how the info is collected that gives pause to trusting the numbers.

If a tool reports that a phrase was searched a certain number of times it probably was based on how they collect the info. That could mean they collect from a sample and extrapolate which would throw off the numbers or it could be they really did notice a phrase was searched a certain number of times.

The lower the number too, the less reliable the absolute number will be. I'd sooner trust something that was searched thousands of times as having been searched a lot (though I still won't trust the absolute number) than I would expect a phrase that was searched for once to be searched again the next month.

I agree too that if you're looking for questions as topic ideas it still makes sense to look over the whole list instead of just the first few entries, but it will depend on the numbers you see. You may not be able to trust them absolutely, but you can still trust them to some degree and depending on the phrase it may be worth it to focus on a few of the phrases instead of all.

There really aren't any exact rules here.

billbenson
11-21-2008, 04:38 AM
IMO the best tool is your stats.

derekanders
11-24-2008, 12:23 PM
Google has a great keyword suggest tool that I use. You can find it at - Google Adwords - Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)

Hope this helps

vangogh
11-24-2008, 01:40 PM
The Google AdWords tool is another good one that I always use. What I like about the new WordTracker tool is how id returns queries that had been phrased specifically as a question since that kind of query will often have a different motivation than the ones using a string of keywords.

The AdWords tool is definitely a good one, though.