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5 Google Tools For Researching Your Market
By Pete Moore (c) 2009

Internet marketers and webmasters have always had a love/
hate relationship with Google. Whatever you think of them
they do provide website owners with some great market
research tools.

No matter what market you are in or plan to be in, you will
find these free tools provided by Google very useful when
researching your market. You should be researching your
market constantly, NOT just when setting up your site. The
internet is ever changing and, if you're not keeping up with
those changes, you will be left behind.

Market Research Tool 1 - Related Searches And Wonder Wheel

When you start typing in the main Google search box you
should see a drop down box appear giving you some
alternative search terms related to the word you typed.
Note these phrases down in a notepad file or write them on
a piece of paper. They will be useful as part of your
keyword list used in the next tool. You will also see more
related search phrases after you click search. Scroll to
the bottom of the results page and you will see "searches
related to:" Note down any new phrases shown there.

Recently Google has released Wonder Wheel which is also a
related keywords tool but is shown in a mind map format.
You can also click on the related phrases to find more
useful search terms. To access wonder wheel: enter your
keyword in the standard search screen, then at the top of
the results on the left you should see a show options link.
Select that and it will reveal a menu. Near the bottom of
the menu you should see wonder wheel.

Market Research Tool 2 - Adwords Keyword Tool
(https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)

We all know how important keywords and search phrases are.
Let's face it, it's what drives the internet. Google has
provided us with a tool that tells you what keywords and
phrases people are using to find what they are looking for.
You are able to search an individual country, more than one
if you hold down the ctrl key on your keyboard as you
select, or all countries.

The adwords tool is now more valuable due to the fact it
shows actual search numbers. Previously you only had a
green bar to indicate how much traffic the search term
received. You can also see how competitive each keyword is
amongst adword advertisers, showing us which keywords are
commercially viable.

Market Research Tool 3 - Google Trends
(http://www.google.com/trends)

Now that you have an idea what keywords your market is using
you can use the trends tool to check the history of that
keyword / phrase. Google Trends supplies data for the last
5 years, giving you an idea if the search term is
consistent. You can also see if the search term is popular
at certain times of the year, also known as a seasonal
keywords.

Another important function of Trends is the section that
tells you the popularity of a keyword by country, city
and language - very useful if you are targeting particular
countries or even cities.

Market Research Tool 4 - Google Alerts
(http://www.google.com/alerts)

Alerts is underused by webmasters. If you want to stay in
touch with what's hot in your market, you can by using
Google Alerts. All you have to do is enter the most popular
phrases in your market. Google will then send you links via
email depending on what type you select.

The types are news, web, blogs, video and groups. If you
would like a mix of all, you can select comprehensive. You
can decide how often you want to be updated by selecting
either: as it happens, once a day or once a week. I hope
you can see how powerful this is if you want to be seen as
an authority in your market.

Market Research Tool 5 - Google Web Search
(http://www.google.com)

Finally, we have Google's standard web search which is not
standard in my eyes. It provides a lot of information if
you know what to look for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
is an important part of running a website. By performing a
search of your market keywords, Google will tell you what
type of content it sees as important.

If you see videos, blogs or images this gives you another
way to reach the top 10 of Google. If you see Web 2.0 style
sites such as Digg, that could be another avenue. If there
are adword ads on the right side of the screen, that tells
you the market is commercially viable and more importantly
that the keyword you entered is good enough to pay for,
especially if there are 10 ads or more.

As you can see, even if you don't have money to buy the
latest tools, I have shown you there is a way to get some
very important information using free tools from Google.
Are you starting to love them now?

Thanks for reading.
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