Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks
Psssst…I’m gonna’ share a secret with you, but whatever you do, don’t tell Google.
You see, back in August, the company made a big change to their Keyword Planner, the free go-to tool for SEO specialists everywhere — instead of showing an exact number of “Average Monthly Searches,” it now shows a range — a really broad range:
If you want Keyword Planner to go back to the way it used to work, you need to run some number (and no one’s sure yet how many) of ad campaigns (smart financial move, Google).
OR, you can use this little hack I’ve discovered.
You see, even before the change, I was using a Chrome extension called “Keywords Everywhere.” This handy browser tool shows you the exact average number of monthly searches for any search term right in the Google search results window:
The sweet thing? It still works! Sneaky, eh?
While the extension is not as useful as the pre-change Keyword Planner — instead of hundreds, you only get the average monthly search numbers for one keyword phrase at the top and the related keyword phrases at the bottom — it’s still a great way to validate a keyword you want to use.
Now remember, keep this under your hat or Google’s gonna’ plug that hole. Actually, no matter what anyone does, they’ll probably plug it soon in any case. In the meantime, enjoy the hack!
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