Using the Keyword Tool on Google AdWords for Personal Branding

July 15, 2012

In the digital age, it is extremely important to brand ourselves in our industries online. Social media and the ease of creating one’s own website has made it easy to do so, and all this is required is strategy and time. After putting a few action items in place, there comes the question to how our efforts are doing. Analytics tools across multiple platforms, such as Klout, Google Analytics, Bitly, and StumbleUpon, can help with this. However, I did find a way to use a rather common tool to see how this branding is paid off.

The tool is within Google AdWords, and it is the Keyword Tool. The tool allows a user to enter in search terms related to what they’re interested in marketing. After choosing a wide array of filtering options, the tool provides users a list of keywords related to that first search term. To the sides of each keyword, Google offers an estimated number of monthly searches for the keyword, the competition, and what the keyword would cost on a CPC basis via Google AdWords.

The resulting list of keywords gives you a better idea of what content your name is landing on in Google’s platform, and also what users are searching for who are also searching your name. This means you can see if your personal branding is paying off and you’re surrounded by the content you want to be surrounded by.

Looking at my name, I can see I am landing in social media and digital marketing content and search terms. This is exactly what I am looking for. You will notice that I don’t have too many global monthly searches for my name though, so I need to work better at making people want to search my name. However, given the analytics from this site, I know that I am being discovered thousands of times per month by the other keywords related to my posts, like “Pinterest”, “JCPenney”, and “Mike and Ike split.” This is another important goal as it introduces people unfamiliar to myself to who I am and what I’m interested in.