Check out the Yalla Keyword Generator, which builds lists for Google AdWords and SEO. Supports broad, phrase, exact and negative matches.
Chris is a patient guy.
Our all-around fixer handles everything from client relations to web design to AdWords campaigns. He’s also managed to find time to walk me through our processes for all of the above, showing me the tools we use to make sure clients have the best digital presence possible.
I knew he was patient when he showed me Google’s Keyword Planner. For those who don’t know (I didn’t), Google lets you see how often phrases get searched. That knowledge is crucial for paid search campaigns – after all, why drop a bunch of money promoting ads for a term nobody ever searches for?
As Chris explained how to use the keyword planner, he told me why it’s crucial to use lots of slight variations on phrases.
“Someone might search ‘Riverside party rentals,’” Chris said, “But someone else may look for the same thing by typing ‘party rentals Riverside.’ So it’s really important to capture both of those terms.”
And how did Chris handle this task with long lists of key phrases?
“Alright, so you start with your phrases. Then you add ‘Riverside’ to the end of one of them. Then you copy ‘Riverside’ and paste it at the end of the other phrases. But you have to be sure to copy the space before ‘Riverside,’ otherwise it won’t work. Then you do the same thing but put ‘Riverside’ at the beginning. Then you type ‘San Bernardino’ and do the whole thing again…’
See? Patience.
I am not a patient guy.
It took about two SEO reports (we use similar lists of key phrases for reporting/tracking tools like BrightLocal) to make me hate the copy-and-paste method. I looked for tools to automate the process – but I could only find a few, and most of them were ugly, cumbersome and locked behind a login or paywall.
Finally, I thought: Why not just build it myself?
The free tool we’re launching today is the result of that effort. Yalla’s SEO Keyword Generator takes two lists, mashes them together and saves you time.
Let’s use Chris’s “Riverside party rentals” example.
To use the generator, I’d enter “party rentals” into the first list. Then I’d throw “Riverside” into the second. Clicking the “Generate” button gives me the individual phrase “party rentals” – in case I want it – and two combined terms: “Riverside party rentals” and “party rentals Riverside.”
Okay, so big deal. We squished a couple words together. So what?
Well, this tool supports multiple batches of keywords and locations. That’s where it’s infinitely more valuable.
I can add “remodeling, window replacement, door replacement, contractor” into the first list and “Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens” into the other. With one click, the Keyword Generator gives me every variation of pairs of one term with the other. That’s some serious time saved!
When I showed my (very ugly) demo version of the tool to Chris, he told me to take it to John, our VP of marketing, right away. John’s responsible for quite possibly the coolest part of the generator – support for modifiers.
See, I don’t really understand AdWords. Above my pay grade. But basically, AdWords lets you mark phrases with quotes, brackets and plus and minus signs to change how it reads keywords. For example, if I add a “-wedding” to my party rental example, Google wouldn’t show my ads for searches including the term “wedding” – even if they matched my other terms.
“Can you make it do that?” John asked. “Give me different modifiers if I want them?”
“Uh…yeah, probably,” I bluffed.
Turns out even a monkey banging on a keyboard is right now and then. The generator spits out broad match, phrase match, exact match and negative modifiers along with your regular keyword combinations. Just check the corresponding box before generating your list of terms.
We’re releasing this for free because we believe in making life easier. It’s already saved us a ton of time, and we hope you find it useful too. Try the Keyword Generator, and pass it on to your friends and colleagues in the marketing world. And don’t hesitate to let me know if you find a bug.