Say goodbye to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Google recently decided to shut down the AdWords Keyword Tool, and they announced the launch of the Keyword Planner, a new tool which combines the Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator.

The Keyword Tool has been an essential tool for most online marketers, and not only for those working with AdWords, but also for SEOs. It was one of the first free keyword tools available in order to find keywords, investigate competition and search volumes and build your campaigns.

The new Keyword Planner is missing some of the functionalities of the Keyword Tool so we won’t be able to see all the data we are used to. Google says they’re working on it.

We were able to use the Keyword Tool even without signing in, but with the new Keyword Planner (which is still free to use) you must have an AdWords account in order to use it.

For online marketers who have a Google AdWords account this transition shouldn’t be a problem. However, not all the digital marketers use AdWords (specially SEO managers), so it can be quite annoying for them: in order to plan their campaigns they will have to either create an AdWords account to access the Keyword Tool even if they won’t use it, or use an alternative method to perform their keyword research.

Iñigo Etxebeste, July 2, 2013