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As you know, the Google Keyword Tool is being replaced by the Google Keyword Planner tool in the next month or so. Google is going to shut down the legacy Google Keyword Tool.
But what might be obvious to some but not all is that the Google Keyword Tool for external, non signed in users, is completely going away. To access any AdWords based keyword tool, you will need to sign up for an AdWords account.
Here is the warning Google is showing users:
Again, you won't be able to use an AdWords Keyword tool without an AdWords account. This may upset some SEOs.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
Josh
07/03/2013 02:24 pm
Is this really a surprise anymore? Block logged in users from GA, remove KYT, what's next? This is becoming as depressing as it is predictable. Good job, Google. The more I read about Google, the less I respect.
Jim Christian
07/03/2013 02:39 pm
This is great! The only thing left is for Google to completely piss all of us off so we migrate to Bing. Duane Forrester will be MOST pleased....yesssssss.
Ravi Ahuja
07/03/2013 03:23 pm
At one hand SEO is becoming difficult and without proper SEO no one can survive and Google is cutting all hands for SEO. So many algorithms which are hard to understand and implement and Google is removing lot of things which can help webmaster to survive.
Paul Ryan
07/03/2013 04:35 pm
There is a point that a lot of people seem to be missing. It's an Adwords tool, not a webmaster tool. That was never a big secret and always it's function, so I don't really understand what people are complaining about. It's still available, but requires a bit of typing to login. So difficult, it seems.
Fedor
07/03/2013 04:42 pm
Great, are they gonna remove that damn captcha now?
joeyoungblood
07/03/2013 04:51 pm
Josh, I'm with you. I made some predictions of the future of 'keyword seo'. Needless to say all of Google's actions are inline with a Dystopian future for our industry and it's ratcheting up at an increasingly rapid pace. One thing to consider is this: How many SMB's were using the keyword tool after seeing a seminar/webinar or reading a blog post on SEO? Probably a ton, and most of them probably never bothered to have a Google account if A) they hired a PPC firm and B) they were just interested in SEO. This move will make them have a Google account which, upon sign in, will keep them logged-in in perpetuity. And what does that do to SEO? Yup, takes away more keyword data. It also gives big G a chance at convincing those logged out EKYT users to make a Google+ account, further skewing the numbers of active users and making marketers think that G+ is actually a viable marketing platform, thus continuing to push it. Further, when Google announced (not provided) I made a prediction that either Google would try and sell keyword data via Analytics Pro or that this move was a long term shot at increasing ad sales. If you're in marketing you know that Attribution is incredibly important for CMO's, VP's, etc... They want to know that what they did gave them results. By wrapping Google+ / Google signin into Google products we have seen an effective, major increase in (not provided) and a if you're in the consulting world or even an in-house SEO you've likely felt the pinch of weekly/monthly meetings demanding attribution for your efforts, attribution which is getting more difficult to prove. This lack of proof will in turn cause anxiety at the C-Suite level, and that will cause them to look at more attributable channels, such as PPC and Display, 2 areas that Google dominates and what makes up ~95% of their revenue (ok I have no idea how much, but it's the single biggest part) and areas that have seen stagnating growth lately, a fact Larry Page has not held back on investor calls continuing to tell investors that they have ways to and are working on increasing PPC revenues. Knowledge Graph is largely a part of that scheme as well. I think in the near future, 5-10 years, an X-Googler will come out with proof that (not provided) was never created with users in mind, but in a bid to increase advertising revenues as marketing CMO's and VP's grew less trusting of SEO data that was non-specific.
Jonathan Payne
07/03/2013 07:25 pm
Don't understand the complaints either. Heaven forbid you have to login to a company's website to use their services. Such a novel idea, isn't it?
BJ
07/04/2013 07:59 am
Google become more Fascist each day. I long for the day that Firefox set up a search engine and we can avoid these arrogant mobsters entirely. Who needs to deal with people with such excessive hubris. It isn't the fact of signing in to use the tool...it is the fact that they continue to data collect about us in order to profit more. Sordidly avaricious.
BJ
07/04/2013 08:02 am
Oh yes. Meant to say....whatever you write here is immaterial because google won't read it anyway. They are all way too important to deal with we underlings.
Jawad Latif
07/04/2013 09:37 am
Really upsetting for SEOs
Arun Jaiswal
07/04/2013 11:57 am
I am just Waiting the GREAT NEWS...... "GOOGLE is NOW Paid" $1 for each gmail ID. than only Google DOWNFALL would come.......
Justin Clark
07/04/2013 12:49 pm
yeah .. well said..
StevenLockey
07/04/2013 03:35 pm
Unless I'm missing something, you can simply add adwords to any existing Google account for free, so the tool is still free, you've just got to do it via the adwords interface now, which was what it was designed for. You can still use the tool free. I'm guessing the main reason for this was people may have been abusing it.
Martin Oxby
07/05/2013 07:06 pm
We can but hope.
Martin Oxby
07/05/2013 07:08 pm
Good summary of where we are all at. Well said. Just wish I had answers.
Brian Mease
07/06/2013 11:10 am
I'm using KWT almost every day. I noticed this message for the past few weeks but suddenly it is not showing anymore, any chance that they take it back now?
Daniel Benny Simanjuntak
07/08/2013 08:12 pm
I always have faith in the innovative prowess of the google team, Just hopping for better more improved tool. :)
Jordan
07/10/2013 01:39 pm
Will it be available to those who only have read-only access to AdWords?
Sabre
07/23/2013 05:57 pm
Mine says this... "Keyword Tool will no longer be available in the next few months. To get keyword ideas, try the new Keyword Planner, which makes keyword research even easier." nothing about logging in anywhere.
Jonathan Payne
07/23/2013 05:59 pm
The tool, or a very similar tool, is available when you log in to your Adsense account. That's the change.
khairuddin syach
10/20/2013 02:29 am
sadly i don't have ones