Do you want to find the right keywords to increase organic traffic to your website? If so, knowing how to use Google Adwords Keyword Planner will really help you!
Google Adwords Keyword Planner is a powerful tool that you can use to identify new keyword ideas and blog post topics and to improve your search engine rankings. That said, it can be a little confusing to figure out how to use it if you're new to the tool.
In this article, we'll show you how to use Google Adwords Keyword Planner and get the most out of it to improve your SEO marketing.
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Using Google Adwords Keyword Planner
Step 1: Set Up A Google Ads Account
Before you can start using Google Adwords Keyword Planner, you must have a Google account. If you don't have one, creating an account only takes a few minutes.
Once you've created an account, go to the Google Ads homepage and click on Get Started Now. Then select your Google account to sign in.
After logging in, Google Ads will ask you to create a campaign. Since we are not here to spend money on ads, you can skip this step by clicking on Create an account without a campaign.
Next, enter your company information, such as billing country, time zone, and currency. Once you have entered the information, click Submit.
Congratulations, you have created a Google Ads account. Now click on Explore your account to access the Google Ads panel.
Step 2: Access Google Adwords Keyword Planner
To open Google Adwords Keyword Planner, click on Tools and Settings in the upper right corner. Then, from the drop-down menu, select Keyword Planner under Planning.
You will then see two options:
- Discover new keywords - This option gives you new keyword ideas that you can use to drive traffic to your website.
- Get search volume and forecast - You can use this option to find out the historical trend, search volume, and future forecast for a list of keywords.
We will discuss both options and how you can use them in our tutorial. Let's start with discovering new keywords.
Step 3: Try The Discover New Keywords Option
After selecting Discover New Keywords, you will see two tabs: Start with Keywords and Start with a Website.
Start with keywords
Under Start with keywords, you can enter words (example: Google Analytics) or phrases (example: how to use Google Analytics) to find keywords. You can enter up to 10 words/phrases, and if you wish, you can enter a domain to use as a filter. After entering the search terms, click Get Results.
Start with a website
If you choose the "Start with a website" option, you can enter the URL of a website to find keyword ideas. Google Adwords Keyword Planner uses the website you entered as a source and suggests search terms for you to use.
You can even choose to search the entire website or a specific page. After entering the URL, click Get Results.
This option is perfect for seeing what your competitors are doing and getting ideas from their keywords. Simply enter their website URL to see what keywords they are working on.
Once you click the Get Results button, Google Adwords Keyword Planner will show results using the URL or keywords you entered and suggest many new keyword ideas.
For example, when we entered Google Analytics as our search term, the tool showed us 674 available keyword ideas. It also suggests other keywords to expand your search result.
For each keyword displayed by Google Adwords Keyword Planner, you will see four metrics:
Average Monthly Searches - This shows a range of the number of searches the term receives each month, so you know which keywords get the most traffic.
Competition - This is how hard it is to get an ad placement (usually described as low, medium, or high), but you can also use this as a baseline metric to see the competition on the organic keyword.
Top of Page Bid (Low Range) - This shows the lowest price advertisers would pay for a top of page bid.
Top bid (high range) - This shows the highest price advertisers would pay for a top bid.
You can also use additional filters to find new keywords based on location, language, search network, and time period.
Step 4: Try The Get Search Volumes and Forecasts Option
Now let's look at the other option we can choose to find keywords: Get Search Volume and Forecast.
Just enter your keywords or phrases in the field, separated by commas or on the next line, and click Start.
For the keywords you enter, Google Adwords Keyword Planner predicts the total number of clicks, impressions (how many times your ad would be displayed if you were running ads), overall cost, average position, and cost per click (CPC) you can expect for the next 30 days.
It then breaks down each keyword forecast into clicks, impressions, costs, click-through rate (CTR), and average CPC.
There are no keyword ideas in this report, as it is intended to display information for the specific keywords you entered. So, to get the most out of this report, go to the Historical Metrics tab, and you'll see the average monthly searches and competition for each keyword.
Google Adwords Keyword Planner is for advertisers, but it has great SEO value. For starters, it's 100% FREE! And it offers a great starting point for finding keywords for your business.
You can search for individual search terms or enter a website address to see the keywords. The bid values and level of competition help you understand how lucrative the keywords are. This helps you select monetary keywords that can help you increase your sales.
On the other hand, if you are looking for detailed information about the keywords and your competition, you can use some of the alternatives below.
How To Choose Keywords Using Google Adwords Keyword Planner
It can be difficult to choose which keywords to focus on, but choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO strategy and organic search traffic numbers.
In general, there are a few best practices to use when choosing keywords:
Choose a variety of keywords that are both more and less competitive. It will take you longer to rank for the more competitive words, while you can rank for the less competitive words more quickly. This gives you some balance between getting traffic sooner and later.
Dig deeper into each keyword before targeting it with content. Use another keyword research tool and your own Google searches to dig deeper. Look for keyword variations, "people also ask" questions and other related keywords or topics that you could incorporate into your content.
Don't give up on keywords because they don't have a huge search volume. Sure, you want to target keywords with some volume, but if it's a solid topic for your site, cover it anyway. Organic search traffic isn't the only type of traffic! You can also create content that is perfect for newsletters or social media but doesn't have a huge volume of organic search. At least, not yet!
Now that you know how to use Google Adwords Keyword Planner to come up with new keyword ideas, let's look at its alternatives.
Best Google Keyword Planner Alternatives
Google Adwords Keyword Planner is a free but powerful tool for getting great keyword ideas. However, its primary purpose is to help anyone looking to run paid ads (PPC) on Google. There are other SEO plugins and tools that offer other different features.
So, if you want explosive SEO performance, we recommend checking out the following Google Keyword Planner alternatives and refining your keyword research.
Semrush
Semrush is another popular SEO tool, and you can use it as an alternative to Google Adwords Keyword Planner. The tool is packed with features that will not only boost your SEO performance, but also help you improve your content, social media presence, and paid traffic.
Many SEO professionals prefer Semrush because of its keyword research tool. You can enter any search term, and it will show you detailed information about its search volume, CPC (if you plan to run ads), and a full view of the search results.
By looking at the search results, you can easily understand the search intent behind a keyword. This way, you know what searchers are looking for and can create content based on their needs.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the best SEO tools you can get your hands on. It offers powerful features, which makes it a great alternative to Google Adwords Keyword Planner.
Many SEO experts and business owners prefer this premium tool (or access their free tools) to understand their competition. You can enter any URL, and Ahrefs will show you detailed reports on keywords, their rankings, the total number of backlinks, and top pages, also it even lets you find content gaps between your competitor and your website.
Its keyword research tool is also very powerful and provides similar information to SEMRush. You can use it to find new ideas and see what keywords to focus on on your website.
AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is another free online tool that will help you create SEO optimized content.
Type in the keyword or topic you're interested in, and in turn, you'll get a set of possible queries that people might type into search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
You can use the questions and key phrases you find in your article to expand the possibilities of terms you could be ranked for. This tool is incredibly useful for finding what people are searching for related to your term or topic.
Google Trends
Google Trends is an excellent free product created by Google that allows you to know the relative popularity of keywords. It is a great alternative to Google Adwords Keyword Planner for comparing keyword popularity. With Google Trends, you can see how the interest and the relative number of searches for a keyword change over time.
With Google Trends, you can also see the relative popularity of a keyword in a given country or region. The tool allows you to compare the relative popularity of up to 5 different keywords at a given time.
For example, on the Google Trends graph below, you can see the relative popularity of "coffee" versus "tea" over the past 12 months in the United States.
The downside of Google Trends is that it only shows the popularity of keywords on a scale of 0 to 100. Unfortunately, it does not show the actual number of searches the keyword receives.
Google Suggest
Google Suggest is an essential feature of Google search that displays different search terms when you start typing a keyword in the search box. This feature is a good alternative to the Google Adwords Keyword Planner for long-tail keyword research.
In fact, Google Suggest is the best way to find good long-tail keywords that people use to find information on Google. Google admits that while Google Autocomplete (another name for the Google Suggest feature) wasn't designed specifically for marketing, it can provide meaningful information and help stay on top of trends. There are also many clever ways to use Google autocomplete that can help you with SEO.
To use Google autocomplete, type a keyword into the Google search box and add a letter or number before or after the term. You will then see a list of search terms and keyword suggestions below the search bar.
While the keywords you receive from Google Suggest are certainly useful, you can't easily copy, export, or analyze them en masse.
Keyword Tool
Keyword Tool is the best alternative to Google Adwords Keyword Planner for one simple reason: it is specially designed to extract thousands of useful keywords from Google Suggest in a fraction of a second.
As Google Adwords Keyword Planner is part of the Google Ads product, you can't use Keyword Planner if you don't have a Google Ads account.
On the other hand, Keyword Tool is a free alternative to Google Adwords Keyword Planner for search engine optimization (SEO). To use Keyword Tool, you don't need to create an account.
Just type a word into the Keyword Tool search box, press "Enter" and the tool will immediately offer you hundreds, if not thousands, of long-tail keyword suggestions for your keyword.
Keyword Tool gets the keywords directly from Google autocomplete. That's why with Keyword Tool you will be able to find keywords that are hidden in Google Adwords Keyword Planner.
FAQs About Google Adwords Keyword Planner
Can I Use Google Keyword Planner For Free?
Using the Google Adwords Keyword Planner is 100% free. You don't need to spend a cent on AdWords ads to have access to it. You just need a Google account.
Is Google Keyword Planner Good For SEO?
Using Google Adwords Keyword Planner for SEO. While this keyword research tool is intended, at least as far as Google itself is concerned, for those who use Google Ads, it is a powerful SEO tool and a perfect resource to help you identify the keywords you need to rank for.
Where Is The Keyword Planner In AdWords?
Sign in to your Google Ads account. In the "Schedule" section, click on Keyword Planner. Click on Get Search Volume and Forecast.
