Do you know that you can use Google’s Keyword Planner to do your SEO keyword research for free? Google Ads Keyword Planner is a powerful tool by suggesting keyword ideas. You can also do your SEO competitor analysis using Google Keyword Planner.
Today, we will show you how to use the free Google Keyword Planner to find your keywords.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Access Keyword Planner
To use Google Ads Keyword Planner for free, please follow the steps.
- Sign up for Google Ads using the signup guide
- Create a Google Ads campaign for $1
- Pause the Google Ads campaign
- Go to Keyword Planner here if your account is in smart mode
Here are some caveats.
- You don’t need an active campaign but you need to create a campaign first.
- If your account is using smart mode, you may go to Keyword Planner here.
It gives you two options below.
- Discover new keywords
- Get historical search volume and forecasts
Discover New Keywords
First, you can choose your location and language settings. You can choose which language or languages your target audience use on Google. You can target the countries, territories, states, provinces, or cities where your audience is located.
Secondly, you can choose which search network (“Google” or “Google and Search Partners”) you want your keywords to come from.
Thirdly, you can enter up to 10 keywords at the same time. Then you will see your keywords and all the keyword ideas suggested by Google. Depending on the number, popularity, and quality of keywords you enter, you can get a few thousand keywords suggested by Google.
You can rank and filter your keywords by the following parameters, keyword relevancy, and many more.
- Average monthly searches show the average number of searches for a keyword.
- Top of page bid (high range) and (low range) show the higher and lower CPC (cost per click) range of what advertisers have paid for a keyword’s top of page bid.
- Competition shows the number of advertisers bidding on a keyword relative to all keywords across Google in terms of level of competition (low, medium, high or – if Google doesn’t have enough data).
- Competition (indexed value) shows the number of Google ad slots filled divided by the total number of ad slots available in terms of level of competition from 0-100 or – if Google doesn’t have enough data.
You can filter out keywords that you don’t want to see in your results i.e. negative keywords.
You can even exclude keywords that are already in your plans and account as well as adult keyword ideas.
You can group your keywords into different groups of relevant keywords. For example, the group “keywordtool” contains “keywordtool free”, “keywordtool pro”, “keywordtool pro free”, and “keywordtool pricing” keywords.
You can refine the keywords by brand or non-brand, tool and other parameters suggested by Google.
You can download the data as a csv spreadsheet. This gives you a more accurate figure of the average monthly searches instead of just a range.
You can enter a domain or a web page to find keywords. You will end up with more relevant keywords when you enter your entire website instead of just a web page. So, you can find the keywords of your SEO competitors.
Get Search Volume and Forecasts
Upon entering your keywords, you will end up with a new screen where you can click on “Forecast” on the left menu. It shows the forecast number of clicks, number of impressions, cost, CTR (click-through rate), and average CPC (cost per click) for your keywords on Google Ads over the next week, month, quarter or year in selected locations, languages, and search networks.
Forecasts are updated daily with data from the last 7-10 days in consideration of market changes and seasonal factors.
This forecast data is meant for Google Ads advertisers, but it can give you some ideas for bids, keywords to target and avoid, as well as keyword competitiveness and popularity in the near future.
Summary
The free Google Keyword Planner is a powerful SEO keyword research tool with invaluable information that you cannot get from any other keyword research tools. It provides important keyword search volume data for free. You should incorporate it into your keyword research. No matter if you are a rookie or veteran in SEO keyword research, the free Google Keyword Planner will take your SEO keyword research up a notch.
