Solid keyword research underpins every successful SEO and PPC strategy. After all, to drive increased traffic from Google, or to run a profitable Google Ads campaign, you need to know what your audience is searching for and base your growth strategy around this.
If you don’t know how searchers are looking for the products you sell, the services you offer, or the information and expertise which you are sharing, you are working blind.
The good news is that keyword research doesn’t need to be a daunting task, and one of the best places to start to gain an insight into the search terms you need to be optimizing for (or bidding on) is the Google Keyword Planner; a free tool which should sit at the core of your SEO or PPC toolset.
And while it is by no means the only keyword research tool out there, it is a great starting point. Here, we will share everything you need to know about Keyword Planner. Including how you can get started with the tool, how to analyze the data to use in your campaigns, and even a couple of hacks to help you work around some of the common frustrations users have with it.
We will even walk you through the different ways to use the tool, depending on whether you are using it to steer your SEO strategy or to build out the foundations of your PPC campaign.
Here’s everything we are going to cover in this guide:
- An Introduction to the Keyword Planner
- Step-by-Step: How to Use Google Keyword Planner
- Using Google Keyword Planner for SEO
- Using Google Keyword Planner for PPC
- Google Keyword Planner Hacks You Need To Know To Overcome Common Frustrations
- The Cons of Google Keyword Planner
- A Powerful Keyword Tool But One With Certain Limitations
- Google Keyword Planner vs. Keyword Magic Tool
An Introduction to the Keyword Planner
Once known as the Google Keyword Tool, Keyword Planner is a tool that every search marketer needs to familiarize themselves with and get to know inside out. It is a great way to discover new keywords to target in your campaigns, understand how searches across keywords have changed over time, see suggested bid estimates to help plan your Google Ads budget and more. If you need to find the right keywords for your business, it is a great place to start.
That said, the deeper you go into the tool, the more value you will get from it.
But don’t let that stop you from getting started; it is easy to get to grips with it and in just minutes you will start to understand the way in which your audience is using Google to find businesses just like yours.
How to Access Keyword Planner
All you need to access and use Google Keyword Planner is a Google account.
Once you are logged in, you will want to head straight over to the Keyword Planner tool. If you have just signed up to a Google account or don’t run Google Ads, you will be asked to sign up for an Ads account when you try to access the tool: – Read more
