Google Keyword Planner

The Google Keyword Planner is a no-cost keyword analysis tool that allows users to see how many users are searching for specific keywords in Google’s search engine, making it great for advertisers to use when planning advertising campaigns; however, this tool is also useful to anyone starting with SEO having a website or blog as they can use the tool to get keyword suggestions and develop an effective content marketing plan.

What Is Google Keyword Planner?

Google Keyword Planner helps you find keywords related to what people are searching for. It also provides some useful statistical information about those keywords: average number of times a keyword is searched per month; level of competition for the keyword (high, medium, low); and cost per click for the keyword (CPC). Once you enter your word, phrase and/or topic into Google Keyword Planner, it will provide a list of other similar keywords being actively searched by users on Google. This gives those just getting started with their businesses a good idea of what types of items have some level of demand, based on how they appear in Google’s sponsored links.

Why Beginners Should Use It

• When it comes to keyword research, many of the new users will find this area of expertise to be somewhat uncertain (in addition to having poor data driving their decisions). A new user may be targeting multiple keywords/phrases that have high levels of competition and/ or very low levels of usage. The Google Keyword Planner is your answer to these issues because it provides legitimate search data along with competition levels.As such, new users can use this tool to:Locate keywords with reasonable search volume
  Discover keywords with lesser amounts of competition
  Generate ideas for long-tail keywords
  Create blog posts based off of real searches completed by users

Why Google Keyword Planner is Important for SEO

utilize Google Keyword Planner to develop a cohesive content strategy that utilizes common themes across keywords. By researching related keywords, you can better develop topic clusters around your main keyword or phrase, such as “digital marketing.” Whether you choose to create multiple articles or multiple pages, Google Keyword Planner is a valuable tool that can help inform your content planning.

According to the recent study “How Google Keyword Planner has Changed,” by Hivemind, “Keyword research is the most important part of SEO for both beginners and experts.” While it’s true that keyword research is important for both groups, Hivemind believes there are several reasons why keyword planner is essential for successful SEO.

**Helps You Understand Actual Consumer Behavior**
The biggest reason to use Google Keyword Planner is because it will assist you in understanding how consumers behave. Google Keyword Planner will provide you with the search volume and competition levels of the provided keyword or phrase. It also provides a breakdown of keyword variations, related keywords, and click through rates (CTR) associated with that keyword or phrase. From that information, you can determine which keyword has the best search volume, least competition, and highest CTR. After assessing that information, it should be easy to create your own content that targets that keyword. Ultimately, that’s why keyword planner is so important for SEO.

**Identifying Opportunity** Another great feature of Google Keyword Planner is the ability to identify opportunities. This may seem trivial, but finding opportunities to rank effectively on Google can lead to significant results. All of these keyword ideas can help inform how you plan to cover a topic/theme across multiple blog posts or pages of content.

Creating a Free Account to Access Google Keyword Planner

In order to utilize the Google Keyword Planner, you must first establish a free account with Google Ads. While the Google Keyword Planner has been primarily developed for advertisers, there is no requirement that you create any paid advertisements in order to access the Google Keyword Planner; simply establishing your account will give you the ability to access the Google Keyword Planner in order to complete research and perform search engine optimization.

Log In To Your Google AccountFirst, go to Google advertisement’s page, log into your already existing google account (free, if you don’t have one, create one), then access all of Google services including the Ads service.

Process of Setting Up Google AdsOnce you have logged into Google Ads, it should walk you through the steps of setting up a campaign. However, since you want to use only the keyword indicator, look for a choice to switch to expert mode, usually found at the bottom of the setup screen, then you will not need to create an actual advertisement.

An Account With No CampaignAfter you switched to expert mode, choose to create a new account without launching a campaign where you will need to confirm some basic information (e.g., country, time zone, and currency). Once you have done this, you should successfully have created your new Google Ads account.

How to Discover New Keywords Using Google Keyword Planner

When seeking out new keywords to optimize your website for search engines, using Google’s Keyword Planner makes this process seamless because it uses actual search data to develop a list of potential related keywords. The Keyword Planner can be accessed through Google Ads by first accessing your Google Ads account.

To access Google’s Keyword Planner on your Dashboard, use the Tools and Settings menu, and click on the Keyword Planner link under the menu. You will have access to two primary functions from here; select the Discover New Keywords function. This option will allow you to generate new keywords related to your specific area, or niche of focus.

You will then need to enter one or more seed keywords which are your basic word(s) or phrases of interest in your target area. If your website, for instance, focused on search engine optimization, you could use the following as seed keywords;

Keyword Research – Search Engine Optimisation Tips – Blogging for Newbies

Once you have entered your seed keyword(s), click the Get Results button, where you will be shown a list of additional long-tailed keywords which are related to the original seed keyword(s).

Review Keywords Proposed

Upon completion of this process you will receive a list of proposed keywords with related data regarding:

Monthly average search volume

Competition levels (low, medium or high)

Estimated price of first-page placement

The data you see in this area will aid in your decision making as to what keywords to target. As a general rule beginners should look for keywords that have a solid monthly volume of searches and relatively low competition.

Filtering for Results

Use filters to reduce the number of results displayed, filtering can help you to demonstrate or highlight results most applicable to your needs.

The filtering can occur at:

By country or location

By language

By search engine or network

By date

If you are conducting research for a single country (for example; Pakistan), you could set your filter to show only results related to that country which will give you the most precise data available making your research much more targeted and relevant.

How to Analyze Search Volume and Competition Data

To decide whether or not to go after a particular keyword (and how challenging it will be to get ranked for), you need to examine search volume and competition data together, not separately from each other.

Search volume indicates how many people perform searches using that keyword on average each month. Generally, this search volume data is accessible through various keyword research tools – such as Google’s Keyword Planner and Ahrefs. Since keywords with higher search volumes generally have a larger traffic potential, they may also have more serious competition. Lower volume (usually less than 100) keywords will bring in less total traffic individually; however, since they are typically easier to achieve good rankings for, they can result in a more consistent stream of highly targeted visitors.

Competition data (a.k.a. keyword difficulty – KD) is typically expressed numerically on the same scale that is used as a measurement of the level of difficulty in ranking in Google’s top 10 SERPs. To arrive at a particular keyword’s KD score, different factors contribute to deriving this score including the authority (PageRank) of the websites that are presently ranking, the total number of backlinks pointing to each website currently ranking, and the quality, relevance, and depth of content on those websites. 

Using Keyword Planner for Blog Content Strategy

The Google Keyword Planner enables users to plan and write articles that are informed by real search volume rather than guesswork. Just as important, this tool allows users to find out what people are looking for on Google, how often they do so, and how competitive those search phrases are. Using this type of data-based method ensures your blog content will match what users want and have a much better chance of ranking in the search engine results pages.

Use the Keyword Planner to find big categories in your niche. Then the Keyword Planner will produce different keyword ideas related to that category, showing you how much demand (search volume) there is, how competitive the keywords are (level of competition) and what a PPC (pay per click) is for those keywords. Those keywords will help you find different subcategories (also known as long-tail keywords) to write about. You can also write about several long-tail variations of the same keyword by creating multiple articles that cover different angles.

You should also look at the monthly search volume and the amount of competition for each keyword to see if it’s a popular search term and not too competitive. A keyword’s previous months of search volume should tell you how popular it has been. High-volume search terms are not necessarily the easiest to get ranked for since they are highly competitive and will require more work by you to get your site listed on search engines.

Using Location and Language Filters Effectively

Proper use of location and language filters is very important for getting accurate information about what keywords to research for your business. These filters let you see how people are searching specifically in the area you want to target rather than seeing what people around the world are searching.
When looking at keyword data using location-based filters, you will want to look at keyword data for either a country, region or city. For example, suppose your target audience resides in Pakistan.
This is true for using local keyword data to find out how many people are searching for products or services that are offered in your area.
In keyword tools such as Google Keyword Planner (KW), you can view keyword data by country or even narrow done your search by a particular city. This is commonly used by:
Businesses that are located in a specific area and sell products/services to end-users
Service-type businesses that serve end-user clients in specific areas
Affiliate-type websites that target their audience based on specific countries
E-commerce type websites that will only ship to specific regions.
If you do not apply location filters to your keyword searches, you may find yourself targeting keywords that have a lot of global volume but little or no demand within your area.

Using Language Filters

Language filters help you see search data based on the language users are searching in. For example, English keywords may perform differently in the UK, USA, or Pakistan. Similarly, Urdu keywords will show different data compared to English ones.

Selecting the correct language filter ensures:

• Accurate search volume
  
• Relevant keyword suggestions
  
• Better alignment with user intent
  

If your website content is in English, you should analyze English search data. If you create content in Urdu or another language, adjust the filter accordingly.

Why Filters Matter

Without proper location and language settings, keyword data can be misleading. You might:

• Overestimate traffic potential
  
• Target the wrong audience
  
• Create content that does not match user search behavior

Understanding Keyword Trends and Seasonality

Understanding keyword trends and seasonality is important because search behavior changes over time. Search volume is not always stable; some keywords grow steadily, some decline, and others rise and fall during specific periods. By studying trends, you can see whether interest in a topic is increasing, decreasing, or remaining consistent. This helps you decide if a keyword is a good long-term opportunity or just a temporary trend.

Keyword trends show the overall direction of search interest over months or years. If a keyword’s popularity is rising, it may indicate growing demand and future traffic potential. If the trend is declining, the topic may be losing relevance. Analyzing long-term data gives you a clearer picture than relying only on average monthly search volume.

Seasonality refers to keywords that experience predictable spikes during certain times of the year. For example, some keywords become popular during holidays, specific seasons, or major events. These keywords may have low search volume for most of the year but suddenly increase during peak periods. This pattern repeats annually, making it important to plan content publishing in advance.

How to Download and Organize Keyword Data

Downloading and organizing keyword research data is the first step in creating a solid, organized SEO approach to accomplish your goals. After conducting keyword research within tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest, you will want to download and organize your keyword research data for future analysis and work on creating categories for your keywords.

Most keyword research tools have an “Export” or “Download” option, and you will typically download the keyword research as either a CSV or Excel file. The CSV or Excel file contains critical pieces of information (metrics) that you need to be able to analyze successfully, such as the search volume, keyword difficulty, cost per click (CPC) and competition rate. Having the ability to download the keyword data allows you to filter, sort, and customize the keyword research for your content goals.

Once you have downloaded your keyword data, you will need to open it in spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Start filtering and sorting your keywords by creating distinct column headers such as:

– Keyword
– Search Volume
– Keyword Difficulty
– Search Intent
– Priority Level
– Content Type

Following that, organize your keywords in groups (with like keywords) for easy content planning and development, e.g., group all of the keywords for ‘keyword research tools’ into one grouping or section and all of the keywords for ‘low competition keywords’ into another grouping. Having this level of organization will assist with improving your internal linking structure.

Once you have organized your keywords, you will want to remove irrelevant or duplicate keywords. When cleaning up your keywords, use the following filters: only include keywords that align with your niche and target market or audience and with your content building strategy. Depending on your methodology for organizing your keywords, use either search volume or keyword difficulty for comparison and our analytics will aid you in developing the next stage of your keyword hierarchy.

Google Keyword Planner vs Other Keyword Research Tools

When comparing Google Keyword Planner with other keyword research platforms, the main difference lies in purpose, depth of data, and SEO-focused features. Both options help you discover keywords, but they serve slightly different needs depending on your goals and experience level.

The Keyword Planner tool created by Google helps advertisers decide which keywords to use for paid adverts; there are many different uses for Google Keywords planner.

However, other tools such as: Ahrefs, Semrush and Ubersuggest, can offer more in-depth analysis of SEO performance and allow users to conduct competitor research.

While Google Keyword Planner allows its users access to average monthly searches, the actual search volume may be indicative of a broader range due to the method of and availability of information. Although the information is from Google and therefore reliable; there may be a lack of accuracy in terms of the exact number you will have access to for planning purposes.

Again, other tools for keyword research typically have the same generic search volume trends as Google Keyword Planner; they provide information that help gauge the amount of traffic a keyword will generate. They also show estimated traffic, click data and historical trends as to how many people type in the keywords each month.

When determining competition for keywords via Google Keyword Planner; the levels (high, medium and low) of competition reflect the level of competition for adverts on keywords, not organic or free listings. This means the level of competition is determined by how many advertisers are bidding for keywords, not organic search volume or keyword competition.