Google Keyword Planner: How To Use The Free Tool For SEO

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool designed to assist digital marketers with their research efforts for search campaigns, both paid and organic. It provides data on various types of keywords or search phrases and terms related to a business, estimates monthly search volumes for specific keywords, and the cost of targeting them with paid campaigns. Although initially intended for paid search campaigns, SEO professionals also use it as a free resource for keyword research.

Google Keyword Planner is beneficial for SEO because it offers the ability to look for keyword insights for free, using Google's own data. It helps in finding new keywords related to your objective and determining search volumes. For those without access to paid tools, it serves as a starting point to understand what features to look for in a keyword research tool.

To get started with Google Keyword Planner for SEO, follow these steps:

1. Create a Google account if you don't already have one, and log in.
2. Log into Keyword Planner.
3. Choose a task between 'Discover new keywords' and 'Get search volume and forecasts'.
4. Discover new keywords by entering products or services and using a domain URL to filter suggestions.
5. Refine your search with criteria such as location, language, and time frames, and further refine based on options like brand or non-brand, new or used.
6. Analyze the data to identify opportunities for SEO strategy, considering factors like monthly search volume, demand changes, competition, and cost per click (CPC).

To refine keyword research using Google Keyword Planner, you can:

1. Use the 'Discover new keywords' option to expand the keywords, phrases, or topics you cover.
2. Apply filters using a domain’s URL to exclude unrelated keywords.
3. Narrow down your search by location, language, and time frames.
4. Use the 'refine keywords' option to get more granular, filtering by categories such as brand, game, food, and others.
5. Look for seasonal opportunities or high volume keywords that may indicate a trend or a recurring event.

Here are some bonus strategies and tips for using Google Keyword Planner:

1. Save money by using the 'top of page bid (high range)' data to inform organic search strategies for expensive keywords.
2. Export your data to share with your team or manipulate it in Excel or Google Sheets.
3. Unlock exact search volumes using a trick with the 'Get search volume and forecasts' option.
4. Understand your audience by analyzing keyword data by region, state, county, etc., and adjust strategies based on device usage insights.