Can You Use Keyword Planner For Free?

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Practise you want more traffic from Google? Yous first need to do keyword research to sympathize what people are actually searching for.

Luckily, Google has a gratuitous keyword research tool that allows you to do only that: Google Keyword Planner (formerly the Google Keyword Tool).

Google Keyword Planner gets a bad rap, especially since Google removed the ability to encounter verbal monthly search volumes. At present they just show a vague range.

You tin can get these dorsum, but y'all have to run an AdWords campaign. This costs money.

Simply don't let this put you off. Google Keyword Planner is an INSANELY powerful tool, and has some clear benefits. Not to the lowest degree, the fact that it suggests keyword ideas that you tin can't observeanywhere else. Trust me, I checked.

https://world wide web.youtube.com/spotter?v=y‑abxi0Pclc

The problem? Most SEOs take no inkling how to get the about from this tool.

In this post, I'll prove you how to get some serious SEO value from Google Keyword Planner. Who knows? There may even exist a couple hacks for reviving exact search volumes… for free. 😉

Let's offset with the basics.

New to keyword research? Check out our

How to Gain Access to Google Keyword Planner (for Free)

Google Keyword Planner is 100% complimentary to use. You need not spend a penny on AdWords ads to gain access. You merely need a Google account.

Sidenote.

Don't have a Google account? Become one for costless here.

Just here's what sometimes happens when yous attempt to access the tool:

You're asked to set an AdWords campaign.

Google is so ambitious with this, in fact, that it can look like there's no way to access the tool without commencement handing over some cash. Well, I take good news:

Yous Can access the tool WITHOUT running an AdWords ad. You only accept to jump through a few hoops.

To start, go here. Click "Go to Keyword Planner."

Sidenote.

You lot may and then be asked to re-enter your password for verification.

Now here's the of import part:

When you see the "What'southward your principal advert goal" screen, don't choose any of the 3 options. Hitting the small "Experienced with Google Ads?" link below instead.

NOT SEEING THIS LINK?

Here's yet another quirk in Google Keyword Planner: Google only displays this link in browser windows of a certain width.

If you don't come across the link, try resizing your browser window to make information technology wider.

As ridiculous every bit this is, it should then announced.

On the next screen, hit the "Create an account without a campaign" link. (It's another small ane.)

Hit the "Submit" button on the next folio. (Don't worry; Google won't inquire for credit bill of fare details.)

Y'all should and then see this screen:

Hit the "Explore your account" link.

Next, click the "Tools" link on the menu bar and striking "Switch to expert fashion."

Follow the prompt to confirm the switch.

Finally, hit the "Tools" link on the menu over again, and you lot should see a link to the Keyword Planner.

Yous now have access! No need to enter billing info or run an AdWords advertizing.

At present let's learn how to utilize information technology.

How to Apply Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner gives you lot ii options to go started, which are:

Detect keywords: Become keyword ideas that can help you reach people interested in your product or service;
Become search volume and forecasts: See search book and other historical metrics for your keywords, as well as forecasts for how they might perform in the future.

Both options take you to the Keyword Plan, but what y'all meet will vary slightly depending on your choice. These are non ii separate standalone tools.

Let'south explore each starting point in more particular.

"Find keywords"

Practise you desire to find new keyword ideas? Start hither.

As per Google's instructions, merely "Enter words, phrases, or a URL related to your business." Google volition then boot back some keyword suggestions.

Hither are the suggestions for "SEO":

There are ane,106 keyword ideas in full.

For each suggestion, you'll run across:

Avg. monthly searches;
Competition;
Meridian of page bid (low range);
Top of page bid (high range)

Only you're non express to unmarried words; phrases also work. And you can enter up to ten seed keywords/phrases at a time.

There'southward likewise the option to use a URL or website as the seed.

Here's some other play a joke on: you lot tin enter up to ten seed keywords and a URL at the same time.

But whatever you lot do, Google will never bear witness more than a few yard keyword suggestions.

Even when I entered a maximum of ten seed keywords and a URL, I nonetheless just got 4,715 suggestions.

This is pretty poor when compared to other keyword research tools.

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, for example, kicks back 484,282 suggestions based on those aforementioned three seed keywords…

… that's more than 102x what Keyword Planner gives us.

"Get search book and forecasts"

Do y'all already have a list of keywords that you wish to come across metrics for? Start here.

Simply paste them in, hit "Get started," and it'll have you to the Forecasts section.

At that place are no keyword suggestions here. It shows how many clicks and impressions yous can look should you lot decide to run ads for your called keywords on Google AdWords over the side by side 30 days. You'll also meet estimated costs, CTR, and CPC.

Most of this data is clearly aimed at AdWords advertisers. But hither's a quick trick:

Go to the "Historical Metrics" tab and yous will run across 12-month average search volumes for your keywords. These are the same ranges you lot see when starting with the "Find new keywords" pick.

Non seeing the value in such ranges?

Keep reading. You never know, I might have a trick up my sleeve for unlocking exact search volumes. 😉

seven Google Keyword Planner Hacks (That Almost SEOs Don't Know)

Here's what happened when I asked my Facebook friends for their top Google Keyword Planner hacks/tips:

So I digged deeper to try to empathise why this was the case.

Fair point. Only Google Keyword Planner has much more than to offering than search volumes.

Hither are 7 hacks to help yous go the well-nigh out of it, starting with the ane you were all waiting for…

1. Unlock Verbal search volumes

Google's reluctance to show verbal search volumes is 1 of the almost frustrating things about Keyword Planner. It's why many SEOs no longer use the tool at all.

For example, look at these two keywords—both have a search volume range of 10K-100K:

But if we check these two keywords in Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, we see that in reality ane of these keywords gets a lot more searches than the other.

And then here are 2 ways you can employ to become some verbal numbers… for free.

Method #1: Look at the estimated impressions for max. CPC

Begin past adding some keywords to your plan. You can do this past manually entering a list of keywords into the "Become search volumes and metrics" tool.

Alternatively, check some keywords in the Keyword ideas view and add them to your programme similar that. Merely make sure to select the "exact match" option when prompted.

Go to the Keywords view. You lot should encounter a box at the acme that looks something similar this:

Hitting the drib-down and make sure the max. CPC is set equally loftier as possible. You can practice this past clicking on the correct-paw side of the graph, like so:

Now pay attending to the "Impressions" column. This tells you the estimated number of impressions your ad would get over the form of the adjacent month if you were to run information technology for those specific keywords.

Because you set the max CPC so loftier, these impressions should be pretty shut to the actual monthly search volume for that keyword.

Let's employ Ahrefs Keywords Explorer to see check close these numbers are.

Non likewise far off at all. 😉

Important: This is a very rough way of gauging search volumes. Information technology is past no means definitive.

Method #2. Install Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a gratuitous Chrome extension that adds search volume and CPC to the websites yous already use: Google, YouTube, Amazon, etc.

Here information technology is in action:

But here's something a lot of people don't know: information technology as well brings search volumes to Google Keyword Planner.

Don't believe me? Take a look:

Cool, right? The outcome is that there's no easy way to consign this data.

But with a bit of XPath code and the Scraper Chrome extension, it is possible.

Whichever "hack" you lot apply, I recommend taking the numbers with a pinch of salt.

To larn why, bank check out the ii manufactures by Tim [Soulo] in the further reading section below.

ii. Run across keyword ideas for more than ten terms at ONCE

Here's what happens if y'all try to add more ten seed keywords in Google Keyword Planner:

"No stairway, denied."

Merely there is a way to go round this. Just do them one at a time. And so add them to your plan past hitting the checkbox at the acme of the listing, choosing the option to "select all 30" and hitting "add to programme.

Do you desire keyword ideas for upto 10,000 seed keywords?

Let's practise that for the 743 suggestions based off the keyword "SEO."

And then repeat for suggestions based on 10 other keywords (and then eleven seed keywords in total).

At present, if nosotros go to the Historical Metrics tab under Keywords, we run into ALL of the keywords nosotros just added. And best of all, the listing has been de-duped automatically, so there are no repeated keywords.

Past default, they're shown in alphabetical order. But you can order by search volume, contest, whatever you lot like.

3. Steal keyword ideas from your competitors

Google Keyword Planner can generate keyword suggestions from a URL.

Exercise you encounter where I'm going with this? You can spy on your competitors and steal their keywords. Just take hold of one of their URLs, paste information technology in, and select "Entire site" from the drop-down.

ii,274 keyword suggestions.

If you see a lot of keywords related to the competing brand, as we practise here, employ the filter to exclude them.

Filter > keyword text > brand name

Rinse and repeat for multiple competitors for a never-ending stream of fresh keyword ideas.

PRO TIP

Looking to observe keyword ideas for a particular page or blog postal service? Select "This page only" instead.

Let's exercise that for a competing guide to Google Keyword Planner. (I know, how meta!)

652 results.

Some nice ideas in there too. I recall I'll sprinkle a few of those throughout this guide—see if you tin spot them 😉

4. Discover the questions people are request

Knowing what questions your audition are asking can be super-useful for coming up with content ideas. This is probably why free keyword research tools like Answer The Public are so pop.

Simply yous don't need to use a split tool for this. With a little hacking, you can do this in Keyword Planner.

Filter > Keyword text > contains > enter ane of the following: who, what, why, when, where, how.

Echo the process for the other five suppositions. Information technology should await like this when you're washed:

Result: 211 questions-blazon suggestions.

There are some bully content ideas in here, such equally:

what is link building;
what is search engine optimization;
what is the all-time seo tool;
etc.

Desire more question-type queries?

How about 28,848?

That'south how many question-type queries Ahrefs Keywords Explorer finds for the seed keyword "SEO."

Y'all may notice that these all take exact search volumes besides. 😉

Rinse and repeat this process with dissimilar seed keywords to build up a BIG list of question-based queries.

Just add the filtered results to your plan each time. You can even create an advertisement group specifically for these terms.

This makes it easier to filter for these terms in Excel / Google Sheets if you export your programme.

five. Notice lucrative keywords by looking at suggested bid

Keyword suggestions are all well and skillful, but how do y'all know which are valuable to your business?

You could sift through them all manually only this is no fun, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of keyword ideas.

My recommendation? Employ the "Top of folio bid (loftier range)" column.

Here'south Google'south definition of what this is:

"Top of page bid (high range)" shows the college range of what advertisers have historically paid for a keyword'due south top of page bid, based on your location and Search Network settings. The boilerplate CPC of your keywords may vary.

I know what yous're thinking:

Josh, that sounds like it's for AdWords… how is that useful for SEO?

Elementary. If people are willing to bid a lot for this keyword, information technology must be converting to sales. And if it's converting cold Google traffic to sales or leads, it's probably worth pursuing and trying to rank for.

To sort by this cavalcade, merely click the column header. Make certain it's sorted high to low equally that way, the near lucrative keywords will ascension to the superlative.

Nine times out of 10, this will instantly unveil the keywords with commercial intent.

pro tip

Are you thinking of targeting one of these keywords? Always recollect to check what businesses ad are here before doing so.

You tin can exercise this by Googling the term and looking at the ads.

Are they selling the same products or services as you lot? Then it'south probably a good keyword to target.

Oh, and here's a bonus tip:

Sort this cavalcade in ascending order to notice informational search terms. These are oftentimes great topics for blog posts.

half-dozen. See keyword volumes for local areas… right down to the CITY level

About keyword inquiry tools are incapable of telling you how many people search for a term in specific states, cities and other localized areas. They only evidence search volumes for the entire state.

Such volumes are somewhat useless when it comes to local SEO.

Let's say that you lot're a plumber. Using the impressions → search volumes hack (#1), we can see that the term "plumber" will receive an estimated ~286K impressions over the next 30 days.

But plumbers don't serve the unabridged country. That would be impossible.

The cool thing virtually Google Keyword Planner is that yous tin can actually meet the estimated impressions for much more localized areas. Fifty-fifty for specific cities.

Simply start typing a location into the location filter at the top. Allow's endeavour it for Los Angeles (city).

Now we see that "plumber" has merely ~12K monthly impressions. Pretty neat, correct?

This isn't just useful for local businesses though. You can also use it to understand the most pop locations from which a term is searched.

But add together a keyword (or many) to your plan—I'll go for "hendersons enjoy."

Now get to the Plan Overview, select "All locations" in the locations filter, and whorl downwardly to the Locations box. You volition see a list of the top countries from which the keyword gets searched.

Sidenote.

Make sure to articulate the city-specific location filter beginning.

You lot tin can see that for "hendersons relish," 94.5% of all impressions comes from the United Kingdom. Hardly surprising, as information technology's a British additive.

But you lot can go even deeper. Knowing that almost searches come from the UK, we tin can set UK as the location in the location filter. Now the Locations box volition show more localized areas.

93.1% of all searches are in England. Let's use the drop-down and narrow this down further… to counties.

17.1% in South Yorkshire, but besides viii.7% in London—seems it's popular amongst Londoners as well (for some reason).

At present permit's expect at cities.

8% in Sheffield. Once again, hardly surprising—that's where it's made. 🙂

pro tip

You lot can as well utilize this feature to assistance figure out WHO you should create content for.

For instance, 3.9% of all searches for "luxury auto rental" come up from the city of Los Angeles.

If you ran a luxury car hire visitor, information technology might pay to create content that would entreatment to folk from Los Angeles… even if information technology wasn't totally car-related. This would be a great way to get on the radar of potential customers.

Proficient idea? The folk at Rentalcars.com seem to call up so.

Note. I have no affiliation with rentalcars.com. It's simply an instance.

Recommended reading: Local SEO: A Uncomplicated (But Complete) Guide

7. See which devices people are using (and which y'all should be optimizing for)

People utilize many types of device to browse the web these days, namely smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Each of these have very different screen sizes, which ways it's difficult to perfectly optimize your site for all of them.

To illustrate, here'due south how a section of costless keyword research tools mail service looks on desktop…

…and on mobile:

While the text is totally readable, some of the numbers on the screenshot are pretty difficult to read on a small-scale screen size. This doesn't make for the best user-experience.

But here'southward the affair: I know that most of the people who read this guide do then on desktop.

How? I checked in Google Keyword Planner.

To do this, add a keyword to your program and become to the Plan Overview. Look at the Devices section, namely the Impressions bar. Rollover this and it will tell you what percentage of impressions come from each device category.

You can run across that for the keyword "gratis keyword inquiry tools," 92% of impressions come from computers—devices with large screens.

So it makes full sense to prioritise the desktop user-experience above all else.

For some keywords, information technology will be the other way round. Accept "best restaurants near me" for example.

91.4% of all impressions come from mobile devices.

This makes sense. People Googling this are most probable just looking for a practiced eatery for tiffin/dinner while out and about.

Concluding Thoughts

Google Keyword Planner is conspicuously a powerful tool. I recommend incorporating information technology into your keyword research workflow. It's packed with super-valuable insights that you can't get from any other keyword research tools.

But it does have its limitations, the lack of accurate search volumes being a BIG one.

Luckily, this tin be solved with other keyword research tools, such as Ahrefs Keywords Explorer. Such tools combine data from Google Keyword Planner with clickstream data to generate accurate search volume estimations, and more than.