how to do keyword research in google adwords

Find Keyword Ideas in Seconds

Boost SEO results with powerful keyword research

How to Use Google Keyword Planner

Written by Brian Dean

Google Keyword Planner is a keyword research tool used by advertisers based on Google-suggested phrase terms as the primary foundation. It helps one discover relevant keywords for search campaigns to ensure ads get to the right audience. Importantly, the tool provides estimates for search volumes and costs to target the respective terms.

This is the ultimate guide to using Google Keyword Planner.

In fact, I’ve used the Google Keyword Planner (formerly known as Google Keyword Tool) to help grow my site’s organic traffic to 360,408 visits per month:

And in this guide, I’ll show you how to get the most SEO value out of this awesome tool.

• Step #1: Access the Google Keyword Planner

Step #2: Choose Your Tool

Step #3: filter and sort the results, step #4: analyze the keyword ideas section, step #5: choose a keyword, bonus step #1: get exact keyword search volume data, bonus step #2: the gkp hack.

Try the FREE Backlinko Keyword Research Tool . Discover new keywords and performance data to use in your site content, SEO campaigns, and more.

Step #1: Access Google Keyword Planner

Yes, Keyword Planner is a free tool.

But there’s a catch:

In order to use the Google Keyword Planner, you NEED to have a Google Ads account.

If you don’t have a Google Ads account already, you can set one up in a few minutes:

(Just follow the prompts, enter some information about you and your business, and you’re in. Note: You don’t have to run an active campaign to use the Keyword Planner. But do need to at least set up a Google Ads campaign.)

Next, log in to your Google Adwords account. Click on the “Tools” menu item to the left of your screen.

Then, choose “Keyword Planner”:

You’ll see 3 different tools within Keyword Planner: “Discover New Keywords”, “Get search volume and forecasts”, and “Organize keywords into ad groups.”

When it comes to SEO-focused keyword research , the first two tools are enough to generate thousands of potential keywords.

To be clear:

This tool is designed with PPC advertisers in mind. So there are a lot of features in the tool (like keyword bidding features) that won’t be useful if you’re using this tool to find keywords for SEO.

With that, it’s time for me to show you how to find SEO keywords using each of the tools built into the Google Keyword Planner.

There are two main tools inside of the GKP.

And now I’m going to show you how to use these two tools to help you create a massive list of keywords for your SEO campaigns .

1. Discover New Keywords

Like the name suggests, this tool is ideal for finding new keywords.

As you can see, the field above this tool says: “Enter products or services closely related to your business”.

Quick Note: The value you get from the Keyword Planner is largely based on the information that you enter here. So you want to be VERY strategic about what you enter into this field.

So to help you get the most out of this tool, I’ll break down each of the two main options.

“ Start With Keywords ”: These words and phrases describe your business (for example, “weight loss” or “coffee”). This allows you to access Google’s internal database of keywords for different industries.

Pro Tip: You can enter multiple keywords into this field. Just put a comma after each keyword and press enter. For example, if you run an eCommerce site that sells cookies, you’d want to enter terms like “gluten free desserts” and “low carb cookies” here.

“ Start With a Website ”: This is designed for Adwords users. But you can sometimes find a few solid keywords here using your site’s homepage… or an article from your site.

(More on that later.)

Once you’ve entered your information into one (or all three) of the fields, click “Get Results”.

Next, you’ll see the Keywords Results Page. I’ll show you how to use that part of the Keyword Planner later in the guide.

For now, let’s dive into the second tool in the GKP: search volume and forecasts.

2. Get search volume and forecasts for your keywords

This feature is only really useful if you already have a long list of keywords… and just want to check their search volume. In other words, this tool won’t help you generate new keyword ideas.

To use it, copy and paste a list of keywords into the search field, and hit “Get Started”.

You’ll also see the same Keywords Results Page you see when you use the “Find new keywords” tool.

The only difference is that a) you only get data on the keywords you entered and b) Google will predict how many clicks and impressions you’ll get from the keywords you entered:

No matter which tool you ultimately used, you end up in the same place: The Keywords Result page.

And now it’s time for me to do a deep dive into how that page works… and how to get the most out of it.

Now it’s time to filter the list of keywords down to a smaller list of terms that are best for you.

Both the tools I just described will take you to the “Keywords Results Page”, which looks like this:

Here’s a breakdown of the page:

At the top of the page, you’ll notice four targeting options: Locations, Language, Search networks and Date range.

Here’s what these four things mean:

“Locations”

This is the country (or countries) that you’re marketing to. Simple.

This is the language of the keywords you want to see information on.

“Locations” and “Language” are automatically set to target English-speaking people in the United States. If that’s your target audience (in most cases it will be), you can leave these options as-is.

But let’s say you’re based in Germany. You’d want to change the Location to “Germany” and choose “German” as the language.

“Search networks”

This is whether or not you want to advertise only on Google… or Google and their “search partners”. Search partner sites include other search engines and Google properties (like YouTube).

I recommend leaving this set to just “Google”.

“Date range”

Leaving this as the default “12 months” is usually fine.

The next important feature of the Keywords Results Page is called “Add Filter”:

This feature gives you a decent amount of filtering options. So let me quickly break down each of the options for you.

Keyword Text

Here’s where you can have the tool ONLY show you keywords that contain a certain word or phrase.

Why would you want to include certain keywords?

Let’s say that you just launched a new line of blue t-shirts. In that case, you’d want to make sure the keyword “blue t-shirt” appears in all of the keywords that the Keyword Planner suggests to you.

Exclude Keywords in My Account

This excludes keywords that you’re already bidding on in Adwords.

Exclude Adult Ideas

Self-explanatory (I hope).

Avg. Monthly Searches

This is helpful for filtering out keywords with lots of search volume (after all, these terms tend to be really competitive). You may also want to filter out keywords that don’t get that many searches.

For example, let’s say that you get a big list of keyword ideas:

You can click on “Avg. Monthly Searches” to sort the results.

That way, you ONLY see keywords with lots of search volume.

You can also do the opposite. Click “Avg. Monthly Searches” again and you’ll get a list of low-volume terms:

Competition

You can have the Google Keyword Planner only show you keywords with “Low”, “Medium” or “High” competition.

This feature trips a lot of people up.

Remember: the Google Keyword Planner is designed 100% for Google Ads… not SEO.

So the “Competition” score here ONLY refers to Adwords competition (not how competitive the keyword is to rank for in Google’s organic search results). So I recommend leaving this blank.

Ad Impression Share

Again, this setting only applies to Adwords. So for the sake of SEO, we can ignore this filter.

Top of Page Bid

This is how much you’d expect to pay for your ad to appear at the top of the page for that keyword.

(This used to be called “Cost Per Click” or “CPC”.)

Top of Page Bid is a proxy indicator of commercial intent . So if you only want to target keywords that potential buyers search for, you can set this to a certain dollar amount.

As you can see, there are two options “high range” and “low range”.

I personally set the “low range” to a few dollars. That way, I can filter out keywords without any commercial intent.

Organic Impression Share

This is how often your site appears in the organic results for each keyword. (Note: to use this feature you’ll need to connect your Google Search Console Account to Google Adwords).

Organic Average Position

Where you rank (on average) for each keyword in Google organic. Again, you’ll need to connect to the GSC for this to work.

So that’s it for filtering.

The last feature of the Keywords Results Page to look out for is called “Broaden Your Search”.

This is a new feature that shows you keywords that are somewhat related to the terms you typed in.

For example, when you search for “Paleo Diet”, you get this list of suggestions:

Now that you’ve filtered the results down to keywords that are ideal for your business, let’s break down the terms that are left.

Specifically, I’m going to show you how to analyze the terms that show up in the “Keyword Ideas” section of the Keyword Planner.

Here’s what each of the terms in this section means:

Keyword (by relevance): This is the list of keywords that Google considers most relevant to the keyword or URL you typed into it.

Avg. monthly searches: Pretty self-explanatory. However, keep in mind that this is a range… and not a super-accurate indicator of search volume.

(I’ll show you how to get more accurate search volume data in a minute.)

Pro Tip: Watch out for seasonal keywords. That’s because seasonal keywords (like “Halloween costumes”) may get 50,000 searches in October and 100 searches in May. But the GKP will say that the term gets “10,000 searches per month”, which is kind of misleading.

Competition: Like I mentioned earlier, “Competition” in the Google Keyword Planner has nothing to do with SEO. Instead, “Competition” is simply the number of advertisers that are bidding on that keyword. But it IS useful to see if a keyword has any commercial intent (after all, the more people bid on a keyword, the more potential there is for them to become a lead or customer).

Top of Page Bid: This is another great way to size keyword’s monetization potential. The higher bid here, the more lucrative the traffic tends to be.

Now that you know how to use all of the tools, features and options within the Google Keyword Planner, it’s time for the last step: finding awesome keywords that you can optimize your site’s content around.

This is tricky.

Why? There are LOTS of factors that go into choosing a keyword . And it’s more art than science.

That said, I learn best from examples. So I’m going to help you choose a keyword from your list by walking you through a quick example.

(For this example I’m going to be using the “Discover new keywords” tool because this is the best way to uncover new keywords in the Google Keyword Planner.)

First, you want to think of a keyword that’s somewhat broad…but also describes your product, service or content idea.

For example, let’s say that you run an eCommerce site that sells organic food.

If you wanted to write a blog post about the health benefits of organic coffee, you wouldn’t want to use the keyword “coffee” (too broad) or “health benefits of organic coffee” (too narrow).

But a keyword like “organic coffee” would work GREAT.

So pop that keyword into the field and click “Get Started”.

And take a look at the keywords that come up:

So: how do you know which keywords to choose?

There are dozens of different factors to look at. But, in general, I like to choose keywords based on 3 main criteria:

Search Volume: Very straightforward. The higher the average search volume, the more traffic that keyword can send you.

Commercial Intent: In general, the higher the competition and suggested bid, the easier it will be to convert that traffic into paying customers when they land on your website.

Organic SEO Competition: Like commercial intent, evaluating a keyword’s competition in Google’s organic search results takes some more digging. You need to look at the websites that are ranking on the first page… and figure out how hard it’ll be to outrank them. This guide to SEO keyword competition covers everything you need to know.

The Google Keyword Planner will only show you exact search volume data if you’re running an active Adwords campaign. Otherwise, you see a range , like this:

To be honest, the range is actually fine by me. Keyword volume tends to fluctuate anyway. So even the “exact” average monthly search volume that you used to see in the GKP was a rough estimate anyway.

In other words, there’s nothing wrong with choosing keywords based on search volume ranges.

That said, there’s a nifty trick you can use to get exact search volume out of the GKP… without needing to run ads in a Google Adwords account.

Here’s how to do it…

First, find a keyword in the list of suggestions that you want to target:

Then click “add to plan”:

Next, in the right-hand sidebar of the page, click “Plan overview”:

And look at the number of “impressions” you’d get if you bid on that term:

That number is how many people search for that keyword every month.

(In this case, 2.1k searches per month.)

And just like that, you now have accurate search volume data for your keyword. Nice!

As you saw, the Google Keyword Planner is pretty cool.

That said, the Google keyword tool has two major flaws…

Flaw #1: It only gives you keywords ideas that are VERY closely related to what you type in.

For example, let’s say your business sells organic food for pets.

So you type “organic dog food” into the tool. Here’s what you get:

As you can see, these are VERY close variations of “organic dog food”, like:

• “natural dog food”
• “dog food brands”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t need a fancy tool to come up with a keyword like “dog food”.

And it’s the same story for most keywords. The GKP is good at coming up with long tail versions of your keyword . But it’s not great at generating outside-the-box keyword ideas.

Flaw #2: You get the same set of keywords everyone else does.

Needless to say, the Google Keyword Planner is an insanely popular keyword tool.

This means: the keywords that you find in the GKP tend to be SUPER competitive.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way around both of those frustrating issues: The GKP Hack.

Here’s how it works:

First, head over to the Discover New Keywords area of the GKP. Then hit “Start With a Website”.

But instead of entering a keyword, you enter a URL from another website in your niche.

For example, instead of entering “organic dog food” into the field, let’s use PetSmart’s dog food category page.

You get a laundry list of keywords that most of your competitors will NEVER see.

It gets better…

There are LOTS of other pages that you can use for the GKP Hack, including:

• Press releases
• Conference agendas
• Bio pages of influencers in your industry
• News stories
• Podcast transcripts

Basically: any page that has text on it is fair game for this technique.

I hope you enjoyed my guide to the Google Keyword Planner.

Now I’d like to hear from you:

Do you use the Keyword Planner to help you come up with keyword ideas?

Or do you mostly stick to other keyword research tools (like SEMRush)?

Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.

Although this says it was last updated a few weeks ago, I find that it is actually outdated. I’m unable to access the keyword planner without creating an ad. The screen captures in the article are no longer the same as what Google Ads is showing a new user. The icons on the top right are no longer there and the only options is to finish your first ad.

Hey June, we just updated all of the screenshots. I’ll look into what might have recently changed.

OK so I did look into this. And like I mentioned in the post, you need to setup a Google Ads account (including cc info). But you don’t need to actually run a campaign.

I ran into exactly the same issue…It won’t let you create an account unless you create a campaign. When you do that, the campaign is in PENDING state. I immediately PAUSEd the campaign which I hope stops any billing! Then you need to click the gear and switch to Expert Mode which will give you access to the WRENCH (tools and settings) to launch the keyword tools. I hope this helps.

Click the ‘skip guided content’. Then there is no need to fill in any cc or payment method detail.

But that you can only do 1st time while setting up new account and 1st time if you didn’t skip then there no option even you press go back button

Great article!

I’m having the same problem as June though.

I’ll bet someone at Google has spotted your article and decided to change it, so that people aren’t using the tool for free 🙁

I was really excited about this too, it was a great read!

I was initially having the same issue, but you have to click on the settings gear icon in the top right of the page and select “expert view” or something to that effect. Then the screenshots will match the ones in the article.

Great article, Brian! I’ve been running around trying to just “figure out” the GKP and gotten nowhere. This was exactly the straightforward tutorial I needed to get a good handle on how to make it useful 🙂

Yup, Google makes it kind of tricky to access the GKP. But, as you pointed out, it’s doable if you follow the steps from this guide. Thanks Katherine!

Did this, but no ‘expert view’ to see. I tried almost everything, followed the steps of Google itself, clicked on the link to the key word planner and it automatically sends you to the campaign builder…. Very frustrating.

April 2019 – unfortunately I am also unable to get past the ‘Create an ad’ stage. It’s requesting I put in payment information for an ad I don’t want, and there are no other routes out of this page. Anyone know of any similar keyword planners that I could use please?

Hi Lozzy, you need to setup a Google Ads account (which includes payment info) to get access. But you don’t need to actually run the ad.

Earlier GKP had option of choosing exact match and broad match keywords; couldn’t find any such option now. Could you help on this?

Hmmm. Maybe they removed that feature? I’ll look into it.

Hi, Brian – I’m writing this comment on April 6, 2019 (in case this is relevant to answering my question). Per your post, I created a Google Ads account and also a Google AdWords campaign (and entered my CC info). Now, I don’t intend to run any campaign – just want to use the Google Keyword Planner tool. So what I did is that right after I finished creating the AdWords campaign, I immediately went to the dropdown that says “Enabled” (green color) and clicked “Paused” (tan color) instead. So, my question really is: Is that all I need to do to make sure this ad campaign (which I created only because I had to to use Keyword Planner tool) NEVER runs? In other words, will Google at some point “enable” the AdWords campaign without asking me? Thanks in advance! And thanks for creating this G. Keyword Planner guide (this is my first time using this tool).

Thanks Kevin. Yup, you should be good to go. But you may want to reach out to Google Ads support to double check.

Hi Brian! and thanks for your post. I couldn’t come up with the same results as you in the Bonus Tip #1, basically my filter doesn’t take into account the item I selected and also I didn’t get why do say 120K impressions when it shows only 2.1K Anyway, hope you can answer, and thanks again man! Flo

Hi Flo, you’re welcome. That was actually a typo. It should be “2.1k”. Fixed!

Question, so if I start this Google journey, will doing all this adding words, etc cost? Does everything cost to add words?

Can you explain the difference between Volume and Average monthly searches in Keyword planner in detail

I can’t access keyword planner in order to play with it. This page https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home redirects me to “creatre a campaign”. On this one too https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/

I don’t want to create campaign, I want to use keyword planner.

How? Something changed?

Hi Alex, You don’t have to run an active campaign to use the Keyword Planner. But do need to at least set up a Google Adwords campaign.

I don’t want to create an ad for now. It requires my bank card anyway. Is this necessary? How can I use the keyword tool withthout all that?

You have to enter your billing details. You can’t use it without that.

Hi Brian, My question is as per the “old” GKP, you could add a word to your keywords and it would link the 2 together. Example: spa, facials, massage, then we would be able to add in maternity and it would only search for Maternity massage, maternity spa etc. Is this feature gone in the new version? Just makes our keywords easier to manage if w have more than one word to add (maternity was one but pregnancy with the same keywords as above.) any advice?

Hi Erika, you can still enter multiple keywords (separated by commas). But I don’t think you can do what you outlined above anymore.

Hey Erika, I think I know what you mean. You would want to use broad modified and phrase matches to have google fill in your desired blanks. E.g. +maternity +massage or “maternity massage”

There is also another method when setting up your ads, you would add in a piece of code in one of the 3 headlines. Type: Keyword, and it will give you one of three options. Select keyword and enter your keyword, such as massage, and when somebody searches X massage, google will fill in their keyword before you keyword “massage”.

Hope this helps

Thanks for your guidance. But I couldn’t start any ad campaign without filling out the payment method. Once I give my credit card number to Google, I suppose it’ll incur ad costs? How can I get around this problem? Thanks.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge on the Keyword research for SEO The Definitive Guide it really helpful. But I can search with URL to get the list of keywords my competition ain’t seeing, Error: Invalid characters such as \][`/, Is there a hack to that? Thanks in advance.

Hello Brian,

This an awesome guide for the GKT, and I am so happy with the results I got when I followed all your instructions on this guide. TBH, your blog is the best blog ever I’ve read and applied it easily without any difficulties. There’s a new update on GKT I expect you noticed when you enter your phrases and your words on the “add new keywords” box there will appear another section below called: “Other keywords to try” includes keywords related to the searches results I think we can try these keywords in this section in our keyword research, what do you think?

Thanks again for creating this guide for us! Best of luck!

Thanks Rayan. I’ll check that feature out!

Brian – great info a usual! This is a somewhat related question to GKP, but what has happened to ‘Competition’ just being listed as Low, Medium or High? Realize they changed to this awhile ago but even then I used to be able to get the number when I exported it to CSV.

I use SEO Powersuite’s Rank Tracker and I can see the number in their software – only hovering over it but it won’t export with number. When I do export still get the Low, Medium, High. It pulls directly from GKP so the number is still being generated.

Multiple Questions:

1 – I was wondering if there’s anyway to get the number? I’m creating algorithms as an additional check for keyword selection.

2 – Is Google just tightening up in order to offer it in paid plans – just like they did with search volume

3 – Is their competition calculation really a good number to consider with keywords? Does it really have/present useful information to consider in regards to keyword selection? (Guess this should be the 1st question – lol)

4 – Does the “Competition (indexed value)” number have the same value as the old competition number or serve the same purpose? This number is found when you export GKP info to CSV.

Sorry for the deluge of questions! Thanks again.

Thanks Andy. I noticed that too and I need to dig in, check out the new layout and features in the GKP and update that post. Right now, I’m not sure how to answer those questions outside of #3. And that’s basically: that’s not a great way to figure out which keywords to go with. Here’s more info on that: https://backlinko.com/keyword-competition

Through and insightful. Thank You for posting. The new GKP tool requires: 1) register ads account. 2) start a campaign 3) activate campaign then pause. 4) follow along your article.

Thank you Brian, What is the figure under Comp(Au) e.g. a value of 0-1 (e.g. .89). Is this the competition value? e.g. if its .45 vs .8 the .45 would easier to get than the one with .8?

Hey Brian. The guide is cool. However, I did not quote find the answer to something. When choosing a keyword for PPC (and low budget; new business with new Ad account), what combination to use: 1. High Volume + High Comptt 2. Low Volume + Low COmptt or some other combination? Or also use low bid range?

https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/choosing-keywords

Thank you for this useful content. There is a mistake in the beginning of your article where you say:

Note: You don’t have to run an active campaign to use the Keyword Planner. But do need to at least set up a Google Adwords campaign.

We can use google keyword planner without setup camping. In starting steps (what is your main advertising goal), below 3 options there is a link with this anchor text: “Experienced with google ads?”, by click on it, we can access google keyword planner without setup any campaign.

Hello Brian, this was great and I really liked the way you simplified everything and broke it down. It is a great content for first time users. However, I tried to use the “add to plan” part but in the plan overview I only get your plan in empty. could you maybe troubleshoot what I am doing wrong?!

If you have paid version of Ahrefs, Semrush or smth else I don’t think that you need to have GKP. Even if you’re lack of budget there is another tool – Ubersuggest. However, all of these tools don’t show volume for exact cities, states and other areas. At that point, GKP is better for local SEO and your language. Another cool features are comparing mobile and desktop traffic. Some keywords are completely mobile or desktop. It’s better to consider when you create content.

Great post Bryan Thank you for the explanations 👍

Thanks Bryan, im planning to put up an eCommerce site, and, coming to your post was a very good find, cheers!

So I made an account with google ads and I am in the dashboard area and I’m not seeing what is in the screenshots. I tried switching to expert mode but it doesn’t actually change what I’m seeing in smart mode. Is the expert mode only available on desktop?

Thank you for providing this very helpful guide on the Google Keyword Planner tool. I have been using Google Ads for 7 years now, and never took the time to do keyword research. Great article!

Has the “suggested bid” information gone? Can’t find it anymore in my keyword stats.

I can’t manually filter The “Average Monthly Search Value” In “Google Keyword Planner”

I can’t either, still trying to figure that out.

You said,”But do need to at least set up a Google Adwords campaign!”. But for this I need to pay right? So how come this Adword tool is free? If I’m wrong then correct me please…

It is asking for a campaign set up and I can’t find any other way to skip it. I think it is not free anymore.

As per the comments above, great descriptive article, but the information is no longer correct. On the final page of set up (in Aust. at least) it has a note about the amount for your ad campaign being deducted automatically. Although reasonably tech savvy, I have been unable to find any pages similar to the ones you are diplaying, no wrench icon, not even in “expert mode”… so beyond spending the $$, Im pretty sure you cant access it.

Great article. I always thought competition meant ranking competition -____-“. Thanks for sharing.

I struggle with SEO so just starting to use Google keyword tool. I appreciate the detailed post. I’m gonna check out more of your stuff. I’m excited to get into the SEO stuff.

I am going through the process of setting up a Google Adwords account, but it gives me no other option but to create an active campaign, and my website is still under development. How do I bypass this and get to Google Keyword Planner?

This guide is thought out, but actually outdated. Almost none of the screenshots match up. It appears Google changed everything up. So, if someone could muster up the courage and rewrite this whole article based on the new google format and use the SEO tactics, they could take advantage – no-one really has an updated guide out yet.

I just signed up as a guide. There is nothing expect a page that says to create a campaign. I am not able to access the keyword planner without creating a campaign.

Is there any solution to access a keyword planner without creating a campaign?

Looking forward for your answer.

Hi Brian, Thanks for the Awesome guide about keyword planner & keyword research. How can i find question related keywords in keyword Planner.

Hey Brian, this is a really nice guide and I use keyword planner for all my keyword research. But there is one thing that I’m not sure about, from what I know the impressions you talked about shows how many people will see my website if I rank in top results (as in PPC form), so how close are these numbers to the actual search volume? Thank you

Got it to work! Not really sure how, though. I was having issues with the requirements in the set up, but now it’s working. It was asking me for a url and an active website, but I bypassed it somehow. I opened a new tab and accessed google keyword planner like that. Went to try another account set up and it actually took me to the dashboard that’s shown in this article. Thanks!

Thank you for the post, Brian. I’m just getting started out, so I am very appreciative of people like you who put this information out there.

By the way, I found that when I was entering keywords into the “Discover New Keywords” line, you can just press enter without the comma to add more. Alternatively, you can use the space bar after a comma.

Nice tip there. Thanks Jason.

Wow that was convoluted, I managed to get into Expert mode without putting in my card/billing details or starting a campaign.

You have to RIGHT back to the beginning where you first put in your website name….if you are already in a Campaign, click BACK until you see the very first screen.

At the bottom in small print there is an option to “Skip Guided Content”.

(From here it gets a bit vague because I did a lot of clicks…)

From there find an option to Switch to Expert Mode. Either on the page or on the top bar (there might be a wrench icon).

In fact, I had to Switch to Export Mode twice.

At some point I ended up with “All Campaigns”, this is good, because now you’ll see the Tools & Settings option > Planning > Keyword Tool.

Now bookmark it so you never have to tear your hair out again.

This doesnt work anymore does it?

1. go to search bar, type “google keyword planner tool” 2. sign in with your google ads account 3. if google is requesting you to make a campaign first, just hit the “back” button several times until you don’t see it anymore. 4. click the tiny blue phrase “switch to expert mode” 5. click the tiny blue phrase “Create an account without a campaign” 6. click the “submit” button 7. click “explore your campaign” button 8. click the wrench icon which says “settings” 9. click “switch to expert mode” 10. confirm by clicking one last time “switch to expert mode” 11. click the wrench icon which says “tools and settings” 12. there ya go, click “keyword planner”

What happened to the blue graph that used to be beside the numbers on the average monthly searches column? It was a great indication of seasonality and now it seems to have disappeared.

People here are saying that they can’t use Google KWP anymore, but that’s not true, I can use this, just by signing up for Google Ads with no campaign!

Hi Brian, After getting thru “Discover new Keywords”, I’m not getting exact monthly searches and graphs. I’m simply getting the range. How is this so???

Hi Brian, Thanks for this brief information. I am curious to know, the data shown in the keyword research is a real-time data or how to check the last updated date.

Am I missing something? I’ve used Google’s keyword planner in the past and came back here in September 2020 because now it just gives me results based on EUR1 of spending, rather than the search volume data you can see in Step 3 of this guide. Is there any way to get to the old volume view?

Hi Brian, thank you for your great content!

I’m reading your guide in Sep, 2020 and I have just realized that there’s no more “Add to plan” button.

The UI of GKP is changed, too. We can’t see the exact search volume without running ads campaigns.

Please have a look and update your guide so it can be the most updated for everyone 🙂

Once again, thank you and I admire you a lot!

This is super useful! It’s a lot to take in, but step by step I’m getting there. Especially the part about entering a link to a website of a similar brand or product website. Maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention, but I am not sure what my next step can be once I have all these awesome insights in keywords from another website. How can I use this to my advantages? (It’s such a massive list).

Many thanks!!

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How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner's Guide

Published: April 04, 2024

While Google keeps us on our toes with all the algorithm updates they keep rollin' out, one thing has stayed pretty consistent for inbound marketers looking to optimize their websites for search: keyword research.

In this post, we’ll define what keyword research is, why it’s important, how to conduct your research for your SEO strategy, and choose the right keywords for your website.

Table of Contents

What is keyword research?

Why is keyword research important, elements of keyword research, how to research keywords for your seo strategy, how to find and choose keywords for your website.

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing search terms that people enter into search engines with the goal of using that data for a specific purpose, often for search engine optimization (SEO) or general marketing. Keyword research can uncover queries to target, the popularity of these queries, their ranking difficulty, and more.

Keyword research helps you find which keywords are best to target and provides valuable insight into the queries that your target audience is actually searching on Google.

Insights from these actual search terms can help inform your content strategy as well as your larger marketing strategy.

People use keywords to find solutions when conducting research online.

So if your content is successful in getting in front of your audience as they conduct searches, you stand to gain more traffic. Therefore, you should be targeting those searches with content that features those keywords in a meaningful way.

Additionally, inbound methodology focuses less on creating content around what we want to tell people. Instead, we should be creating content around what people want to discover.

In other words, our audience is coming to us for helpful content that provides the answers they’re looking for.

In a nutshell, all of this starts with keyword research.

Conducting keyword research has many benefits, the most popular being:

Marketing Trend Insight

Conducting effective keyword research can provide you with insights into current marketing trends and help you center your content on relevant topics and keywords your audience is in search of.

Traffic Growth

When you identify the best-fitting keywords for the content you publish, the higher you’ll rank in search engine results — the more traffic you’ll attract to your website.

Customer Acquisition

If your business has content that other business professionals are looking for, you can meet their needs and provide them with a call-to-action that will lead them into the buyer journey from the awareness stage to the point of purchase.

By researching keywords for their popularity, search volume, and general intent, you can tackle the questions that most people in your audience want answers to.

Keywords vs. Topics

More and more, we hear how much SEO has evolved over just the last 10 years and how seemingly unimportant keywords have transformed our ability to rank well for the searches people make every day.

And to some extent, this is true, but in the eyes of an SEO professional, it’s a different approach. Rather, it’s the intent behind that keyword and whether or not a piece of content solves for that intent (we’ll talk more about intent in just a minute).

But that doesn’t mean keyword research is an outdated process. Let me explain:

Keyword research tells you what topics people care about and, assuming you use the right SEO tool, how popular those topics actually are among your audience.

The operative term here is topics, plural. By researching keywords that are getting a high volume of searches per month, you can identify and sort your content into topics or buckets that you want to create content on.

Then, you can use these topics to dictate which keywords you look for and target.

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• Search Volume
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There are three main elements I have discovered that you should pay attention to when conducting keyword research.

1. Relevance

Google ranks content for relevance.

This is where the concept of search intent comes in. Your content will only rank for a keyword if it meets the searchers’ needs.

In addition, your content must be the best resource out there for the query. After all, why would Google rank your content higher if it provides less value than other content that exists on the web?

2. Authority

Google will provide more weight to sources it deems authoritative.

That means you must do all you can to become an authoritative source by enriching your site with helpful, informative content and promoting that content to earn social signals and backlinks.

If you’re not seen as authoritative in the space, or if a keyword’s SERPs are loaded with heavy sources you can’t compete with (like Forbes or The Mayo Clinic), you have a lower chance of ranking unless your content is exceptional.

You may end up ranking on the first page for a specific keyword, but if no one ever searches for it, it will not result in traffic to your site. It's like setting up a shop in a ghost town.

Volume is measured by MSV (monthly search volume), which means the number of times the keyword is searched per month across all audiences.

• Make a list of important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business.
• Fill in those topic buckets with keywords.
• Understand how intent affects keyword research and analyze accordingly.
• Research related search terms.
• Use keyword research tools to your advantage.

I’m going to lay out a keyword research process you can follow to help you come up with a list of terms you should be targeting.

That way, you’ll be able to establish and execute a strong keyword strategy that helps you get found for the search terms you actually care about.

Step 1. Make a list of important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business.

To kick off this process, think about the topics you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets.

You’ll come up with about five to 10 topic buckets you think are important to your business, and then you’ll use those topic buckets to help come up with some specific keywords later in the process.

If you’re a regular blogger, these are probably the topics you blog about most frequently. Or perhaps they’re the topics that come up the most in sales conversations.

Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer personas . What types of topics would your target audience search that you’d want your business to get found for?

Drill down into your website’s traffic sources, and sift through your organic search traffic bucket to identify the keywords people are using to arrive at your site.

Repeat this exercise for as many topic buckets as you have.

Remember, if you’re having trouble coming up with relevant search terms, you can always head on over to your customer-facing colleagues — those who are in sales or service. Ask them what types of terms their prospects or customers have questions about.

Those are often great starting points for keyword research.

Here at HubSpot, we use the Search Insights Report in this part of the process. This template is designed to help you do the same and bucket your keywords into topic clusters, analyze MSV, and inform your editorial calendar and strategy.

Featured Resource: Search Insights Report Template

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Step 3. Understand how intent affects keyword research and analyze accordingly.

Like I said in the previous section, user intent is now one of the most pivotal factors in your ability to rank well on search engines like Google.

Today, it’s more important that your web page addresses the problem a searcher intended to solve than simply carries the keyword the searcher used. So, how does this affect the keyword research you do?

It’s easy to take keywords at face value, but unfortunately, keywords can have many different meanings beneath the surface.

Because the intent behind a search is so important to your ranking potential, you need to be extra careful about how you interpret the keywords you target.

Let’s say, for example, you’re researching the keyword “how to start a blog” for an article you want to create. “Blog” can mean a blog post or the blog website itself, and what a searcher’s intent is behind that keyword will influence the direction of your article.

Does the searcher want to learn how to start an individual blog post? Or do they want to know how to actually launch a website domain for the purposes of blogging?

If your content strategy is only targeting people interested in the latter, you’ll need to make sure of the keyword’s intent before committing to it.

To verify what a user’s intent is in a keyword, it’s a good idea to simply enter this keyword into a search engine yourself and see what types of results come up.

Make sure the type of content Google is displaying relates to your intention for the keyword.

Step 4. Research related search terms.

This is a creative step you may have already thought of when doing keyword research. If not, it’s a great way to fill out those lists.

If you’re struggling to think of more keywords people might be searching about a specific topic, take a look at the related search terms that appear when you plug in a keyword into Google.

When you type in your phrase and scroll to the bottom of Google’s results, you’ll notice some suggestions for searches related to your original input.

These keywords can spark ideas for other keywords you may want to take into consideration.

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The Ultimate Google Ads Guide

How To Do Keywords Research To Start Your First Campaign

Writing by Massimo Chieruzzi

Keyword research is the lifeblood of the Google Ads Search Network.

To have your ads show up, you have to target and bid on specific keywords in your industry. For instance, if you sell handbags, you’d want to target common searches that real people conduct when looking to buy handbags.

But frequently, finding the right keywords that you can afford to bid on without sinking your budget feels next to impossible. Especially when competitors are dominating the top ad spots with higher bids than you.

In this section, you’ll learn the ins and outs of keyword research to start your campaign off on the right foot.

Start with the google keyword planner.

Why? Because you can get clear suggestions on basic topics without knowing much about keyword research in the first place.

For instance, if you haven’t ever done keyword research before, it’s hard to know where to start.

When you fire up the keyword planner, you can enter topics and phrases or even URLs from your own site (or others). Google will then create ideas for you: 

To start, simply enter a summary about your business in 1-3 words:

Hit “Get Started,” and you will find an entire list of curated keyword ideas:

Wonderful, but confusing, right?

This new list contains tons of potential keywords for your next campaign.

But it’s also complex when it comes to bidding information.

On the right-hand side of your columns, focus your attention and effort on the following metrics:

Top of the page bid low and high.  These are the amounts of money you need to bid (per click) on each keyword to be at the top of the first page or the bottom of the first page.

This gives you an idea of what you can expect to spend on keywords.

Want to rank first? You will be paying something close to “Top of the page bid (high).”

Next, look at the average monthly searches and competition levels for keywords that interest you.

You want a mix of high and low volume keywords.

Generally speaking, most keywords with higher average monthly searches will have more competition. But they will also be more general in nature, leading to fewer sales.

Having a mix of both will give you specificity and tons of traffic that you can remarket.

The key with keywords (pun intended) is to analyze intent behind the search.

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When keywords are closer to the bottom of your funnel, you can expect more direct conversions without the need for remarketing.

More generic terms, like “tv reviews,” are clearly not looking to buy from you yet.

When selecting new keywords for your campaign, you need to match them to your goals.

Ask yourself the following before selecting a keyword: ❓ Is this campaign meant to drive new sales? ❓ Is it meant to bring in new traffic and turn them into brand-aware leads that can be converted into sales later?

Always analyze the intent behind a keyword before you run with it. Match keywords directly to your campaign goals.

If you want to sell more shoes in this campaign, focus on keywords that are lower in the funnel. If you want to educate people about your shoe brand, target top of the funnel review searches.

After compiling a big list of potential keywords using the keyword tool, you can move on to using a few more tools that can help you dig deeper into potential ideas by investigating your competition.

How to Use Third-Party Tools To Spy on The Competition’s Keywords

But nothing beats spying on competitors and seeing what keywords they target and find success with.

If you aren’t sure who your competition is, conduct a basic search on Google for a keyword that you found using the keyword planner:

You should be able to find multiple companies bidding on the terms you searched for. These are your competitors , and they likely have tons of experience that you can steal with a few nifty tools.

SEMRush, a Goldmine of Informations

To start, open up SEMRush and create a free account.

In the search bar, type in your competitor’s website and hit “Search.”

On the left-hand side, click “Advertising Research” to pull up all of your competitors’ Google PPC history:

Here you can analyze their current keywords, positions for those keywords, costs per click that they pay and even their landing pages.

It’s a goldmine of information. Your competitors have already done the research on the most effective keywords.

And using the “Traffic %” column, you can see which keywords generate the most traffic for their site, giving you ideas of how much you need to spend to outrank them and steal their traffic.

Use this tool to analyze a few of your top competitors and piggyback off their existing work to dominate Google Ads.

Spyfu, to know your competitors’ whole google ads history.

Next, you can utilize SpyFu to find more keywords and even real ads that your competitors have written along with performance metrics to see which value propositions work with those specific keywords.

After typing in your competitor’s website, navigate to the “Google Ads History” tool on your menu:

This will display the most current and even historical versions of their ads, including metrics like ad position to show you which are working best.

Analyze metrics like coverage to see what percentage of searches return that specific ad.

Branded Search Terms: What Are They And Why Should You Bid on Them?

Branded terms, to put it simply, are search terms/keywords with your brand name in them.

For instance, targeting the keyword “AdEspresso” would be a branded term for AdEspresso since it’s based on the brand name itself.

The common dilemma that arises when discussing branded terms is usually about paying for terms that are going to click on your organic listings anyway.

Who wants to pay money for clicks that most likely are going to click on your organic listing? Nobody. But more often than not, that’s not the case. Not when competitors are almost always bidding on your own branded terms:

Conduct a search for nearly any brand, and you will find competitors leeching off their branded terms hoping to steal clicks from their business.

If you aren’t bidding on your own branded terms, you open the door for your competition to potentially take your leads and sales with ease.

The plus side of branded terms is that they are dirt cheap:

They are often even cheaper than what keyword tools will tell you due to increased quality scores naturally.

Since your website has everything to do with the branded term, your quality score will be 8-10 without any extra work, driving your costs down while your competitors pay more.

Still not convinced? Check out this search when looking for the branded term of Budget rental car service:

Budget ranks first, which is excellent. But their competitor is offering an insane deal: 80% off compared to Budget’s offer of 35%.

Imagine if Budget wasn’t running ads. It’s likely that this other competitor would be stealing tons of sales due to a better offer and no competition.

The fact of the matter is: branded terms are cheap, and they help you ward off competitors. Most of your branded clicks will go to organic listings anyway, meaning you barely will be paying for them.

But it’s better to pay a few dollars for clicks than lose potential customers.

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How To Do Keyword Research For Google Ads

31 · by Dennis Moons · Updated on 12 December 2022

There are tons of great articles on how to do keyword research.

And rightly so. Finding the right keywords can be extremely valuable to your business.

But unfortunately, most keyword research ends up in a forgotten spreadsheet somewhere.

I’ve been guilty of this myself. Many times I’ve started the research but didn’t follow through somewhere along the way.  I have even delivered keyword research reports to clients and failed to help them to take action based on those findings.

So rather than attempting to describe the perfect keyword research process, the focus of this article will be to do keyword research that you can use to get your Google Ads campaigns up and running.

To make the approach more practical I’ll do the actual keyword research to set up Google Ads campaigns for my own online store, Apes In Space.

Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

Keyword research for Google Ads vs SEO

As I said, the goal for this article is to do keyword research that you will actually use. To do that I’m going to cut corners to speed up the whole process.

The most important difference with most articles out there, is that they are focused on SEO.

When you’re doing keyword research for SEO, you’re looking for the keywords that are worth investing time and resources in. You’re looking for the keywords that are valuable to rank for and then try to narrow down that list to the ones within your current potential and resources.

So with SEO, the goal is to get as much relevant traffic to your site as possible.

Google Ads clicks aren’t cheap , so it’s not enough to get relevant traffic, you need to get buyers to your site.

So keyword research for Google Ads aims to research a subset of all possible keywords, the ones with the highest potential ROI.

Let’s take a look at some differences between keywords.

The Different types of Keywords

For the example in this section, pretend you are a seller of audio equipment.

Check out these 4 searches that someone used before they purchased one of your products:

• How to soundproof my room
• Microphones
• Best microphones for podcasting
• Blue yeti microphone

Now let’s dig a bit deeper into each of these search queries.

Search query #1: “How to soundproof my room”

User goal: wants to reduce the echo in a room.

We don’t know why. Maybe, it’s because the room doesn’t feel cozy, or because they’ve heard people on the phone ask them if they’re in a hallway, instead of their lovely office. All we know is they want to know how to soundproof their room.

That means the purchase intent isn’t very strong. They’re trying to understand the exact problem and aren’t ready to settle on one solution yet.

So showing an advertisement for one specific product won’t be very effective.

Here is what the search results look like for that query:

The huge video and knowledge box below it shows that Google knows that people looking for this search query have a problem they’re trying to solve.

There are some Google Shopping Ads in the sidebar but these are pretty broad.

Search query #2: “microphones”

After heading off to YouTube and watching some videos, our study object has gotten a lot smarter about acoustics. He (your potential client) realizes that he can soundproof all his walls and still have poor audio quality.

So he wants to see if changing his microphone will actually improve the quality.

So he takes to Google:

This broad category search is more commercial, illustrated by the Shopping ads that are more prominently featured.

But result #2 is wikipedia, so Google knows this searcher is still looking for info .

Maybe he starts with the wikipedia pages to discover what the characteristics of a good microphone are and why some are cheap while others are expensive.

Search query #3: “best microphones for podcasting”

While researching, he (the client) has found that not all microphones are equal. Ones for singers are radically different from those used for podcasting, the actual reason he’s searching on Google.

So now, he digs deeper into the podcasting microphones.

In the organic search results, you can see a lot of lists, top 10, review sites:

Keyword #4: “blue yeti microphone”

From the previous search, he has learned a lot about podcast microphones and has made up his mind.

He wants to get the blue yeti microphone. Now he wants to find the best deal.

In the results you can see pretty commercial listings: product pages, star ratings, pricing, etc:

Keywords and Purchase Intent

I hope the long winded example from the previous section actually makes it more obvious that there can be a lot of information packed into a small number of words.

Most search queries can be subdivided as follows:

• Informational: how to, what, when
• Orienting: best, review, compare, etc.
• Transactional: product searches, price, buy

The most important lesson takeaway is that not every search has the same value .

A visitor coming from a transactional search query will have a higher conversion rate and therefore higher value compared to an informational search query.

So if you have to pay for each click, it makes sense to focus on the most valuable searches.

There often is little opportunity to advertise on informational queries on Google Ads. If you remember that first example search query above, Google only showed a few ads. Sometimes, Google doesn’t even bother to place ads, because it has seen from its experiments that users don’t click on them for those types of searches.

But with other queries, people do click on the ads. This difference between search queries is not a secret, Google knows it and so do your competitors.

If you’re doing keyword research for SEO, a lot of time is spent to find the keywords that will allow you to capture these informational search queries.

But in what follows, I’ll skip that part and focus on orienting and transactional search queries.

Step 1: Finding Your Seed Keywords

⏱  Time needed for this step: 30 mins – 1 hour

With all of that background, we can (finally!) start the keyword research.

To start, you’ll need to come up with some guesses for relevant keywords, these will be your seed keywords.

Look at your own site and take notes of page titles, categories, product names or brands. Look at the text you use in your navigation.

The easiest ones are probably the phrases that describe the category you’re in.

If you are selling your own or third party brands, your seed keywords will include combinations of these: brand and brand + product.

For my own store (which sells space posters ) I came up with the following:

• Space posters
• Moon posters
• Nasa posters
• Spacex posters
• Mars posters

If your store has been up for a while, you can crack open Search Console and see if you can spot interesting keywords in the Performance report:

These reports will often show you interesting new keywords, so make sure to have a look!

How To Steal Your Competitors Most Important Keywords

If you don’t have any idea about your seed keywords h, you can always head over to your competitors’ sites. Just plug in your top keywords into Google and go through 2 or 3 of the sites that rank well for them.

The biggest ones have probably done their homework or spent $$$ on SEO consultants to get this right.

Here is a look at one of the biggest sites in the poster space: Allposters.com

I found them through a Google Search for “space posters”.

Looking at the breadcrumbs of the page I landed on I can see that Space is probably not a big category for them, as it is grouped under the “other subjects” category.

From their navigation and category pages I can see a lot of other keywords with potential:

• astronaut posters ( including the name of the most famous ones)
• Apollo spacecraft posters
• Cassini Posters
• International space station posters
• Mars rover posters
• Space shuttle posters
• Space exploration posters

Here is what we’ll do with them.

Probably the only tool you absolutely need for keyword research is a spreadsheet . So that’s where I’ll be organizing all of my information.

I’ve added all my own keywords and those from my competitor research to the first sheet:

Be sure to grab your version of this worksheet 👇

Step 2: Bring In The Keyword Tools

⏱   1-4 hours

Now that we have our seed keywords, it is time to see if they make sense.

We’ll do that by using some keyword research tools. These will give us the search volumes and interesting alternatives like synonyms or related keywords.

Now the question that’s on everyone’s mind: which keyword tool should you use?

My default recommendation has always been Google Ads’ very own Keyword Planner .

But the last couple of years it has lost a lot of its glory: interface is a mess, it stopped showing all search queries, started grouping keywords into buckets  and made it a requirement that you have active campaigns in order to use it.

For SEO research I use some of the tools that I’ve listed below. But for Google Ads I don’t need the data to be 100% accurate. So I still use the Keyword Planner to start out. But I always keep in mind that the volumes aren’t accurate and that I’m not seeing all the keywords.

So in what follows I’m going to use the Keyword Planner. If you don’t have access or would like to use a different tool, great. The approach won’t be very different:

• Plug in your seed keywords
• Comb through the suggestions
• Export suggestion to your spreadsheet

For our example, I start by plugging in “space posters”:

You can see my seed keyword “space posters” up top. Next to it are a couple of columns: monthly searches, competition, ad impression share and suggested “Top of page bid”.

The monthly search volumes aren’t super accurate, but they give a good idea of the ballpark volume for any keyword.

Next I start scrolling through this list.

And from this first search I already stumbled on a couple of interesting keywords I hadn’t considered: space prints, nasa prints, hubble prints, nasa space posters, nasa jpl posters, outer space posters, large space posters, etc.

I don’t know yet if these keywords are valuable and will be in my campaigns, so I Add them to my Keyword plan:

This allows me to export all interesting keyword ideas and review them in my spreadsheet later. Don’t just gloss over the first page, keep going through till page 3 and 4 to find the gems.

If you spot obvious irrelevant keywords that are closely related to the keywords you’ve found, I also add them to my list. These will make a perfect negative keywords list to start out with. Otherwise I’d have to pay for that traffic and only after excluding it.

Then I repeat this process with the next keyword in my seed list: moon posters.

As you do this for all of your seed keywords, you’ll discover that you won’t add that many new ones over time, or the ones that remain have a low search volume (10-20 searches/month). That’s because the best ones are already in your list. Don’t worry about that and just keep expanding your list of keywords.

Then when you think you’re ready, export your Keyword Plan:

In the dropdown, choose “Plan historical metrics (.csv)”.

If you can’t or don’t want to use Keyword Planner, you can also use other tools like  Semrush  or  ahrefs .

These tools will provide a similar set of keyword data. On top of that, they will have extra features to discover the most valuable keywords. One of their biggest advantages is its competitor keyword research reports. That allows you to tap directly into your competitors’ Google Ads campaigns.

Doing all the above is pretty straight forward for branded and product keywords. Usually it’s the generic keywords where you’ll spend most time.

At the end of this step, you should have a big keyword dump in your spreadsheet. In the next step, I’ll show you how to turn this list into something actionable.

Step 3: Keyword Review

⏱   1 – 4 hours

For my own store, the previous step produced 279 keywords. This is not a lot by the way if you’re selling 100 products you can easily have 200 keywords just from the brand and product searches alone.

So it depends how deep you got into this. If you’re starting out, you can start with a section of your site and cover the rest later.

To get them into a Google Ads campaign I need to review and group the most relevant keywords together. Afterward, these groups will turn in my ad groups.

In SEO, very low search volumes aren’t worth the effort. But in our Google Ads campaigns, fewer searches simply means less cost. So don’t discard a keyword because the keyword tool of your choice only shows a handful of searches.

Take a look at the sorting process:

I’ve created 16 columns and besides the most obvious ones, I’m also creating a column for negative keywords and content. These last two can help with other parts of my marketing.

Next, you need to decide which keywords you want to start advertising on. For me, I’m going to exclude the ones where I don’t have a good product catalog yet. I’ve marked them in red.

Because these generic keywords are of the orienting type, people still want to browse so if I don’t have a good collection, I’d rather not pay for the traffic.

The largest amount of keywords came from the retro NASA posters. NASA gives them away for free so advertising on these keywords is going to attract a lot of people to the site that have no intent on buying anything, so I’m also excluding them.

Step 4: Setting up the Google Ads campaigns

So far, I have found the most interesting, transactional search queries for my store and I’ve sorted them in closely related groups.

The next step is to turn this spreadsheet into an actual Google Ads campaign .

There are two things you need to decide:

• Which campaigns and ad groups are you going to create?
• Which keywords and match types will you use?

Here are a couple of guidelines to help you decide:

Set up separate campaigns for:

• Your brand name(s)
• Your competitors’ brands
• Other brands and products that you sell
• Generic keywords
• Different countries & languages

Set up separate ad groups for:

• Different subjects (don’t mix keywords related to fridges and freezers)
• Different intents (people searching for discounts vs searching for product specs)

These are just guidelines, you don’t have to follow them. You can go more extreme: single keyword ad groups or huge ad groups.

But try to keep the number of keywords in each ad group limited. Otherwise, you’ll have a tough time setting up advertisements that address the questions that searchers might have.

For my own store I’ve created two campaigns:

• Search – Branding – US
• Search – Generic – US

The columns that I created in step 3 were already good, but I’ve made them even more granular to really make sure that I know what the person is looking for with each search query.

Here is what my ad groups look like:

Campaign: Search – Branding – US Ad group:

• Apes in space

Campaign: Search – Generic – US Ad groups:

• NASA posters
• Earth posters
• Moon landing posters
• Apollo posters
• Saturn v posters
• Apollo 8 posters
• Apollo 11 posters
• Apollo 12 posters
• Apollo 15 posters
• spacex retro posters
• Spacecraft poster posters
• Space Shuttle posters

If you want to have a look for yourself, be sure to grab your version of this worksheet 👇

Getting down to that detail forces you to consider the validity of each keyword.

I’ve created a whole new column for keywords that are interesting, but where my product catalog is lacking.

To make sure I don’t show up for these searches, I should add them to my negative keywords for the time being.

If you dig deeper, you’ll see that there are two very big ad groups: space posters and NASA posters. If I put these campaigns live and a lot of traffic comes in, I might split these up even further.

That completes the initial phase of the keyword research and means that my campaigns are ready to go live.

Step 5: Keyword Expansion

⏱   Ongoing effort

Most people think that keyword research is done once the campaigns are live.

But with Google Ads, keyword research only starts when you actually start. Because if you’ve set up your campaigns well, new keywords ideas will keep flowing into your account. I do that by using modified broad match type keywords, they bring in a steady flow of new keyword ideas. (Stay away from the default broad match is you’re starting out)

Both ideas for increasing your traffic: new interesting and highly relevant keywords, but you’ll also find plenty of keywords to add to your negative keyword lists.

Maybe one ad group has a lot of keywords and you want to break it up to write an ad and send those visitors to a landing page that is even more specific.

Your goto source for this information is the Search Terms report in the Keywords section of your Google Ads account:

You can get these reports on the account, campaign or ad group level.

If you spend a lot of time doing keyword research before you start your campaign, you won’t have that much work keeping up with new keywords.

But if you’ve quickly skipped through the steps above, the ongoing campaign optimization will give you a lot more work.

With the 5 step process described above, we went from having a vague idea about keywords, to discovering the most valuable ones and actually putting it into a Google Ads campaign.

When I go through this process I very often get a lot of new ideas: new products, new collections, new content or even new categories.

Got a different process or tool for finding interesting keywords? Let me know in the comments!

Dennis Moons

Dennis Moons is the founder and lead instructor at Store Growers. He's a Google Ads expert with over 12 years of experience in running Google Ads campaigns. During this time he has managed more than $5 million in ad spend and worked with clients ranging from small businesses to global brands. His goal is to provide advice that allows you to compete effectively in Google Ads. Follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn .

31 responses on "How To Do Keyword Research For Google Ads"

I’d appreciate your advice.

I’ve been using SEMrush for quite some time and it’s a solid choice but updates rarely. So I switched to Serpstat because it’s rapidly growing both in functionality and bases.

Can you suggest me similar tools?

Hi Pamela, A while back I tested a couple of PPC tools : Ahrefs, iSpionage, KeywordSpy & SpyFy. This last one came out as most accurate during that test.

But I would suggest to give a couple of them a trial to see which one fits your needs best.

useful and valuable details you shared, thanks for the important blog post. It helped me a lot.

Great tips on strategy and process. I just built a tool to make step 4 quicker and easier. https://keywordclarity.io/ allows you to analyze and group your keywords lexically and visually. Check it out!

Hi Trevor, Thanks for stopping by. Just had a look at your tool and it seems interesting (great idea to include some test data btw :p). Will give it a spin for one of my projects! -Dennis

Awesome, thanks Dennis!

Do you use broad, phrase, or exact match type for your ad campaigns? Thanks.

Hi Sim, I use a mix of modified broad (almost never regular broad), phrase & exact match . Take a look at this post for more info behind my approach: https://www.storegrowers.com/set-up-google-ads/

Thanks for sharing this information.

Awesome article, Keyword research is one of the main factors for blogger. Your article helps to know the technique to choose keywords for my blog. I am doing keyword research and had couple of queries in my mind. Now they are cleared.

This article with the step-by-step guidance is really helping me a lot. That’s why I returned to your post and made it my point to thank you for this wonderful post. Thanks a lot.

Glad you took the trouble to let me know, much appreciated 😊

Hey Denis, great post. Finding the right keywords is very important for every business. Sometimes I face a problem while doing keyword research, I get confused about which keyword tools I should use to know the right keywords and search volumes. Can you suggest me some of those tools?

No single SEO tool has 100% accurate data. But sticking with the same tool should give you the same error. So I would pick one tool and make it your tool of choice.

If you’ve got the budget, look into SEMrush or Ahrefs. Even if you only take a subscription for a single month, you can get a ton of value from it. Otherwise, I think Google Keyword planner or Ubersuggest are good alternatives.

Hope that helps.

Great article, thank you for the tips. I’m looking to start my google ads journey for my business & These tips will truly help my process!

That’s great to hear Durrell, I hope this article has put you in the right direction!

It looks like we have got a great tip and strategy to be implemented for our Google caampaigns. The explanation looks simple and if followed, will really do wonders for PPC campaigns. Personally, I like Ahref, Ubersuggest and Google’s Keyword planner. But other tools mentioned here, these also needs to be tried. One of the finest blog seen in recent times. Keep it up.

Hello, thanks for all the informative articles you’ve written on the topic. Very helpful.

I seem to have a problem downloading the keyword research worksheet. Is the link working?

Just sent it to your email. -Dennis

Hi Dennis! Thanks for the excellent post and pro tips. Could you send this worksheet for me too?

Thanks for the amazing post. I try a lot of keyword tools, but whenever I have to start a new campaign, my go-to tool is always Google Keyword planner. How do you usually decide the number of keywords that go in one Ad group?

Hi Suneesha, That depends on which keywords I’m including. But I try to keep it below 10 keywords. If you’re adding more (and the search volulme warrants it), it might be a good idea to split off an extra ad group. -Dennis

Thanks, Dennis for this informative blog. I have a little bit of confusion while learning keyword research for the google ads ppc campaign. If i offer my service as a keyword researcher on a different freelancing platform, how can i do keyword research for clients’ campaigns?

I don’t know if there are companies looking for a keyword researcher for Google Ads. I think its a skill that’s part of creating Google Ads campaigns for clients.

So that’s the first thing I would check.

If you do find such a client, I would just run through the different steps in this post, researching the current website and competitors of that client.

Hope this helps!

Clearly explained about keyword types and theirs uses

Currently I was using Google keyword planner for keyword research. Is there any other better tools to perform keyword research for Google ads.

I’m a fan of Semrush. I recommend to check my Semrush review to see if it can help.

Amazing explaination. I really enjoyed using keyword planner. It is a very good tool.

This blog is really very helpful, plus a great read. As an SEO executive learning new things is always a good thing for me.

Hi Dennis, love your site and have been using it to optimize my (very new) PPC campaigns! Thank you! I’m wondering if you could provide input for companies that are service-based rather than product-based? For example, I am a web designer, and so the “ Keywords And Purchase Intent” section in this article looks a little different for me. Prospective clients are searching for things like “web design + city,” and so on. You did a great job here of demonstrating keywords with transactional intent for product-based businesses, and I’d love to hear your take on this for service-based businesses as well. Can you speak to this a little? (And, if you are taking requests for future articles, count this one please!! 😃) A big thank you!!!

Hi Gabrielle, For service businesses, you’d have to see what the valuable keywords are for your niche.

As you mentioned, location is probably and important one. Another angle might be more specific searches. Not web design but web design construction company, etc. Hope that helps! -Dennis

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How To Effectively Research Keywords Using Google AdWords

Whether you want to sell auto parts or you want to create a campaign that advertises your new food blog, you need to know which keywords are suitable to your brand. Not just  any  keywords, either: they must be relevant keywords with  purpose . Not just any keywords will do when it comes to growing your brand, and while it may seem confusing and downright inconceivable that you can find keywords that can provide the best help to your brand, nothing could be further from the truth. You don’t have to be a marketing guru to figure out which keywords can work for your brand, either. Google AdWords can help you to find the best keywords for your brand and creating a compelling campaign that will put those keywords into action (i.e. more customers, more money).

It all starts with Google Keyword Planner (GKP). But first, you need to get a little old school. Grab a pencil and paper, because we’re about to…

Create a paper list

The greatest brainstorming tool is still a pencil and paper. Brainstorm the types of keywords and keyphrases you think potential customers search for as it pertains to your brand – you may even want to reach out to past/present customers as well as friends, family, colleagues, etc. to get an idea regarding what they’ve recently searched for on your website. Write their answers down, and highlight any words/phrases that show up more than once to indicate it may be a high-value keyword. Additionally, browse your social media messages and check to see if anyone has inquired about a certain product, service, etc. as of late. Write what you find.

Write any keywords/phrases that may come to mind. Go to your competitor’s website and social media pages to learn what keywords they may be using. For example, if they have posted a lot of content about snow shovels for driveways in the last month; if relevant, consider ranking for similar keywords.

Google Keyword Planner

We’re not going to go too deep into how to use GKP ( Google has instructions for using Google Keyword Planner ), but it’s extremely simple to use. From the main page, you can insert individual keywords and even a URL to generate ideas for keywords via the  search for new keyword  field. Want to use your paper list of keywords? Insert them into the  multiple keyword lists  field. You can even discover the search volume and how the keyword has performed historically via  get search volume and trends . These three fields will tell you everything you need to know to find new keywords and research your findings to whittle your list down to only the top, highest ranking, and competitive keywords for your brand.

Plug in your most valuable keywords into Google

From there, choose the top five search results in Google. Search your keyword on their website to discover anything: from the categories where the relevant keyword is listed to how many times it actually pops up on every page. Keep in mind where the keyword pops up: is it in the titles/headers of certain pages, or is it buried among several sub-categories and seemingly irrelevant to your competition? This will allow you to also discover relevant  niche keywords  – and the more in-demand will little competition they are, the better (you can figure this out via metrics and forecasts – more on that in a moment). For example, if you want to rank for cheap hubcaps in Windsor and find that people are searching for custom hubcap decals yet the keyword isn’t ranking very highly, congratulations: you’ve found a niche keyword you can capitalize on.

Metrics and forecasts

Google has a fantastic breakdown on how to use metrics and forecasts  so while we’re not going to get into it, know that it’s a great way to detail what your AdWords campaign will ultimately cost when ranking for certain keywords. From the number of clicks your ad will get to the number of impressions, cost, clickthrough rate (CTR) and even the overall, average cost per click (Average CPC), it’s perfect for creating a plan of action. On The Plan overview page, you can even get a breakdown as to what each campaign will cost for your keywords, allowing you to scale appropriately.

Keyword intent

Keep in mind what the searcher ‘needs’ when they search for your keywords and phrases. For example, if you are selling auto parts you probably don’t want to use AdWords to rank for the phrase, ‘how to repair automobile parts from home,’ since you’re trying to make a sale; alternatively, the keyphrase ‘cheapest auto parts in Windsor,’ would be more appropriate as it increases the odds of a customer finding your brand and buying from you directly.

The point is all the research in the world doesn’t make a bit of difference if you don’t understand  why  someone is searching. You may be trying to rank for muffler repair in Windsor, but there’s a wealth of difference between ‘how to choose a mechanic for muffler repair in Windsor,’ and, ‘muffler repair mechanic in Windsor;’ one phrase helps you  how to  choose a provider, another shows the providers outright. Just a change in a few words will give searchers completely different results. Keep this in mind when creating, cutting, adding, and perfecting your keyword list as you discover the top keywords to rank for; rank for the best, and your brand will flourish!

If you are looking for assistance with finding keywords to optimize your website around and launching Google AdWords campaigns,  get in contact with Web Geeks  and we can work with you to grow your business.

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Choose the right keywords

The right keywords can get your ad in front of the right customers, and Google Ads Keyword Planner is here to help.

Find new keywords

Search for words or phrases related to your products or services. Our keyword research tool will help you find the keywords that are most relevant for your business.

Analyse keywords

Our keyword research tool gives you insight into how often people search for certain terms – and how those searches have changed over time.

Get bid estimates

Keyword Planner will give you suggested bid estimates for each keyword to help you determine your advertising budget.

Make your plan

Once you’ve found the keywords that you like, you can add them to your advertising plan. Save your plan or share it with others. When you’re ready, you can finalise and launch your campaign.

Partner with a Google Ads expert to set up your first campaign

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How to Do Keyword Research With Google Adwords Keyword Planner

Keywords still matter. And understanding how to do keyword research is as important as writing a blog post. This is the first post in a series about how to do keyword research for your blog with a keyword planner.

The free, granddaddy keyword tool of them all is Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner. Sure, there are a bunch of paid keyword tools out there, but for someone just getting started in keyword research, Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner (KP, for short and moving forward in this post) is the ideal place to start.

Getting Started

To use KP, you’ll need to set up a Google Adwords account first. The good news is that you don’t need to be running Google Adwords to use KP. You just need to set up an account.

After you set up an Adwords account, you can simply log in and use KP.

Tools > Keyword Planner

Benefits of Using Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner

If you need keyword ideas for a blog post, start with some keyword research.

For example, with this post (yes, the one you’re reading), I did some initial searches to see the type of interest a keyword generates. After all, why would I want to write a blog post if no one wants to read it? So I start with the end in mind.

I knew I wanted to write about keyword tools. So I started there.

First search: keyword tool

Not a bad start. Lots of search volume. Medium competitiveness.

Google defines “Avg. monthly searches” as: The average number of times people have searched for this exact keyword based on the date range and targeting settings that you’ve selected .

“Competition” is defined as  the number of advertisers that showed on each keyword relative to all keywords across Google.

Based on that keyword’s volume and competitiveness, I can pay $5.61/click for it using Adwords. Or I can write a blog post about this keyword. That’s the beauty of blogging and content. Instead of paying for an ad placement, you can organically rank by writing a great post.

But I wanted to find a less competitive keyword. I refined my search to be a bit more specific.

Second search: Google AdWords keyword planner

This is what will typically happen when entering longer, more specific keywords, which are commonly referred to as long-tail keywords. There will be less search volume and less competition. I’m ok with sacrificing some search volume to increase my chances of a post ranking higher and meeting a need. This is the hidden value of long-tail keywords.

When someone searches for a highly specific phrase and you’ve written a post addressing that specific phrase, their odds of converting increase exponentially.

However, long-tail keywords have such low search volume that you may not get enough data. Don’t be discouraged. In our experience at Verblio (formerly BlogMutt), long-tail keywords still convert and drive traffic. It’s just difficult to go by the numbers when it comes to using long-tail keywords.

Don’t take my word on the value of long-tail keywords. Take Moz’s .

That’s right, 70 percent of search traffic is long-tail.

For more information about finding useful long-tail keywords that Google might not have data on, check out these sources:

• How to Identify Long-Tail Keywords for Your SEO Campaign (via Advanced Web Ranking)
• How to Find Long-Tail Keywords  (via Backlinko)

Both articles offer fantastic suggestions for gauging interest around a long-tail keyword.

Verblio’s Study on Keyword Success

I’m going to write about this in greater depth at a later date ( here’s the link ). But here’s a quick snapshot of how effective blogging can be.

We wrote and optimized a fun post around the keyword “grammar jokes” to attract more writers to Verblio. Considering the fact that writers love grammar jokes, we checked search volume and competitiveness:

We wrote our post,  “The Funniest Grammar Jokes on the Internet” on February 3, 2016.

As of February 23, this post ranks #19 on Google for the search term “grammar jokes.” We’ve garnered over 200 views and one customer lead. Now, those aren’t huge traffic numbers, but if we convert this lead, we stand to get a positive ROI on this blog post, a new ranking keyword for www.verblio.com, and great fodder to share on social media.

That’s the impact of a carefully considered and well-executed blog post around a keyword.

The Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner Checklist For Keyword Research

If you’re going to take anything away from this post, consider the following checklist:

• Start with the end in mind. Pick a keyword and see if there is search activity.
• Refine your keyword to find the best mix of search volume and competitiveness to capture a searcher’s intent.
• Use long-tail keywords when possible (use the resources listed above for long-tail keyword ideas).
• Optimize your blog post around the chosen keyword.
• Track your keyword ranking using tools like SEMrush or Moz .

If you’re not using any keyword research tool for your blogging, start with Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner. As you become more comfortable with keyword research and strategy, you’ll find that there are plenty of paid options available. But more on those later.

Pat Armitage

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How To Use The Google Ads Search Terms Report

Maximize your Google Ads profitability with the essential Google Ads Search Terms Report. Learn how to refine your keyword strategy, enhance targeting, and boost your ROI.

One of the most essential aspects of a profitable Google Ads strategy is reaching the right people, with the right message, while they’re searching.

To do this correctly, you need to know exactly how your ads are doing and what words potential customers are using to search.

This is where the Google Ads search terms report comes in handy.

This report is a goldmine and an invaluable asset to every Google Ads account.

With insights into exact phrases being used to trigger your ads, the search terms report can help:

• Significantly refine your keyword strategy.
• Enhance your targeting.
• Boost your return on investment (ROI).

Let’s get into why the Google Ads search terms report is not only helpful but essential for maximizing Google Ads profitability.

What Is The Google Ads Search Terms Report?

The search terms report is a performance tool that shows how your ad performed when triggered by actual searches on the Google Search Network.

The report shows specific terms and phrases that triggered your ad to show, which helps determine if you’re bidding on the right keywords or using the right match types.

If you find search terms that aren’t relevant for your business, you can easily add them to your negative keyword list repository.

This helps you spend your budget more effectively by ensuring your ads are only triggered for relevant, useful searches by potential customers.

Keep in mind that there is a difference between a search term and a keyword:

• Search term:  Shows the exact word or phrase a customer enters on the Google Search Network to trigger an ad.
• Keyword: The word or phrase that Google Ads advertisers target and bid on to show their ads to customers.

How To Create A Search Terms Report

Creating a search terms report in your Google Ads account is simple, and better yet – it can be automated !

To view your search terms report, you’ll need to:

• Log into your Google Ads account.
• Navigate to  “Campaigns” >> “Insights & reports” >> “Search terms”

Below is an example of where to navigate in your Google Ads account to find the search terms report.

After running this report, there are multiple actions you can take as a marketer:

• Add top-performing searches to corresponding ad groups as keywords.
• Select the desired match type (e.g. broad, phrase, exact) if adding new keywords.
• Add irrelevant search terms to a negative keyword list.

3 Ways To Use Search Terms Report Data

As mentioned above, there are numerous ways you can use the search terms report data to optimize campaign performance.

Let’s take a look at three examples of how to use this report to get the best bang for your buck.

1. Refine Existing Keyword Lists

The first area the search terms report can help with is refining existing keyword lists.

By combing through the search terms report, you can find areas of opportunities, including:

• What searches are leading to conversions.
• What searches are irrelevant to the product or service.
• What searches have high impressions but low clicks.
• How searches are being mapped to existing keywords and ad groups.

For searches leading to conversions, it likely makes sense to add those as keywords to an existing ad group or create a new ad group.

If you’re finding some searches to be irrelevant to what you’re selling, it’s best to add them as negative keywords. That prevents your ad from showing up for that search moving forward.

If some searches have a high volume of impressions, but very few clicks, these will take further consideration. If it’s a keyword worth bidding on, it may indicate that the bid strategy isn’t competitive enough – meaning you’ll have to take action on your bid strategy.

If a search term is being triggered by multiple keywords and ad groups, this is a case of cross-pollution of keywords. This can lead to lower ROI because it’s essentially having multiple keywords bid on that search term, which can drive up the cost. If this happens, you have a few options:

• Review and update existing keyword match types as necessary.
• Add negative keywords where appropriate at the ad group or campaign level to avoid cross-pollution.

Ultimately, using the search terms report in this way allows you to determine what is performing well and eliminate poor performers.

2. Understand How Your Audience Is Actually Searching For Your Product

Something I often see is a mismatch of how a company talks about its product or service vs. how a customer is actually searching for it in the real world.

If you’re bidding on keywords you think describe your product or service but are not getting any traction, you could be misaligning expectations.

Oftentimes, searches that lead to conversions are from terms you wouldn’t have thought to bid on without looking at the search terms report.

One of this report’s most underutilized use cases is finding lesser-known ways customers are searching for and finding your product.

Finding these types of keywords may result in the creation of a new campaign, especially if the search terms don’t fit existing ad group structures.

Building out campaigns by different search themes allows for appropriate bidding strategies for each because not all keyword values are created equal!

Understanding how a customer is describing their need for a product or service not only helps your keyword strategy but can lead to better-aligned product positioning.

This leads us to a third way the search term report can help your campaigns.

3. Optimize Ad Copy and Landing Pages

As discussed in #2, customers’ language and phrases can provide valuable insights into their needs and preferences.

Marketers can use the search terms report to better tailor ad copy , making it more relevant and appealing to prospective customers.

And let’s not forget about the corresponding landing page!

Once a user clicks on an ad, they expect to see an alignment of what they searched for and what is presented on a website.

Make sure that landing page content is updated regularly to better match the searcher’s intent.

This can result in a better user experience and an improvement in conversion rates.

How Using The Search Terms Report Can Help ROI

All three examples above are ways that the search terms report can improve campaign ROI.

Let’s take a look at each example further.

How Refining Keywords Helps ROI

Part of refining existing keywords is negating any irrelevant search terms that trigger an ad.

Having a solid negative keyword strategy gets rid of “unwanted” spending on keywords that don’t make sense.

That previously “wasted” spend then gets redirected to campaigns that regularly drive higher ROI.

Additionally, adding top-performing search terms gives you better control from a bid strategy perspective.

Being able to pull the appropriate levers and setting proper bid strategies by search theme ultimately leads to better ROI.

How Understanding Audience Intent Helps ROI

By understanding the exact language and search terms that potential customers use, marketers can update ad copy and landing pages to better match those searches.

This can increase ad relevance and Ad Rank within Google Ads.

These items help with keyword Quality Score, which can help reduce CPCs as your Quality Score increases.

More relevant ads likely lead to higher click-through rates, which leads to a higher likelihood of converting those users!

How Updating Ad Copy And Landing Pages Helps ROI

This example goes hand-in-hand with the above recommendation.

As you start to better understand the audience’s search intent, updating ad copy and landing pages to reflect their search indicates better ad relevance.

Once a user clicks on that relevant ad, they find the content of the landing page matches better to what they’re looking for.

This enhanced relevance can significantly increase the likelihood of conversion, which ultimately boosts ROI .

Use This Report To Make Data-Driven Decisions

Google Ads is an integral part of any digital marketing strategy , often accounting for a large portion of your marketing budget.

By regularly reviewing the search terms report, you can refine your marketing budget to make your Google Ads campaigns more effective.

Using this report to make data-driven decisions that fine-tune multiple facets of campaign management leads to more effective ad spending, higher conversions, and ultimately higher ROI.

More resources: 

• Google Ads Checklist: 5 Ways To Audit & Optimize Your Campaigns To Boost Results 
• An In-Depth Guide To Google Ads
• PPC Trends 2024

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Brooke serves as the Director of Growth Marketing at Smith Micro Software, with over 10 years of paid media experience. ...

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How to do Keywords Research using Google Adwords

By Jobnearn Tutorials | August 13, 2016

What are keywords?

Keywords are the search terms which people use to find a particular topic or thing they need at a time. For example, you need to see a doctor in your locality, so you what you do is, open Google and check for doctors near abc street . So that was a keyword which google checks for the best article and shows you the result. The ranking depends on google algorithm which is always a mystery and keep changing every quarter. Now you would like to know how to do keywords research using Google Adwords for free ? Let’s understand few basic things first.

Why keyword research is necessary

Keywords are the basic terms which must be included naturally in the articles to let google know that the particular article could a result for this query. However, there is no guarantee ever that your article will get to the top position if you include keywords. It is just your part to include it and rest, leave it to Google to rank it as per their algorithm. However, never try to manipulate google rankings with shortcuts; this could lead to Google penalty which also includes banning of website from its results. Before writing an article, do keywords research and find out the terms which needs to be included in that article which looks natural to Google.

Primary and secondary keywords

For an article there is always a primary keyword (Also known as focus keyword) and some secondary keywords. The keyword which is most important among the total keywords and has maximum search volume, is used a primary keyword and the rest is used as secondary keywords.

For example, you are finding keywords for a restaurant review article for an area abc streets.

And from adwords you found below keywords-

Restaurants near abc streets (With search volume of 1000 monthly)

Top restaurants near abc streets (With search volume of 400 monthly)

Budget restaurants for couples near abc streets (With search volume of 500 monthly)

Best restaurant for family near abc streets (With search volume of 1500 monthly)

So the keyword, Best restaurants for family near abc streets can be used as your focus keyword (primary keyword) and the rest will be used as secondary keyword.

What is keyword Density?

It is the number of times your focus keyword is used per 100 words. Generally it should be kept lower than 2%. That means, your focus keyword can be used 8-10 times in 500 word article. Secondary keywords can be used once or more as required. However, it should look natural and not keyword stuffed. Too much use of keywords in the articles is known as keyword stuffing and can lead to penalty from Google.

What is long tail keyword and how it helps?

Long tail keywords are the amalgamation of keywords done manually. It contains all the words for two or more keywords and combined into a single keyword.

For example, you have below keyword-

Dance classes near London

Best Dance class in London

Top dance class in London

Dance classes in London for couples

Hip hop dance class in London

From the above keywords, we can make a long tail keyword as List of best dance classes in London for solo and couples . This keyword contains the combination of the most of the important keywords from the above list which could help finding in multiple keyword searches.

Step by step guide on h ow to do keywords research using Google Adwords

1) Sign up for adwords.google.com using your Gmail id. No need to create any campaigns.

2) Login to Google Adwords using your id and password. You will see a screen like below- Click Image to enlarge it .

3) Then click on tools and keyword planner-

4) Once you click on keyword planner, you will see a screen like below-

5) Click on Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category.

6) Now, for example we are going to write an article on Blankenberge Beach which is present in Belgium . Start filling the form as below-

Since, this beach is specific to the country Belgium; we have set the country to Belgium. If you are searching for something generic, you can leave this field set to all countries. The search term has been written on your product or services.

You can leave the landing page blank. If you want a narrow result for the search term, you can select a category which we have kept blank for now.

Also, you can choose medium and low competition from keyword filters as high competition keywords are very difficult to rank. Check medium and low boxes from keyword filters to avoid that competitive keywords from beginning.

7) If you wish to provide some terms based on some terms or words; you can provide them on Keywords to include option. However, keep it blank to get more idea about various keywords which people search.

Now click on save and get ideas.

8) You will see a screen like below-

9) Click on the heading Avg Monthly searches to sort the volume descending.

10) From the list, select only the relevant keywords which can be used in the article. Also check for figures like, value of avg monthly searches, competition, and suggested bid. We will discuss about suggested bid later.

For our example, the search volume for Blankenberge  beach is 90 which is fine and can be used as a keyword. Below are the relevant keywords which we selected for this article-

Blankenberge  beach

Blankenberghe

blankenberge Belgium

seaworld blankenberge

beachland blankenberge

sea life center blankenberge

things to do in blankenberge

The above keywords are relevant while describing a beach and we will use the first one as the primary or focus keyword and the rest as secondary keywords.

Important point-

You might see that there could be some spelling mistakes in the keywords. This is how people search in that particular country. Check the second keyword in the above list, it is slightly different than our search term but people do search like this, and hence we are going to use it as it is and without making any changes to it.

11) Once you get the primary and secondary keywords, include them naturally in your article and try not to use too many keywords in the article. Let it look natural to Google and the audience as well.

How to find high paying keywords

When you sort on the basis of suggested bid, you will see the keywords which has the highest value of bid made by advertisers for that keyword. However, you might need to search as many terms as possible for an article to get relevant high paying keywords.

find keywords for free google adwords keyword planner how to do keywords research how to know high paying keywords how to use keyword planner ideal keyword density for articles keyword density keywords research tutorials free learn how to do keywords research online learn seo keywords research learn seo online for free long tail keywords tutorial for keyword research for free

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Find relevant keywords faster and easier with refine keywords

Keyword Planner makes it easy for you to find keywords that are relevant to your product, service, website, or landing page. However, determining where those keyword ideas fit into your campaigns is a manual and time-consuming process. To make it easier for you to find keyword ideas that fit with your new and existing campaigns, you can now refine keywords in Keyword Planner. 

Learn more about Keyword Planner in the Google Ads Help Center.

Posted by Colin Jackson, Product Manager, Google Ads

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Do you need an SEO?

SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:

• Review of your site content or structure
• Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
• Content development
• Management of online business development campaigns
• Keyword research
• SEO training
• Expertise in specific markets and geographies.

Advertising with Google won't have any effect on your site's presence in our search results. Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results. Resources such as Search Console , the official Google Search Central blog , and our discussion forum can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimize your site for organic search.

Getting started with SEO

If you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself. Here are some good resources:

• Check out our video series on building an online presence for your business.
• Search Essentials
• How Google crawls, indexes, and serves the web.
• The SEO starter guide describes much of what your SEO will do for you. Although you don't need to know this guide well yourself if you're hiring a professional to do the work for you, it is useful to be familiar with these techniques, so that you can be aware if an SEO wants to use a technique that is not recommended or, worse, strongly discouraged.

Remember that it will take time for you to see results: typically from four months to a year from the time you begin making changes until you start to see the benefits.

If you think that you still need extra help from a professional, continue reading about how to choose an SEO.

Choosing an SEO

If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you're considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.

• Be committed to implementing the recommended changes. Making the changes recommended by an SEO takes time and effort; if you aren't going to take the time to make these changes, it's not worthwhile hiring a professional.
• Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
• Do you follow the Google Search Essentials?
• Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
• What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
• What's your experience in my industry?
• What's your experience in my country/city?
• What's your experience developing international sites?
• What are your most important SEO techniques?
• How long have you been in business?
• How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?
• What makes your business or service unique and valuable to customers?
• Who are your customers?
• How does your business make money, and how can search results help?
• What other advertising channels are you using?
• Who are your competitors?
• Check your SEO's business references . Ask past clients if they felt that this SEO provided useful service, was easy to work with, and produced positive results.
• Ask for a technical and search audit for your site to learn what they think needs to be done, why, and what the expected outcome should be. You'll probably have to pay for this. You will probably have to give them read-only access to your site on Search Console. (At this stage, don't grant them write access.) Your prospective SEO should be able to give you realistic estimates of improvement, and an estimate of the work involved. If they guarantee you that their changes will give you first place in search results, find someone else.
• Decide if you want to hire.

Precautions

While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye by using overly aggressive marketing efforts and attempting to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate our spam policies may result in a negative adjustment of your site's presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from our index.

When your SEO comes up with a set of recommendations for your site, ask them to corroborate these recommendations with a trusted source, such as a Search Console help page, Google Search Central blog entry, or Google-sanctioned response in the forum .

Here are some things to consider:

• One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains are often owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.
• Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
• Finally, avoid getting involved in link schemes , such as buying links from other sites to increase your ranking. This is against Google's spam policies and can result in a manual action against some or all of your site , which will negatively affect your site ranking.

If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: https://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:

Federal Trade Commission CRC-240 Washington, D.C. 20580

If your complaint is against a company in a country other than the United States, file it at https://www.econsumer.gov/ .

Helpful guidelines

Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

"Dear google.com, I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."

Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.

Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through the URL Inspection Tool , by submitting a Sitemap , or for more specialized content, using the Google Indexing API . You can do any of these yourself.

Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you. If an SEO has FTP access to your server, they should be willing to explain all the changes they are making to your site.

Avoid SEOs that talk about link popularity schemes or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines—at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.

While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.

While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.

There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, trust your instincts:

• Owns shadow domains
• Puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
• Offers to sell keywords in the address bar
• Doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
• Guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
• Operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
• Gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
• Has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License , and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License . For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies . Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2024-03-18 UTC.

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How Marketers Can Adapt to LLM-Powered Search

• Stefano Puntoni,
• Mike Ensing,
• Jarvis Bowers

With the addition of AI-generated overviews, Google, Perplexity, OpenAI and other search engines are changing how consumers find information.

Large language models (LLMs) provide a search experience that’s dramatically different from the web-browser experience. The biggest difference is this: LLMs promise to answer queries not with links, as web browsers do, but with answers . Increasingly, using apps such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, or search portals such as Google’s Search Generative Experience (now AI Overviews) or Bing’s Copilot, customers will learn about products and brands through natural-language outputs. And that process, which will be highly consultative and conversational, will create a new information pipeline that marketers need to monitor to ensure their brands are presented for relevant prompts and described accurately. The authors present three ways for marketers to rise to this challenge.

For millions of consumers around the world, Google is the access point to the internet — and as a result, the company today enjoys a 91% market share in the $50 billion market for search ads. However, thanks to the advent of large language models (LLMs), a shakeup now seems possible for the first time in two decades.

• SP Stefano Puntoni is a professor of marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and the co-author of  Decision-Driven Analytics: Leveraging Human Intelligence to Unlock the Power of Data (Wharton Press).  
• ME Mike Ensing is the CEO and co-founder of Revere. He is an entrepreneur, advisor, and tech-industry executive focused on generative AI and its applications for enterprises and brands and has held senior and advisory positions with leading companies such as RealNetworks, Microsoft, and McKinsey.
• JB Jarvis Bowers is the COO and co-founder of Revere, an emerging marketing-technology company focused on elevating brands with LLMs and generative AI. Jarvis is an experienced marketing leader focused on the use of consumer and creative insights, customer data, and emerging platforms to deliver unique brand experiences.

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