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If you want more traffic from Google, the best way to get it is to do proper keyword research. Because this will help you in understanding what people are looking for.

Google offers a free keyword research tool, which is also known as Google Keyword Planner. The free tool got a bad name for itself after it removed the exact monthly search volumes. Now you will only find a vague range.

However, you can get them back if you run an AdWords campaign. This will cost you some money but this is a very powerful tool. It has a lot of benefits.

The problem with Google Keyword Planner is, a lot of us don’t know how to get the most out of this tool.

How do you get access to Google Keyword Planner?

It is a 100% free tool and you will not need to spend any money but you will need a Google account. You shall be asked to set up an AdWords campaign.

However, you can access it without running the AdWords ad. The first step is to open Googe ads and go to the Keyword Planner.

When you see “what is the main advertising goal”, then you choose, “experienced with Google Ads”. Now there is a trick here. Sometimes you will not be able to find the option of “experienced with Google Ads”.

Google displays the link in browser windows of a certain width. Resize the browser window and you will get the link. Now, click on “create an account without a campaign link” and hit on “submit”.

Click on “explore your account”. The next option is to click on the “tools” link present on the menu bar and “switch to expert mode”. Confirm it through the prompt.

Finally, go to the “tools” link on the menu and you will be able to see the link to the Keyword Planner.

Now you have access to Keyword Planner.

How to use the Google Keyword Planner?

Google Keyword Planner will offer you two options. You can “find keywords” to know what people are interested in. Or you can “get search volume and forecasts”.

To find Keywords

If you want to discover new ideas for keywords, then you can enter phrases or URLs related to the business. Google will offer you some keyword suggestions. For every suggestion, you shall see, average monthly searches, competition, top of the page bit (in low range), and top of the page bid (in high range).

You can use long-term phrases as well. Also, you have the option to use a URL or website as the seed. You can enter ten seed keywords and a URL at the same time.

However, remember that anything you do, Google will not offer you more than a few thousand keyword suggestions.

To get the search volume and forecasts

If you already have a list of keywords, then this is where you check the search volume and forecasts. It will show the number of clicks and impressions to expect if you decide to run the ads for certain keywords on Google AdWords for a period of 30 days.

You will be able to see the estimated costs, CTR, CPC, and more. Visit the “historical metrics” tab to check the average search volumes of 12-months. These are the ranges you will see when you start with “find new keywords”.

The best Google Keyword Planner Hacks

1. How to unlock the exact search volumes

This is one of the most important tricks that a lot of us would want to know. The first way to know this is to check the estimated impressions for the maximum CPC. Add some keywords to your plan and enter them into the “get search volumes and metrics” tool.

Also, you can check some keywords in the Keyword ideas view and then add them to your plan. Make sure you choose the “exact match” option when prompted.

Go to the “keywords” view, then click on the dropdown and set the max. CPC is as high as possible. Now, notice the “impressions” column. Here you will find the estimated number of impressions that your ad will get in the next month if you run it with certain keywords.

Since you have set the maximum CPC so high, the impressions will be close to the actual monthly search volume.

You can either do this or you can install Keywords Everywhere. It is a free Chrome extension that will add the search volume to the websites that you are already using. It will also bring search volume to Keyword Planner.

2. Check the keyword ideas for more than 10 terms at once

Now, the common idea is to add 10 keyword terms. But you can add more than that. Just add one at a time to the plan through the checkbox at the top of the list and then choose the option “select all XXX” and then “add to the plan”.

Now you can repeat for the suggestions based on ten other keywords. Thus, eleven will be selected in total. Now, if you visit the historical metrics tab, you will see all the keywords added. The list gets de-duped automatically. Thus, there will be no repeated keywords.

3. Stealing keyword ideas from competitors

Keyword Planner will help you in generating keywords from a URL. Thus, you can spy on your competitors and check what keywords they are using. If you see there are a lot of related keywords, then you can use the filter option to exclude them.

4. Find questions that people are asking

Use the filter option in the Keyword planner and enter terms like ‘why’, ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘how’. Repeat this process and you will find questions that people frequently ask. Add filtered results to your plan every time and you will be able to create an ad group for these terms.

5. Find feasible keywords by checking the suggested bid

Use the “top of page bid” – the high range column. It is simple, if people are ready to bid on this keyword, it must be converting. Thus, it is worth pursuing.

To sort this column, make sure it is sorted high to low so that the most lucrative keywords rise to the top.

6. Check the keywords for the local areas

Local SEO is extremely important to get more local and targeted traffic. This is a great thing about Google Keyword Planner where you can see more localized areas, even for cities.

This is not only useful for the local businesses, but you can also use it to understand the popular locations from which a term is searched.

Visit “plan overview” and select all locations in the filter and the scroll to the locations box. Here you will see the list of the top countries from where the keyword is searched.

7. Check which devices people are using

People use a lot of devices these days for browsing the web. They use smartphones, laptops, tablets, and iPad with different screen sizes. To optimize your content for mobile devices, go to the Plan Overview section.

Then check the devices section, the impressions bar. When you hover over this, it will tell you the percentage of impressions that come from each device category.

In the end, it can be said that Google Keyword Planner is one of the best tools for one of the major segments of digital marketing, i.e. SEO for web content writing. It is one of the highly recommended tools and we hope you will find all the necessary solutions in this blog.