You’ve decided to expand your content in a niche that’s already highly competitive. You need data to guide your choices, but you don’t have the time or resources to run an experiment and see what works. What do you do?
Google Keyword Planner is designed to help advertisers find words people are searching for so they can create ads around them, but it also offers thousands of keyword ideas in seconds, along with search volumes and cost-per-click (CPC) information. It has become such a mainstay among SEO professionals that even though it was created for advertising, it’s now one of the best ways to start thinking about which keywords might work.
Setting up access to the tool is easy. Go to Google Ads and sign up for a free account. Once you’re logged in, click on “Tools & Settings” at the top of the page, then select “Keyword Planner.” Then, type a seed keyword into the box, and click on “Get keyword ideas.”
You’ll be asked to choose a location and language, as well as whether you want to look at broad match, phrase match, or exact match. If you don’t know what those mean, just leave the defaults selected.
Once you’ve entered your seed keyword and clicked on “Get keyword ideas,” you’ll see a list of related keywords, along with their monthly search volume, competition, and suggested bids. These numbers give you a sense of both how much people are searching for a particular term and how difficult it would be to rank for it.
A good way to get started is to focus on the highest search volumes first. That gives you an idea of what people are looking for, and then you can narrow down to terms that are realistic for your site to compete for.
If you’re concerned about being forced to create an ad campaign, rest assured that you can skip the payment part. When you sign up for a free account, you’re given a limited number of searches, but if you don’t use them, you won’t be charged anything.
The Keyword Planner doesn’t give you all the details you’d like, but it’s a great place to start. Its strength is in generating lists quickly, and while other tools offer more detailed insights, they usually come at a high price.
Another limitation of the Keyword Planner is that its data is optimized for advertisers rather than for SEOs. The competition ratings, for example, aren’t necessarily helpful for figuring out how hard it will be to rank for a keyword. They reflect what advertisers think is needed to compete, not what users are looking for.
That means you should always check the actual search results pages (SERPs) for a keyword before committing to it. But there’s another problem: the Planner sometimes groups long-tail opportunities together or hides some of them, making it hard to see the full picture.
While other keyword research tools—like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Keyword Tool—are often better at finding specific keywords, they tend to focus on different aspects of the market and are not always as good at showing trends across broader topics. In fact, they sometimes miss the big picture entirely.
To make sure you’re getting the most from the Keyword Planner, set up a basic account and export your keyword lists. From there, prioritize the most relevant keywords based on search volume and achievable competition, and cluster them into themes or silos. Then, validate your choices by checking search intent and SERPs.
As search trends change, keep revisiting your research, because the right keywords change over time. And remember: no single source provides the complete view of the market. The Keyword Planner is just one piece of the puzzle.
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