What Is Google Keyword Planner? A Guide to Using It for SEO and PPC

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool inside your Google Ads account.

• Step 1: Sign in to your Google Ads account. If you don't have one, you can create it for free.
• Step 2: Click the "Tools and Settings" icon in the top-right corner.
• Step 3: In the menu that opens, choose "Keyword Planner" under the "Planning" section.

Follow these steps and you can open the tool in seconds.

Google Keyword Planner gives you two main options:

1. Discover New Keywords

This feature lets you find new keyword ideas from a keyword you have in mind or from a website URL.

• Example: when you enter "what is SEO", the tool suggests similar or related keywords such as "SEO optimization", "SEO training" and "search engine optimization".
• It is especially useful when you are building a content strategy or looking for niche keywords.

2. Get Search Volume and Forecasts

This feature shows the estimated search volume and competition level of the keywords you already have, along with forecasts for clicks, impressions and cost.

• By listing your keywords here, you can see how often your audience searches for them and how expensive it could be to advertise on them.

For SEO (Organic Traffic)

• Find content ideas: Enter one of your website URLs in "Discover new keywords" to see which terms your site is associated with and what new content you could build around them.
• Find long-tail keywords: More specific, longer keywords usually have lower competition and a higher conversion rate than broad ones. Filter Keyword Planner's suggestions to find them.
• Understand competition: Keyword Planner shows advertiser competition as "low", "medium" or "high". This also gives you a hint for SEO: ranking for highly competitive terms can be hard, while low-competition terms tend to deliver results more easily.
• Analyze average monthly searches: Looking at search volume trends shows you which topics are seasonal and which are growing in popularity.

For PPC (Paid Ads)

• Budget and bid forecasts: The "Get search volume and forecasts" section gives you an idea of how much budget your chosen keywords need and how many clicks they could bring. This is very valuable for campaign planning.
• Building ad groups: Keyword Planner groups keywords by theme. You can use these groups as a starting point for the ad groups in your campaign.
• Finding negative keywords: While researching, you can also spot irrelevant terms you don't want your ads to show for. Adding them to your negative keyword list keeps your budget from being wasted.
• Spotting the best opportunities: Finding keywords with low competition but high search volume lets you get more clicks at a lower cost than your competitors.

• Location targeting: You can look at search volume not only for a whole country (Türkiye, in our case) but also for specific cities or regions. This is critical for local businesses.
• Date range: Look at the data over longer windows such as the last 24 or 48 months, not just the last 12, to understand trends better.
• Filters: Narrow the results with filters for search volume, competition, or including/excluding specific words.

Google Keyword Planner is an indispensable tool for successful digital marketing strategies. Whether you are trying to grow your site's organic traffic or spend your ad budget as efficiently as possible, it gives you valuable data to guide you.

Remember: good keyword research is not just about finding the most-searched terms. It is about understanding what your audience thinks, feels and looks for. Keyword Planner opens the door to that understanding.