Google’s Keyword Planner is a free keyword research tool on the Google Ads platform. It can tell you what search terms people use in Google, how popular these terms are, and how much they might cost to advertise on.
The tool is designed for PPC keyword research (finding keywords for ads). But you can also use it for SEO keyword research (finding keywords for your website).
Here’s how to use Google Keyword Planner. Step by step.
To access Google’s Keyword Planner, go to the tool’s URL within Google Ads.
If you haven’t already, you’ll need to:
- Sign in to or create your Google account
- Make sure your account is in Expert mode—not Smart mode. (You know you’re in Expert mode if the “Settings” icon is absent from the navigation menu in the top right corner.)
You’ll set up your Google Ads account as though you’re planning to advertise on Google. But don’t worry—you won’t have to launch an ad campaign if you don’t want to.
When you’re using Google Ads, you can access the Keyword Planner by going to “Tools” > “Planning” > “Keyword Planner.”
(You should only select “Get search volume and forecasts” if you’ve already selected your keywords.)
- Start with keywords: The tool will come up with keyword ideas based on the terms you enter
- Start with a website: The tool will scan your chosen domain or page to come up with keyword ideas. You can get ideas from your own website or a competitor’s.
Add your keyword or URL (depending on your chosen method).
Then, select your target language and location(s). You can choose countries, regions, cities, etc.
When you’re done, click “Get results.”
Go to “Add filter” > “Keyword” to filter for keywords that contain or don’t contain a particular term.
If you want to include/exclude terms with similar meanings as well, choose “Semantic Match” instead of “Text Match.”
For example, a luxury brand might want to avoid keywords containing “cheap” or similar terms:
Click “Expand all” and uncheck the boxes alongside any irrelevant terms (e.g., brand names you don’t sell). This will remove the corresponding keywords from your results.
Just use the checkboxes to select irrelevant keywords. Then, click “⋮ More” > “Add as negative keywords.”
- “Broad match” means your ad won’t show if the query contains your negative keyword with the terms appearing in any order
- “Phrase match” means your ad won’t show if the query contains your negative keyword with the terms in the order you specified
- “Exact match” means your ad won’t show if the query matches the negative keyword exactly as you entered it
Keyword search volume is the average number of monthly searches for a keyword each month. It gives you an idea of how many views your results could get.
Google’s Keyword Planner displays volumes in the “Avg. monthly searches” column:
To get more precise estimates, do keyword research with Semrush. Our database has the most accurate search volumes on the market.
For example, here are some results from the Keyword Magic Tool:
So, you get a better idea of potential traffic.
The keywords you use for PPC campaigns are usually different from the ones you’ll use on your website. Because they fulfill different purposes.
(There are exceptions. For example, you’ll likely use some of the same keywords on a product page as you would for a campaign that leads to that product page.)
To determine which terms you’ll want to use for paid ads and which are better suited for your website, you’ll want to analyze each term’s search intent (what the searcher is trying to achieve).
There are four main types of intent:
- Navigational: Users want to find a particular website or page
- Informational: Users want to learn more about a topic
- Commercial: Users want to conduct research before prior to making a purchase decision
- Transactional: Users want to complete an action like a purchase
The latter two are typically best for ad campaigns. Because they indicate users are nearly ready to buy.
To understand a keyword’s search intent, search it in Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool. You can see what type of keyword you’re dealing with.
Let’s explore how to evaluate both PPC and SEO keywords:
Keyword Planner provides four metrics to help you measure ad competition and estimate costs:
Competition (indexed value)
The percentage of available ad spots that are typically filled. The higher the number, the harder it’ll be to earn a spot.
Top of bid (low range)
The lower end of what advertisers have historically bid for the top ad spot. It gives you a rough idea of the minimum cost per click in this ad space.
Top of page bid (high range)
The higher end of what advertisers have historically bid for the top ad spot. It gives you a rough idea of the maximum cost per click for this keyword.
Competition
This can be “–” (if there isn’t enough data), “Low,” “Medium,” or “High.” It reflects the number of advertisers bidding on this keyword relative to other keywords.
But you might prefer to analyze competition levels in the Keyword Magic Tool.
It provides two metrics that make it easy to evaluate and compare PPC keywords:
- “Com.” measures ad competition on a scale of 0.00-1.00—with higher numbers indicating more competition
- “CPC (USD)” represents the average cost per click (CPC) in your local currency
But the Keyword Magic Tool is a particularly good option for gauging SEO ranking difficulty.
Enter your domain to see a Personal Keyword Difficulty score (PKD %) for each keyword idea. This measures how hard it’ll be for your specific domain to reach the top 10 organic results.
To see how an ad campaign using your saved PPC terms might perform, go to the “Forecast” tab in Keyword Planner.
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool is a great alternative or companion to Google’s Keyword Planner.
It allows you to:
- Gather more precise keyword search volumes
- Check your SEO ranking potential
- Find keywords that trigger desirable SERP features
- See the search intent category for each keyword
- Review search results pages in one click
And much more.