Not just for SEM. The Google Ads Keyword Planner is a free tool originally designed to help advertisers identify relevant keywords for advertising campaigns. However, its usefulness goes beyond advertising. It is a fundamental resource to improve your SEO strategy and
increase your web traffic.
The importance of the Keyword Planner in SEO
What information does the Google Ads Keyword Planner give us?
This tool allows users to:
- Discover search terms that can improve your website’s visibility in search engines.
- Get accurate data directly from Google on monthly search volume.
- Analyze the competition and cost per click (CPC) for each keyword.
- Plan and optimize both SEO and SEM campaigns effectively.
Unlike other SEO tools, Keyword Planner offers unmatched accuracy and relevance by providing data directly from a primary source: Google.
Benefits of using Google Keyword Planner
Using the Google Ads Keyword Planner offers numerous benefits that can significantly boost your digital marketing strategy:
- Keyword Opportunity Identification: Discover new keywords related to your business and industry, allowing you to identify opportunities you may not have considered.
- Competitor analysis and cost per click (CPC): Get data on the competition and CPC for each keyword. This information is vital to assess the viability of each term and plan your strategy more effectively.
- Planning advertising and SEO campaigns: Integration with Google Ads allows you to plan both your advertising campaigns and your SEO strategies, ensuring consistency and effectiveness in both areas.
- Improved conversion rates: Businesses that use the keyword planner for SEO experience a higher conversion rate compared to those that don’t.
To get the most out of Keyword Planner, you need to understand how to integrate keywords into your content effectively and naturally. So, it’s vital to explore practical strategies to discover, analyze, and use keywords that will drive your web traffic and improve your search engine rankings.
How to get started with Google Keyword Planner
Creating and setting up your Google Ads account
To take advantage of the potential of the Keyword Planner and significantly improve your SEO strategy, the first step is to create a Google Ads account.
This process is simple and will give you access to one of the most effective tools for keyword research and advertising campaign planning.
Follow these steps to set up your account:
| Passed | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Visit the official Google Ads website |
| 2 | Click “Start Now” and enter your email address |
| 3 | Select a valid payment method (required to verify account) |
| 4 | Set up basic details: country, time zone, and currency preferences |
Although Google Ads requires a payment method for verification, you don’t need to invest in advertising to use Keyword Planner. Many businesses have managed to significantly improve their organic traffic by using only the free features of this keyword research tool.
Getting Started with Keyword Planner
Once you have set up your account, it’s time to familiarize yourself with the basic features of the Keyword Planner.
When you access the Keyword Planner, you will find two main options:
- Discover new keywords: This feature allows you to enter terms related to your business to find new keywords relevant to your strategy.
- Get search volume data and forecasts: Here you can analyze the performance of specific keywords, including monthly search volume, competition, and estimated CPC.
To begin:
- Select “Discover new keywords”.
- Enter terms related to your research and analyze the results.
- Pay close attention to metrics like search volume and competition to identify keywords with the greatest potential.
Next, it’s imperative to dive into advanced strategies to discover, analyze, and use keywords that drive your web traffic and improve your. That is, identify opportunities, analyze the competition, and effectively optimize your content search engine positioning
Strategies for discovering new keywords
Using the “Discover New Keywords” Feature
The Discover New Keywords feature is one of the most powerful tools in the Google Keyword Planner Google Ads. This feature allows you to identify additional search terms that could be relevant to your business, effectively expanding and optimizing your keyword list.
To make the most of this feature, follow these steps:
| Passed | Action | Importance |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enter terms related to your business | Helps generate a wide range of relevant keywords |
| 2 | Analyze the results | Provides key data such as search volume, competition and CPC |
| 3 | Select the relevant terms | Allows you to choose the most appropriate keywords for your strategy |
It is important to remember that keyword selection is not based solely on search volume. Relevance to your analysis and the competition for each term are equally important factors.
How to identify relevant keywords?
Selecting the right keywords is the most important thing for the success of your SEO strategy.
To identify the most relevant keywords, consider these factors:
- Relevance: Make sure your keywords are directly related to your content and your audience’s interests.
- Search volume: Go for terms with significant volume, but not necessarily the highest. Keywords with medium volume can be easier to rank for, or even low-volume keywords to target long-tail terms to gain authority.
- Competition: Evaluate the competition for each keyword. Terms with high competition may be more difficult and expensive to rank for.
- Search intent: Consider the intent behind searches (informational, mixed, or transactional). Keywords that reflect a specific purchase intent or need are often more valuable.
Therefore, the effectiveness of long-tail keywords should not be underestimated.
By applying these criteria and examples, you will be able to identify the most relevant and strategic keywords for your business. Not only will this improve your visibility in search engines, but it will also attract more qualified traffic to your website, increasing the chances of conversion and, ultimately, the success of your digital marketing strategy.
How do we know what type of search intent the user has?
This information is not revealed directly by the Keyword Planner. However, with the list of keywords it provides, we can search for each of them in Google and determine whether they are terms that a user is looking for information on (no ads or products in the SERPs) or the opposite (many ads and many products in the top positions).
Keyword analysis and selection
Interpreting search data
Once you have accessed the Google Ads Keyword Planner, the next step is to interpret the search data effectively. This information will allow you to evaluate the viability of the keywords and select the ones that best fit your SEO strategy.
To fully understand search data, it is essential to familiarize yourself with these key concepts:
- Monthly search volume: Indicates the average number of times a keyword is searched each month. High volume can be attractive, but it also means more competition.
- Competition: Reflects how many advertisers are bidding on a keyword in Google Ads. Keywords with high competition can be more difficult to target for organic positioning.
- Cost per click (CPC): Shows how much advertisers are willing to pay for each click on an ad based on that keyword. A high CPC may indicate high commercial value or, from an editorial perspective, a more qualified or higher-value audience.
Strategic keyword selection
Keyword selection goes beyond simply choosing terms with high search volume. It’s critical to consider relevance, competition, and search intent to choose terms that will truly benefit your editorial strategy and attract qualified traffic.
Here are some techniques to strategically prioritize keywords:
| Technique | Description | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Combine relevance and volume | Choose highly relevant keywords with a considerable search volume | Attract the right audience and maximize traffic potential |
| Evaluate the competition | Opt for keywords with manageable competition | Increase your chances of ranking in search results |
| Analyze search intent | Prioritize keywords that reflect a transactional intent or a specific need | Generate more qualified traffic with a higher probability of conversion |
Remember that keyword selection is an ongoing process. The market and search trends are constantly evolving, so it is vital to review and adjust your keyword strategy regularly.
Use the tools and data provided by Keyword Planner to keep up with changes in your audience’s search behavior and optimize your SEO strategy effectively.
Integrating and optimizing keywords in the editorial calendar
Using keywords in content
Once you have identified the most relevant keywords using the Keyword Planner, the next step is to integrate them into your content flow.
This integration not only improves the visibility of your pages in search engines but also provides a better user experience, which is critical to the success of your SEO strategy, through these tactics:
- Titles and headings: Include your main keywords in the titles (H1) and subheadings (H2, H3) of your content. This helps search engines understand the structure and main topic of your page.
- Meta descriptions: Make sure your keywords appear in your meta descriptions. While they don’t directly influence ranking, they do improve click-through rates in search results.
- First paragraphs: Include your keywords in the first 100-150 characters of your content. This reinforces the relevance of your page to those terms.
- Image alt text: Use keywords in your images’ alt text. This improves the SEO of your images and provides additional context to search engines.
- Friendly URLs: Incorporate your main keywords into the URLs of your pages in a clear and concise manner (this is no longer a factor that Google rewards, but users do).
How to avoid keyword stuffing?
Keyword stuffing, or keyword stuffing, is a practice of including an excessive amount of keywords on a web page. Not only does this technique negatively affect the user experience, but it can also result in penalties from search engines. To avoid falling into this practice and optimize your content effectively, follow these tips:
- Prioritize natural flow: Make sure keywords flow smoothly into your text. Read your content out loud to make sure it sounds coherent and natural.
- Use synonyms and variations: Use synonyms and variations of your keywords. This enriches your content and can appeal to a wider audience without resorting to excessive repetition.
- Focus on content quality: Prioritize creating useful and valuable content for your users. Keywords should complement your content, not dominate it.
- Distribute keywords evenly: Instead of repeating the same keyword multiple times, distribute it evenly throughout the content.
- Use analysis tools: Use SEO tools to evaluate the keyword density in your content and ensure you maintain the right balance.
This underscores the importance of prioritizing quality and relevance of content over mere keyword stuffing.
By implementing these content integration and optimization strategies, you will be well on your way to improving your search engine visibility and attracting more qualified traffic to your website.
Remember that SEO is an ongoing process, so it’s crucial to regularly monitor your keywords’ performance and adjust your strategy as needed to maintain and improve your search engine rankings.
Advanced tactics to improve SEO
Competitor analysis
Competitor analysis is an advanced tactic that is essential to boosting your SEO strategy. Understanding how your competitors use keywords can provide valuable insights and help you uncover opportunities to optimize your own strategy.
To conduct an effective competitor analysis, follow these steps:
| Passed | Action | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Identify your main competitors | Get a clear view of the competitive landscape in your niche |
| 2 | Use SEO analysis tools | Find out which keywords your competitors are using |
| 3 | Analyze the most relevant keywords | Identify high-performance, low-competition opportunities |
| 4 | Discover unexplored opportunities | Find niche markets your competitors have overlooked |
Competitor analysis is not simply about copying others’ strategies, but about identifying unique opportunities for your business.
Geographic segmentation and local SEO
Geotargeting is an advanced tactic that can significantly improve your SEO strategy, especially if your business operates in specific areas. Google Ads Keyword Planner allows you to fine-tune your keyword research to focus on local markets, which can have a substantial impact on your local visibility and attracting nearby customers.
To optimize your local SEO, consider these strategies:
- Set up geographic targeting: Use the geographic targeting option in Keyword Planner to narrow down your results to your area of interest.
- Search for local keywords: Incorporate geographic specifiers into your searches, such as city or region names.
- Optimize your local content: Integrate geolocalized keywords into your content, including titles, meta descriptions, and image alt text.
- Create location-specific pages: Develop unique content for each location you operate in.
Leveraging long tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are more specific and generally longer phrases than regular keywords. Although they have a lower search volume, they usually have lower competition and can attract highly qualified traffic.
To effectively leverage long-tail keywords, consider these strategies:
- Identify long-tail keywords: Use Keyword Planner and other SEO tools to discover specific search phrases related to your business.
- Create targeted content: Develop detailed content that answers long-tail search queries, such as comprehensive guides, tutorials, and in-depth analyses.
- Optimize for search intent: Make sure your content satisfies the intent behind long-tail searches, whether informational, transactional, or navigational.
- Use natural variations: Incorporate natural variations of your long-tail keywords to capture a broader spectrum of related searches.
Finally, it is essential to remember that these advanced SEO tactics must be implemented in an integrated and coherent manner with your overall digital marketing strategy.
SEO is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and adjustments based on the results obtained.
By combining competitor analysis, geographic segmentation, and leveraging long-tail keywords, you can develop a robust and effective SEO strategy that significantly drives organic traffic to your website and improves your search engine visibility.
