Table of Contents
How To Use Google Keyword Planner Without Creating an Ad
Some people do not push through creating a Google Ads account because the other sign-up option that they present asks for a card, a website, and setting up an ad campaign. Let me show you the Google Ads signing up funnel that won’t need any card or website and tips on how to do keyword research with Google Keyword Planner.
You can increase traffic and conversion rates with the help of Google Ads, a practical paid tool for digital marketing. But it can also be used for keyword research! Uncertain about where to begin? I understand. Here we’ll list down the exact steps on how to use Google Ads’ Keyword Planner for researching your keywords.
But here’s what you may need to have first:
- Google Account
In this article, I’ll let you in on a straight-up signing up funnel that won’t need any card or website.
1. If you already have a Google account, you can already start.
A Google account is needed for you to get signed up for Google Ads. Once you have a Google Account, you’re all set.
Anytime you’re on Google Search you can click Google Apps (the grey circle with 9 dots) on the upper right corner of your screen.
Scroll down until you find Google Ads, click on it.
2. Create an account on Google Ads.
There are two “Get Started” CTA’s on this page, click on either of it to create your Google Ads account.
3. Click on NEW GOOGLE ADS ACCOUNT
4. Click on Switch to Expert Mode
Because you’re an expert! Now, this is the sign-up funnel that won’t need any card or business website.
If you choose to instead go through the above funnel where you have to indicate your business name, trust me, that could take quite a while especially as you would need to set up ad campaigns (plus it would need your card details, and a business website).
5. Choose “Create an account without a campaign”
You don’t need to input any details. Tadah!
6. Just click on Submit
Because you’re an expert… you now only need to confirm these three fields. All you have to do now is click Submit.
7. Click on Explore your account
Now you’re done and now you can use the Keyword Planner by clicking on that button.
Then click on Tools and settings.
8. Select Keyword Planner
Now you can start your keyword research, my dear expert!
How To Do Keyword Research With Google Keyword Planner
Finding your Seed Keywords
Now we’ve discussed a comprehensive guide about finding seed keywords. Seed keywords are the first keywords you may need to determine when you have a new website or when you’re just starting with your SEO optimizations.
In this part, we’re going to talk about how to use Google Keyword Planner in discovering your keywords.
1. Go to your Google Ads account dashboard
2. Click on Tools and Settings:
3. Go to Keyword Planner
4. If you don’t have a seed keyword yet, click Discover
Type a keyword you want to explore, preferably a short-tail keyword: for example, “Psychology content”
5. Click on Get results
You now have your list of keywords that you can choose from to add to your list.
To select a keyword, click on the box beside it. (If you can’t see the full keyword, adjust the cell.
6. Sort keywords or Copy them all
Ideally, we want keywords with Low competition, High Average Monthly searches, and low CPC. You can now choose keywords that you think are related then we can just trim them later on.
If you can find long-tail keywords, then yes go for it. Select them so we can determine if we want to use them later on this article.
If you have chosen your keywords click on “Add keywords to create a plan” to generate your keyword list.
7. The keyword planner then shows how many keywords you now have.
Since we are yet to research more keywords before trimming them down, let’s go over another keyword research technique which goes by the term: spying aka looking into your competitor’s keywords.
Finding your Competitor’s Keywords
If you’re setting up the first SEO strategy for a website that has published a lot of content, you may want to look at the keywords that they are currently ranking for and determine if they are ranking content that is related to their seed keywords or if they need realignment.
This is also a great way to look into the keywords of competitor websites and to determine which keywords they are using.
1.On Google Ads click Discover new keywords
2. Click on Start with a website
3. Click on Get results
Now that’s fast! Now you can choose from the results and add them to your keyword list by clicking Add keywords/Add keywords to create plan.
Now that you have a few more keywords, try using other tools to get keywords, list them down on a Google Sheet >> Copy >> then put them in your GKP.
To add more keywords to your keyword plan (those that you got from other tools):
Go to Keyword Plan:
Click on Create keywords
Click the blue circle with a cross.
Add your keywords
You can choose to add your keywords by copy-pasting an entire column from a Google sheet or manually typing each keyword, separating them by a comma or by line.
Click on Save
Is Google Keyword Planner good for SEO?
Before we trim down your keyword list, the hard truth is that the Keyword Planner is not primarily intended to be used for SEO but rather it is for running ––surprise, surprise –– ads.
Google Keyword Planner is a great tool to use for combined SEO and SEM and IS NOT recommended to be SOLELY USED for SEO alone.
This means that you should not solely rely on Google Keyword Planner for your keyword research there are a lot of other free tools you can use some are even Chrome extensions!
Then this begs the question, should we still use GKP for keyword research? The answer is Yes. But it is limited.
Basically, when you use Google Keyword Planner you get a good view of which keywords has greater CPC/cost –– and in turn, consider avoiding using them if you’re just starting out on your ranking strategy. Avoiding high-competition keywords doesn’t mean that you won’t ever use them. Good keyword research and SEO strategy will always make way for keyword expansion.
If you’re wondering why we shouldn’t use GKP alone for SEO, well the most simple explanation would be because the “Competition” that you see on the planner is about paid ads and not about organic search.
What SEO needs is a tool that could gauge which keywords can be used to slowly rank a website based on SEO metrics like backlinks, domain authority, and content quality, not CTR and CPC.
Follow me on my socials if you found this post helpful!
Copyright © 2022 for Elle Gonzales This article may not be reproduced or redistributed without proper citation of the author and inclusion of the original links in the post.