How To Use Google Keyword Planner (Free SEO Tips)

Google Keyword Planner is Google’s free keyword research tool, and you do not need to spend a cent on ads to use it. This guide adds a worked keyword research example for a WordPress plugin page and the specific mistakes that make people abandon the tool halfway through setup.

You will get the exact 9-step setup process, a worked example researching keywords for a WordPress plugin page, the errors that cost you accurate data, and four paid alternatives worth comparing.

What Is Google Keyword Planner?

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool inside Google Ads that shows keyword ideas and search volume. Google built it for advertisers, but it works just as well for organic SEO research. You get real search data straight from Google, at no cost, without running a single ad.

Google Keyword Planner offers these main features:

Feature	What It Does
Keyword Research	Finds new keyword ideas from a seed term or website.
Search Volume Data	Shows average monthly searches for each keyword.
Competition Analysis	Rates how many advertisers bid on a keyword.
Keyword Suggestions	Generates related terms you may not have considered.
Location and Language Targeting	Filters results by country, region, and language.
Trend Analysis	Tracks keyword performance over time to spot seasonal shifts.
Cost Estimates	Shows bid price ranges for Google Ads campaigns.
Keyword Grouping	Organizes related keywords into themed sets.
Download and Save Options	Lets you export keyword lists as a CSV file.
Keyword Forecasts	Predicts future clicks and impressions in forecast mode.

Why Use Google Keyword Planner For SEO?

Google Keyword Planner reveals real search demand, straight from Google’s own data. It shows keyword opportunities that match your content and audience. Here is what that gets you:

• Data-Driven Insights: Search volume, competition level, and bid estimates come from Google Ads data. Google Ads Help says average monthly searches are averaged over 12 months by default and rounded, so treat them as estimates.
• Refined SEO Strategy: Use the data to optimize page content, meta tags, and other on-page SEO elements. See what actually improves your ranking on search engine results pages before you rewrite a single page.
• Smarter Budget Allocation: Even without ad spend, the competitive landscape data tells you where organic effort pays off fastest.
• Better Keyword Targeting: High-volume, low-competition keywords are the ones worth writing for first. Any thorough Google Ads tutorial makes the same point: keyword research is the foundation, not an afterthought.
• Sharper Content Planning: Knowing what people actually search for lets you write for real demand, which tends to increase engagement and conversions.
• Competitive Analysis: See which keywords competitors are likely targeting, then decide where to compete and where to find gaps instead.

These insights compound. Every keyword you validate with real data is one less guess in your content calendar. Related reading: What is Topical Authority in SEO?

How to Set Up Google Keyword Planner for Free

You do not need to spend on ads to use Google Keyword Planner. A common myth says otherwise, but Google Ads lets you skip campaign creation and go straight to the free planning tools. Here is the exact setup, step by step.

Setting Up Google Keyword Planner Without Creating an Ad

1. Sign in to Google Ads

Go to the Google Ads website and sign in with your Google account. Create a free Google account first if you do not already have one.

2. Skip Campaign Creation

Google Ads prompts you to build a campaign right after sign-in. Click “Skip campaign creation” instead. This is the step that unlocks free access to Keyword Planner without creating an ad.

3. Navigate to Keyword Planner

Click the wrench icon labeled “Tools and Settings” in the top right corner. Find “Keyword Planner” under the “Planning” column.

4. Choose Your Tool Function

Keyword Planner shows two options: “Discover new keywords” and “Get search volume and forecasts.” Pick “Discover new keywords” to build a fresh keyword list from a topic or website.

5. Enter Keywords or Website

Type a few seed keywords related to your topic under “Start with keywords.” For an article about healthy smoothie recipes, try “smoothie recipes,” “healthy smoothies,” and “fruit smoothies” as separate entries.

• You can also enter a website URL instead, and Google will suggest keywords based on that site’s actual content. Adding a URL filter narrows results to your niche and removes keyword ideas that do not relate to your services.

Click “Get results” to run the search.

6. Customize Your Search

Filter results by location, language, and search network (Google, or Google and Search Partners). These filters keep suggestions relevant to the audience you actually serve.

7. Analyze the Results

Keyword Planner returns a list of keyword ideas with average monthly searches, competition level, and bid estimates next to each one.

8. Evaluate Keywords for SEO

Four columns matter most for SEO decisions:

Column	What It Shows
Keyword	The search term or phrase.
Avg. Monthly Searches	Average searches per month, often shown as a range.
Competition	How many advertisers showed ads on the keyword relative to all keywords on Google (Low, Medium, High).
Top of Page Bid	The typical bid range for page-one ad placement.

• Sort by relevance first. Start with the keywords most tied to your actual business, not the ones with the biggest volume number.
• Look for high volume and low competition. That combination is the closest thing to a golden opportunity in SEO.
• Let keyword ideas guide content, not replace it. Build pages around validated demand instead of guessing.
• Balance short-tail and long-tail terms. Short-tail keywords bring broader visibility. Long-tail keywords bring more targeted, higher-intent traffic.

9. Export Your Data

Click “Download keyword ideas” to export the full list as a spreadsheet. Use this file to track your SEO planning outside the tool. Keyword Planner also lets you add keywords to a “Saved keywords” list.

Thorough keyword research is also the foundation of paid search. Google Ads campaign optimization starts with the same keyword list you just built, then adjusts bids and ad copy from there.

Real Example: Researching Keywords for a WordPress Plugin Page

To research keywords for a WordPress plugin page, enter specific seed keywords, set the location, language, and network filters, then triage the results by relevance and competition. This walkthrough uses a WordPress plugin landing page as the example, since that is the exact situation most Keyword Planner guides skip.

The scenario: You are writing a landing page for a WordPress analytics plugin and need to know which search terms are worth targeting.

1. Seed keywords entered: “wordpress analytics plugin,” “google analytics for wordpress,” and “ga4 wordpress plugin.”
2. Filters applied: Location set to United States, language set to English, network set to “Google” (this limits the data to Google Search).
3. Results reviewed: Keyword Planner returned roughly 180 related terms. Most were irrelevant variations (“google analytics certification,” “analytics jobs”) that a broad seed term always pulls in.

The table below shows a representative slice of what that kind of search returns, and how each term gets triaged:

Keyword	Competition	Verdict	Why
google analytics for wordpress	Low	Target	Direct match to the page, decent volume, low competition.
ga4 wordpress plugin	Low	Target	Specific, high buying intent, almost no competing ads.
wordpress analytics plugin	Medium	Target as secondary	Broader term, useful for the page title, not the primary H1.
google analytics dashboard	High	Skip	Dominated by enterprise BI tools, not plugin buyers.
free analytics tools	High	Skip	Too broad, mixes in comparison-shopping traffic unlikely to convert.

The pattern : variations with “wordpress” attached carry lower competition than generic “google analytics” terms. Most advertisers bidding on analytics keywords do not target the WordPress plugin niche. That gap is where organic content wins.

The takeaway for your own research: Do not stop at the first page of results. Scroll past the top 10-15 keywords, since that is usually where the high-competition, low-relevance terms cluster. The workable, low-competition terms tend to sit further down the list, specific enough that big advertisers have not bid them up.

Common Google Keyword Planner Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

The most common Google Keyword Planner mistakes are misreading the Competition column, leaving search partners switched on, treating search volume ranges as exact numbers, using only generic seed keywords, and not saving results. Each one is easy to miss on your first few visits to the tool.

• Reading “Competition” as SEO difficulty. That column measures how many advertisers bid on a keyword for paid ads. It says nothing about how hard the keyword is to rank for organically. A “High” competition keyword can still be easy to rank on page one if few competitors have written strong content for it.
• Leaving the network set to “Google and search partners.” This option covers Google Search, other Google search sites such as Maps, and Google search partner sites, so the numbers reflect more than Google Search. Choose “Google” to limit the data to Google Search.
• Treating the search volume range as an exact number. Free accounts see a range like “1K-10K” instead of a specific figure. Use the midpoint as a rough guide, and prioritize the Competition and Top of Page Bid columns to break ties between similar-volume keywords.
• Entering only singular, generic seed keywords. A single seed term like “analytics” returns a shallow list. Enter three to five specific seed variations, including a question format and a comparison format, to pull in a wider spread of long-tail ideas.
• Not saving or exporting results. Add promising keywords to “Saved keywords” and export a CSV at the end of each session, so you do not have to repeat a search.

Expert Tips to Get More From Google Keyword Planner

Starting with a website URL instead of seed keywords expands your list into less competitive territory that competitors are more likely to have missed.

• Open “Discover new keywords” in Keyword Planner.
• Choose “Start with a website” instead of entering keywords directly.

• Enter a URL from a relevant site in your niche: a competitor’s page, an industry blog, or an influencer bio page works well.
• Review the full list of keywords the tool generates from that page’s actual content. This surfaces specific, lower-competition terms that a generic seed keyword search would not have suggested.

Pro tip: Keyword research covers your own targeting, but PPC competitor analysis shows what rivals are bidding on, what their ads say, and where their gaps are. Combine both, and you refine your own keyword list while learning from their mistakes.

Keyword research is a skill worth formalizing. A Google Analytics certification validates your data analysis skills alongside the keyword research process covered here.

Google Keyword Planner Alternatives

Google Keyword Planner is free and reliable, but it has real limits: no competitor keyword data, no backlink analysis, and volume shown only as a range. These four tools are among the best SEO tools that fill those gaps.

Tool	Best For	Free Plan	Key Strength
Google Keyword Planner	Google Ads keyword research	Yes, with a Google Ads account	Direct Google search volume data
SEMrush	Full SEO and PPC strategy	Limited free searches	Deep competitor keyword and ad data
Ahrefs	SEO and backlink analysis	Limited free tools	Strong backlink and ranking data
Ubersuggest	Beginners and small sites	Limited free searches	Simple, low-cost keyword insights
SE Ranking	Agencies managing many campaigns	Free trial	AI-powered insights and SERP analysis

1. SEMrush

SEMrush extends keyword research into full digital marketing strategy, covering PPC and content marketing alongside SEO.

• Keyword Overview: Monthly global search volume, keyword difficulty, keyword intent, and related questions in one report.

• Keyword Magic Tool: Searches a database of over 25 billion keywords across languages and markets, sorted by volume, difficulty, or SERP features.
• Competitive Research: Shows competitors’ organic and paid keywords directly, including the ads they run and their estimated spend, which Google Keyword Planner does not show at all.

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is built for SEO and backlink analysis, with deeper search-optimization features than a pure keyword tool.

• Keywords Explorer: Covers over 10 search engines including Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Bing, with search volume, difficulty, click-through rate, and return rate data.
• Content Gap Analysis: Finds keywords competitors rank for that you don’t, pointing directly to content opportunities.
• SERP Analysis: Breaks down what the top-ranking pages for a keyword actually do right.

3. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest suits beginners and small business owners who want keyword insight without a steep learning curve.

• Keyword Suggestions: A long list of ideas, including long-tail terms useful for niche content.

• SEO Analyzer: Scores your site’s SEO performance and flags specific fixes.
• Content Ideas: Suggests article topics based on the keywords you research.

4. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is built for agencies managing campaigns across organic search, AI answers, and social media at once.

• Keyword Research: Draws from databases covering 190+ countries, with volume, CPC, difficulty, traffic forecasts, and SERP feature data. Suggestions group into related, low-volume, and question-based lists, with bulk analysis and clustering built in.
• Competitive Research: Shows competitors’ top-ranking keywords, content pages, backlinks, and traffic estimates, with a dedicated “missing keywords” view for gap targeting.
• AI Insights Tool: Scans your keyword sets automatically to surface high-potential terms and emerging trends.
• SERP Analyzer: Compares the pages dominating a SERP across 110+ ranking factors, including backlinks, traffic, and page experience signals.

Each alternative brings a different strength. Pick a holistic platform like SEMrush or SE Ranking if you manage multiple campaigns, or a simpler tool like Ubersuggest if you just need keyword direction for one site.

Track the Keywords You Find, Right Inside WordPress

Analytify connects your WordPress dashboard directly to Google Analytics, so the keyword data you just researched has somewhere to land once traffic starts arriving. It shows site performance, user behavior, and the exact search terms driving visitors, without a separate login to GA4.

Here is how Analytify tracks the keywords covered in this guide, once your content is live:

• Install and Activate Analytify: Install the Analytify plugin from the WordPress plugin repository. See How To Install And Activate Analytify Pro Plugin for the Pro setup.

• View Organic Traffic Overview: Analytify’s dashboard shows sessions, users, bounce rate, and more, so you can see how users discover your site through organic traffic.

• Explore Organic Search Terms: Analytify’s “Search Terms Stats” section shows the top search terms bringing traffic to your site, so you can see which of your researched keywords are actually converting into visits.

• Review Detailed Keyword Reports: Analytify’s keyword reports break down impressions and clicks per term, closing the loop between the research in this guide and the results on your site.

Start tracking your organic search terms inside WordPress: get Analytify now.

Google Keyword Planner FAQs

Key Takeaways

• Google Keyword Planner is free to use for SEO research. Skip campaign creation after sign-in, and you never need to spend on ads.
• Competition level measures ad demand, not SEO difficulty. Treat them as separate signals when picking keywords.
• The keywords with “wordpress,” or your own niche term, attached usually carry lower competition than the generic head term alone, as shown in the worked example above.
• Save or export your results at the end of each session, using “Saved keywords” or a CSV download.

Once your keyword-driven content is live, drive more traffic to your site by tracking which of these keywords actually convert inside your WordPress dashboard. If you are cleaning up other parts of your WordPress setup at the same time, LoginPress secures and customizes your login page without writing code.

Start tracking your organic search terms inside WordPress: Get Analytify Now.

You may also like to read: How to Search Organic Keywords in Google Analytics and How to Find Google Ads Reports in Google Analytics.