00:00 Introduction

One of the best keyword research tools for SEO is totally free, and anyone can jump online and sign up for it.

If you're a business owner who hasn't looked at your keywords before, or you don't know which keywords you should be using on your website, then this is a great place to start.

I'm going to share my screen, jump online, take you through the process, and show you exactly what you need to do to get into the planner itself.

00:25 Creating Your Free Google Ads Account

Go into your browser and search for Google Ads. Scroll down to the first result. You should be on business.google.com, and all you need to do is click “Start now.”

If you already have an account set up, you can skip ahead to later in the video. I'm going to assume that you don't have a Google Ads account.

Enter your business name. I'm using a dummy business for this example. Add your website URL and click “Next.”

You don't need to enter all your business details. We're trying to skip through as much of the setup as possible because I don't intend to use this account to run ads.

Keep selecting “Skip,” then choose “Leave campaign creation” and “Do it later.” Confirm your currency and continue through the account and payment-profile setup.

Once the account has been created, Google may tell you that you need to complete additional steps before running ads. None of that matters if you're only going to use the keyword research tool.

If you are planning to run ads from the account, I recommend going through the setup properly. If you only want access to Keyword Planner, you don't need to complete the advertising setup.

03:28 Accessing Google Keyword Planner

This is what the dashboard will look like when you first sign in. Google used to make you create an ad before you could continue, so I'm glad you can now skip that part.

Go to “Tools” on the left, select “Planning,” and then choose “Keyword Planner.” This is the keyword research tool.

There are two options: “Discover new keywords” and “Get search volume and forecasts.” If this is your first time using the tool, I recommend starting with a website.

04:27 Finding and Evaluating Keywords

Let's say you're a plumber in Wellington and you want to know which keywords you should be using on your website. Enter your website into Keyword Planner.

The tool will return keywords that it thinks are relevant to your business. It will also show the average monthly searches for your selected location.

We've selected New Zealand, but an Australian business could select Australia and remove New Zealand. You can also narrow the results to a specific area, such as the Wellington region.

Changing the location adjusts the average monthly search volume, cost-per-click figures, and other Google Ads data shown in the table.

A good place to start is by sorting the keywords from highest to lowest average monthly searches. You can then review your website and see whether you're targeting the most relevant terms properly.

For example, a broad and important keyword such as “plumbers Wellington” would generally be targeted by the homepage. In this example, the business has included that term in its page title and main heading.

Scan the high-volume keywords and ask two questions: Is this keyword relevant to my business? If it is, do I have an appropriate service page targeting it?

We can see that “gas fitter” is relevant to this business, and it already has a Wellington gas-fitting page.

You can also use “Discover new keywords” to explore a specific service or customer problem. For example, the business may want to rank for “burst pipe” in the Wellington region.

Keyword Planner will show the search volume for that term along with variations and semantically related keywords. Those terms could be incorporated naturally into the page copy, helping the page rank for several relevant searches instead of only one phrase.

To check whether the business already has a suitable page, search Google for the business name and the keyword. In this example, the business has an article about preventing a burst pipe, but we also want to know whether it has a page for someone who needs urgent help.

The business is appearing for the keyword through its emergency plumber page, so it is already targeting that search intent.

08:39 Researching Competitor Keywords

Another way to use Keyword Planner is to research your competitors and see which keywords are relevant to their websites.

Return to “Discover new keywords” and choose the option to start with a website. Instead of entering your own website, enter a competitor's website.

For this example, we'll search for “emergency plumber Wellington,” choose a competing plumbing business, and enter its domain. Remove the individual page path so that Keyword Planner analyses the entire website.

Sort the results by the top keywords and compare them with the keywords found for your own website. This may reveal opportunities for additional service pages or useful pieces of content.

That's really the process: create an account, open Keyword Planner, enter your website, enter a competitor's website, and review the keywords available to target through SEO or other marketing channels.

If your website isn't properly targeting a relevant keyword, you might create a new page or service page for it. You may also find another way customers describe a service that your current website content doesn't cover.

That's essentially SEO. You're finding the ways people search for the products and services you sell, then providing content that helps them find your business on Google, visit your website, and take an action such as booking a service or buying a product.

I hope that was helpful. See you next time.