One thing that appeals to many of the entrepreneurial SEO industry is its dynamic design.
Strategies are constantly changing based on each client’s focus and industry to prevent the proverbial one-size-fits-all approach.
This is especially true when doing keyword research.
there are many Keyword Research Tools available, and each requires a unique creative focus to generate the best search opportunities.
In this article, I’ll focus on a tool in Internet Mothership that is sometimes excluded from SEO due to its ad-based focus: Google Keyword Planner.
Here, you’ll find nine Keyword Planner research tips that can help you target more profitable terms in both organic and paid campaigns.
1. Choose low-traffic, high-return keywords
First, you want to know which products, services, and keywords drive the most profit.
Armed with this information, you can create a list of seed keywords to launch your first attack plan.
Generally, I focus on quality over quantity, which often equates to low quantity rather than high quantity.
For example, one of our clients is an environmental consulting firm, so getting someone to convert organic content into a “SWPPP program” could earn the firm thousands of dollars in a single sale.
As you can see, search competition for many of these keywords is low, and the number of relevant keywords in this space is on the rise.
Due to increasing environmental concerns, keywords like this will continue to grow and make money for anyone who gets organic share.
Bonus Tips: If you are looking for a more accurate keyword count, use another keyword planner such as samlash Or create a high bid with a keyword’s maximum CPC to better understand its total volume and monthly impressions.
2. Sort keywords by intent
Next, compile a keyword list for each campaign and sort by intent.
Unfortunately, Google’s Keyword Planner doesn’t offer any intent filters, such as Commercial, informational or navigational intent.
However, we can gather business intent from other keyword phrases by filtering keywords by Top of Page Bid in ascending or descending order.
For example, pages with high top-of-page bids typically have highly competitive commercial intent, and if advertisers are willing to bid so high on those terms, it means relatively high conversion rates.
Image via Google Keyword Planner, April 2022LinkedIn content marketing is a very popular term and there is a lot of competition based on this research.
However, you can flip this list in ascending order to discover keyword terms with more informative intent.
Using our previous “SWPPP Program” example, we find informational keywords with low bids in ascending order.
Image via Google Keyword Planner, April 2022Bonus Tips: Use phrases like “buy,” “coupon,” “sale,” etc. that will help you differentiate keywords by business intent.
On the other hand, terms such as “best practice”, “top level” and question phrases would indicate informational intent.
3. Get Keyword Ideas From Your Competitors
While several competing research tools are available, including Areves, samlash, majesticetc., you can conduct competitive keyword research in Google’s Keyword Planner.
In fact, when you log into the Keyword Planner, they offer the option to search for keywords using seed keywords or competitor sites.
Image via Google Keyword Planner, April 2022Google will provide a list of all keywords that the site ranks for, and you can filter out keywords by brand name to get a list of keywords that the site ranks for.
Bonus Tips: Click organic average position custom column See how the site ranks for specific keywords to generate ideas for success.
4. Skyscraper content using specific page keywords
You may notice that the Google Keyword Planner provides a keyword overview of competitor sites and specific page content in the image above.
If you’re searching for topics and keywords for top- or mid-funnel content that’s driving traffic to your site, you can use whatever you like competitor research tool See which pages are driving traffic to your site.
Of course, you can also manually enter any pages where your competitors outnumber you and discover other keyword ideas and variations.
For example, using Semrush, I found that this article on alternative search engines drove the highest annual traffic to Search Engine Journal.
By copying and pasting the link in the Keyword Planner, I can see that the most relevant keywords are driving traffic to that page.
Image via Google Keyword Planner, April 2022You can even bid on these keywords if you want, whether you’re marketing alternative search engines or great content.
Bonus Tips: Doing page-by-page keyword research, you can discover other keyword variations Google rank for that page that you wouldn’t otherwise type in your content.
5. Satisfy intent with keyword questions
Informative content that answers as many user questions as possible.
This provides several advantages to your SEO and content strategy, including:
- Rich snippets and ranking for answer box searches.
- Satisfy user intent.
- Outperform the competition by holding user attention longer and getting more clicks.
- Rank for more keywords than generalized seed terms.
Fortunately, Google’s Keyword Planner provides simple filters for entering question phrases such as “what”, “when”, “where”, “why” and “how” to help create content that satisfies user intent and Top-notch content to educate users.
Bonus Tips: answer the public is a free tool that provides common user questions in an easy-to-visualize format to help you answer as many questions as possible.
Additionally, Google’s answer box and top search results at the bottom provide good indicators of what questions users are researching.
6. Filter by Location
Another great feature of Google Keyword Planner is the ability to filter ads and impression shares for specific locations.
Google even lets you filter keyword search volume down to the city level.
Image via Google Keyword Planner, April 2022Additionally, you can access search volume data by state or region to find out where most of your traffic and customers are coming from in Google’s Forecast tab.
For example, below, I found the search volume for “SWPPP program”.
Image via Google Keyword Planner, April 2022Using this data, you can create location-specific landing pages for SWPPP programs in California, Texas, Florida, and more.
Bonus Tips: Filtering searches by location also provides a good benchmark for local ad reach on Facebook and other networks.
For example, if most searches are region-specific, this can help you avoid wasted spending across all advertising platforms.
7. Optimize keywords by device
In addition to location and intent, optimizing your web pages for different devices is also critical.
In the example below, I created an ad campaign for “Roof Repair” in the Dallas metro area.
Image via Google Keyword Planner, April 2022Not surprisingly, most of these searches happen on mobile devices, and are likely to be “near me” searches.
Based on this evidence, optimize landing pages for mobile devices, insert click-to-call CTAs, curate a strong brand presence in local directories, and Optimize your Google Business Profile (Formerly Google My Business) Having clear contact information will drive the most conversions for most campaigns.
Bonus Tips: Once you understand which device users search for products, you can target users on those devices by retargeting ad-based campaigns across social media and other sites.
8. Search keywords by group
Advertisers mostly use this tactic, but it provides a rich resource of information for SEOs and content marketers.
By searching for keywords in the grouped view instead of the keyword view, Google organizes your keywords directly by category for you.
For example, by using the seed phrases “homemade kombucha” and “best kombucha,” you can see the amount of keyword and topic ideas generated using two simple keywords.
Image via Google Keyword Planner, April 2022By grouping these keywords by category, you can create page-specific content for each group, leveraging each keyword in the group to help optimize your content.
Bonus Tips: If you notice the top, Google provides relevant keyword and topic ideas to further amplify your marketing efforts.
9. For ads – remember to bid on branded keywords
Finally, one conversion strategy for advertisers is to consider bidding on branded keywords and redirecting user searches to your site if you run out of keyword ideas.
You can really use this strategy if you sell branded products on your website (like Nike shoes), if you sell apparel, or if you want to get more clicks for your branded keywords.
There are several advantages to bidding on branded keywords, including:
- Occupy More SERP real estate.
- reduce costs (for actual commercial brands).
- higher CTR (especially if it’s your brand).
- get more data All about user intent and page metrics.
- build exposure for your brand.
Bonus Tips: You can also bid on your competitors’ keywords to increase your competitiveness. While this tactic isn’t foolproof, sometimes it’s a great way to steal traffic and clicks from your competitors.
However, this plan always backfires and your competitors may do the same to you.
Google’s Keyword Planner is available for free with a Google Ads account and provides users with most of the tools they need to start keyword research and run multifaceted digital marketing campaigns.
Additionally, what the Keyword Planner lacks in functionality can be made up for with third-party tools and a little creativity.
More resources:
Featured image: Nikolay Klimenko/Shutterstock
