Part 3: How To Rank Higher On Google Using Google Keyword Planner

In this three part series of blog posts from our Prebuilt Power Hour episode on 10 SEO Tricks You Can Use Right Now To Rank Higher on Google, we show you three free tools to utilize in order to build a successful long-term SEO strategy. 

In part one, we taught you how to figure out what to write about on your blog by using Google’s autocomplete functionality. In part two, we showed you how to use Google Trends to determine how to phrase your keywords and know when to target them. 

In part three of this series, we are going to show you how to use the Google Keyword Planner to answer the question: “How do I know which keywords are worth targeting?”

How To Access Google Keyword Planner

• Login to Google’s ad platform, or set up a free account. 
• Tools and settings
  • Under “Planning”, select “Keyword Planner”
  • Select “Discover New Keywords”

Note: You do need a Google Ads account to access the Keyword Planner, though you do NOT need to input any credit card information or run any campaigns to discover new keywords.

How To Use Google Keyword Planner

Use the Google Keyword Planner to determine which keywords are worth targeting by comparing search volume and competition.

When you type in a keyword such as “keto” and click “get results” you’ll start to see different keywords and keyword phrases using that search term in the order that people type them in. 

When you enter the site of whatever you’re writing about, the Keyword Planner will look at the content of your site to see if it matches against what you’ve put in for your keyword. It will make sure the subject matter and what you’re writing about match up, and give you better keyword suggestions based off of the keywords your website is currently ranking for. 

Tips For Using Google Keyword Planner

The order of your words matters

The order in which words show up in a search query and on the page of the content you’re writing makes a difference. There is a difference between trying to rank for “Christmas decorations” and “decorating for Christmas”. To us as humans, those are kind of the same thing. To Google and other search engines, they’re very different. 

You may have even noticed when just searching on Google that if you change the order of the words, your search queries change.

Using Google Keyword Planner you can compare different keyword phrases to see which is the most popular to target.

Look at average monthly searches and competition. 

There are two metrics that you’ll want to pay attention to when you’re looking to gain more organic traffic to your website, which are average monthly searches and competition. I’ve circled them in red below for your convenience.

Average monthly searches tells you how often people are googling for those exact keywords each month. You can use this to determine how to phrase your keywords and know which keyword phrases to use. 

Competition tells you how likely you are to rank for that keyword. Take this value with a grain of salt, unless you are using other paid tools to analyze how many backlinks you would need to rank for a search term and other metrics. 

Go for low competition, lower volume keywords to start

You may think you want to try to rank for keywords that see the highest search volume, but you’re not going to get very far with that method. The websites that rank in the top spots for those keywords are well established and you’re not going to creep your way up there any time soon when you’re just starting out. 

Instead, aim to target keywords that see a lower search volume and have low competition to start. Once you start ranking in the top spots for those keywords, Google will start to see your website as an authority and you can start ranking higher for other keywords that see a higher search volume and have higher competition.

I hope you found this helpful! You can watch the full episode of our Prebuilt Power Hour here. These free trainings take place on the 4th Thursday of every month at noon central time, so be sure to mark your calendars and tune in!