Keyword research is where most SEO work either starts well or goes wrong quietly. Pick the wrong words and you can do everything else right for six months and still rank for things nobody searches. Google Keyword Planner is free, it comes from Google's own ad data, and it is the sensible first tool for anyone learning this properly.
Keyword Planner lives inside Google Ads. You need a Google Ads account to reach it, but you do not need to run a single ad or spend any money. A lot of people give up at the billing screen without realising it can be skipped.
The tool was built for advertisers, not for SEO. That shapes what it shows you and what it hides. Knowing which columns to trust is most of the skill.
What Keyword Planner Actually Does
It does two jobs, and they sit behind two buttons on the front screen.
You give it a few words, a website or a product category. It returns a list of related search terms with monthly search volume, competition and a suggested bid range. This is the one you will use most.
You paste in a list of keywords you already have. It tells you the volume for each and forecasts what they might cost and deliver as ads. Useful for checking a list, not for finding new ideas.
Everything else in the tool is a filter or an export. Those two buttons are the whole product.
How to Open It Without Running Ads
This is the part that stops most people, so here it is in order.
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Create a Google Ads account
Go to the Google Ads home page and sign in with any Google account. If you already use Gmail, that is enough. You do not need a new one.
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Switch to Expert Mode
Google will push you into a guided setup that wants a campaign and a budget. Look for the link that says Switch to Expert Mode, usually small and near the bottom of the page. Click it.
Why this matters Expert Mode is the only route that lets you finish setup without creating a campaign.
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Skip the campaign
On the next screen, choose the option to create an account without a campaign. Confirm your country, time zone and currency carefully, because these cannot be changed later and the currency affects every cost figure you see.
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Open the Planner
Once the account exists, go to Tools in the top menu, then Planning, then Keyword Planner. No billing details, no live ads, no spend.
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Set your location and language first
Before you search anything, set the location to the market you actually sell in and the language to the one your customers search in. The default is rarely right, and volumes for India, the United Kingdom and worldwide are completely different numbers for the same word.
Common mistake Reading worldwide volume and planning an India campaign against it. The gap is usually large enough to change which keyword you pick.
Reading the Columns Honestly
The numbers mean specific things, and two of them are routinely misread.
| Column | What it really means | How much to trust it |
|---|---|---|
| Avg. monthly searches | A twelve-month average, usually shown as a broad range unless you spend on ads | Good for comparing keywords, poor as an exact figure |
| Competition | How many advertisers bid on this term, nothing to do with SEO difficulty | Ignore it for SEO. It is an ads metric |
| Top of page bid | What advertisers pay per click for that term | The best signal in the tool for commercial intent |
| Three month change | Recent movement in volume | Useful for catching a rising or dying term |
| Year over year change | Seasonal or structural shift over twelve months | Reliable, and often the most interesting column |
The competition column trips up nearly everyone new to this. A keyword marked low competition can still be almost impossible to rank for organically, because no advertiser bids on it while ten strong websites already cover it. It tells you about the auction, not about the search results.
The bid column is the one worth more attention than it gets. If advertisers are willing to pay a high price per click, they are making money from that traffic. A term with modest volume and a high bid is often worth more to a business than a term with big volume and a bid near zero.
Where the Ranges Come From
If you have never spent on ads, Keyword Planner shows volume in wide bands: 1K to 10K, 100 to 1K, and so on. That is deliberate. Google reserves precise figures for accounts with active spend.
Bands are still usable, because you are comparing keywords against each other rather than forecasting exact traffic. A term in the 1K to 10K band is clearly bigger than one in the 100 to 1K band, and that is the decision you are actually making.
If you need exact numbers, running even a small campaign for a short period unlocks them. For most SEO planning the bands are enough.
A Worked Example
Say you run a bakery in Jaipur and you want to know what to write about.
Start with two or three seed words, not one. Something like cake shop, birthday cake and bakery. Set the location to Jaipur, not India, and the language to English.
The list comes back with a few hundred terms. Now filter, because the raw list is mostly noise. Exclude anything with zero volume. Then read the results in three groups.
Terms with high volume and a high bid are what everyone is already fighting over, and at a small site they are a long project rather than a quick win. Terms with modest volume and a decent bid are where the actual work is, because someone searching them is close to buying. Terms with high volume and a bid of nothing are usually people looking for information, which is fine for a blog post but not for the page you want to sell from.
Sort by the bid column once, and the commercial half of your list becomes obvious in about a minute.
What Keyword Planner Does Not Tell You
It is a good tool. It is not a complete one, and pretending otherwise causes bad decisions.
It shows no SEO difficulty at all. Nothing in the tool tells you how hard a term is to rank for organically, which is the number you most need. For that you have to look at who currently ranks and judge whether you can realistically beat them.
It groups close variants together, so singular and plural, and small wording differences, often get reported under one figure. The real search behaviour is more spread out than the tool suggests.
It also leans towards commercial language, because it is built from the ad auction. Question-shaped searches, the kind people type before they are ready to buy, are under-represented. Google's own autocomplete and the People Also Ask box fill that gap for free.
Keyword Planner Against the Paid Tools
| What you need | Keyword Planner | Paid tools |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Monthly subscription |
| Volume source | Google's own ad data | Estimated, often from clickstream models |
| Exact volume | Only with ad spend | Yes, but estimated |
| SEO difficulty score | Not available | Yes, and it is the main reason to pay |
| Competitor keywords | Limited to site-based suggestions | Full, and usually accurate enough |
| Commercial value signal | Strong, through the bid column | Present but usually borrowed from Google anyway |
A sensible approach is to use Keyword Planner for volume and commercial intent, because that data comes straight from Google, and use a paid tool or your own judgement of the search results for difficulty. Many people pay for a tool and then quietly rely on Google's numbers underneath it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Google Keyword Planner free?
Yes. The tool costs nothing and there is no trial period. You need a Google Ads account to reach it, but you can create that account without a campaign, without billing details and without spending anything. The only thing spend unlocks is exact volume figures instead of ranges.
How do I use Keyword Planner without creating an ad?
During Google Ads signup, look for the small link that says Switch to Expert Mode, then choose the option to create an account without a campaign. Confirm your country, time zone and currency, and you are in. Keyword Planner then sits under Tools, then Planning.
Why does it show a range instead of an exact number?
Google shows banded figures such as 1K to 10K to accounts with no active ad spend. It is a deliberate limit, not a fault. The bands still work for comparing keywords against each other, which is what most planning actually needs.
Does the competition column show SEO difficulty?
No, and this is the most common misreading of the tool. Competition measures how many advertisers bid on the term. A keyword can show low competition and still be very hard to rank for organically. For SEO difficulty you need to look at who currently ranks, or use a tool that scores it.
Can I use it for YouTube or for a blog?
You can use it for either, but remember it reports Google Search behaviour. YouTube search patterns differ, so pair it with YouTube's own suggestions. For blogs it works well for topic sizing, though question-shaped searches are under-represented and Google autocomplete fills that gap.
Which column matters most for a business?
The top of page bid. If advertisers pay well for a click on a term, that traffic converts for somebody. A keyword with moderate volume and a high bid is usually worth more than a large keyword with a bid close to zero, which tends to be informational traffic.
Do I need to set the location every time?
Check it every time. The default is often not your market, and volumes for India, the United Kingdom and worldwide are very different numbers for the same word. Planning an India campaign against worldwide figures is one of the easiest ways to pick the wrong keyword.
Is it enough on its own for SEO?
For getting started, yes. For competitive work, no, because it gives you no difficulty score. Use it for volume and commercial intent, then judge difficulty by looking at the sites already ranking. That combination covers most of what a paid tool would tell you.
Keyword Planner is not the most powerful tool available, but it is free and the volume comes from Google itself. Learn to read the bid column, ignore the competition column, and always check your location setting. Do those three things and you will make better keyword decisions than most people paying a monthly subscription.
