There Was a Problem Retrieving Ideas Please Try Again Keyword Planner

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Data from Content Explorer

Shows how many different websites are linking to this slice of content. As a full general dominion, the more websites link to you, the higher you lot rank in Google.

Shows estimated monthly search traffic to this article according to Ahrefs data. The actual search traffic (equally reported in Google Analytics) is ordinarily 3-5 times bigger.

The number of times this article was shared on Twitter.

Do y'all want more traffic from Google? Yous offset need to do keyword research to understand what people are actually searching for.

Luckily, Google has a free keyword research tool that allows you to do only that: Google Keyword Planner (formerly the Google Keyword Tool).

Google Keyword Planner gets a bad rap, especially since Google removed the power to run into verbal monthly search volumes. Now they only show a vague range.

You tin can get these back, but you have to run an AdWords entrada. This costs money.

But don't permit this put you off. Google Keyword Planner is an INSANELY powerful tool, and has some clear benefits. Non least, the fact that information technology suggests keyword ideas that you can't findanywhere else. Trust me, I checked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-abxi0Pclc

The problem? Most SEOs have no clue how to get the most from this tool.

In this post, I'll show you how to get some serious SEO value from Google Keyword Planner. Who knows? There may fifty-fifty exist a couple hacks for reviving exact search volumes… for costless. 😉

Let'southward start with the basics.

New to keyword enquiry? Check out our

How to Gain Access to Google Keyword Planner (for Costless)

Google Keyword Planner is 100% free to use. You need not spend a penny on AdWords ads to gain access. You just need a Google account.

Sidenote.

Don't have a Google account? Get i for gratuitous here.

But here's what sometimes happens when you try to access the tool:

You're asked to ready up an AdWords campaign.

Google is then ambitious with this, in fact, that it can await like in that location'southward no way to admission the tool without kickoff handing over some cash. Well, I have adept news:

You CAN access the tool WITHOUT running an AdWords ad. You but have to jump through a few hoops.

To start, become here. Click "Become to Keyword Planner."

Sidenote.

Y'all may then be asked to re-enter your password for verification.

Now hither's the important part:

When you see the "What's your main advertising goal" screen, don't choose whatsoever of the three options. Striking the small "Experienced with Google Ads?" link below instead.

Non SEEING THIS LINK?

Here's yet some other quirk in Google Keyword Planner: Google only displays this link in browser windows of a sure width.

If you don't see the link, try resizing your browser window to make information technology wider.

As ridiculous as this is, it should so appear.

On the next screen, hit the "Create an account without a entrada" link. (Information technology'south another small i.)

Hit the "Submit" push on the next page. (Don't worry; Google won't ask for credit bill of fare details.)

You should then encounter this screen:

Striking the "Explore your business relationship" link.

Next, click the "Tools" link on the carte bar and hit "Switch to expert mode."

Follow the prompt to confirm the switch.

Finally, hit the "Tools" link on the menu again, and you should see a link to the Keyword Planner.

Y'all now have admission! No need to enter billing info or run an AdWords ad.

Now permit'south learn how to use information technology.

How to Use Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner gives you two options to get started, which are:

1. Find keywords: Get keyword ideas that can help you accomplish people interested in your product or service;
2. Go search book and forecasts: Come across search volume and other historical metrics for your keywords, as well as forecasts for how they might perform in the time to come.

Both options take you lot to the Keyword Plan, just what you lot run into will vary slightly depending on your choice. These are not two separate standalone tools.

Permit's explore each starting point in more detail.

"Observe keywords"

Practise you want to find new keyword ideas? Start here.

As per Google's instructions, simply "Enter words, phrases, or a URL related to your business." Google volition then kick back some keyword suggestions.

Here are the suggestions for "SEO":

In that location are i,106 keyword ideas in total.

For each suggestion, you'll see:

• Avg. monthly searches;
• Competition;
• Peak of page bid (low range);
• Top of page bid (high range)

But y'all're non limited to single words; phrases also work. And you lot tin can enter upwardly to ten seed keywords/phrases at a time.

There's also the option to employ a URL or website every bit the seed.

Here'south another trick: yous can enter up to ten seed keywords and a URL at the aforementioned fourth dimension.

But whatever y'all exercise, Google will never show more than a few thousand keyword suggestions.

Even when I entered a maximum of ten seed keywords and a URL, I still only got 4,715 suggestions.

This is pretty poor when compared to other keyword inquiry tools.

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, for instance, kicks back 484,282 suggestions based on those same three seed keywords…

… that's more than than 102x what Keyword Planner gives us.

"Get search volume and forecasts"

Do you already have a list of keywords that you lot wish to see metrics for? First hither.

Just paste them in, hit "Get started," and it'll take you to the Forecasts section.

There are no keyword suggestions hither. Information technology shows how many clicks and impressions you can look should yous decide to run ads for your called keywords on Google AdWords over the next xxx days. Y'all'll also see estimated costs, CTR, and CPC.

About of this data is clearly aimed at AdWords advertisers. Just here's a quick trick:

Go to the "Historical Metrics" tab and you volition see 12-month boilerplate search volumes for your keywords. These are the same ranges you see when starting with the "Find new keywords" option.

Not seeing the value in such ranges?

Keep reading. You never know, I might have a fob upward my sleeve for unlocking exact search volumes. 😉

7 Google Keyword Planner Hacks (That Almost SEOs Don't Know)

Here's what happened when I asked my Facebook friends for their top Google Keyword Planner hacks/tips:

So I digged deeper to try to empathise why this was the case.

Fair betoken. But Google Keyword Planner has much more than to offer than search volumes.

Here are 7 hacks to assistance y'all get the about out of it, starting with the one you were all waiting for…

1. Unlock EXACT search volumes

Google's reluctance to show exact search volumes is i of the nearly frustrating things virtually Keyword Planner. It's why many SEOs no longer use the tool at all.

For case, look at these ii keywords—both take a search volume range of 10K-100K:

But if we check these two keywords in Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, we run across that in reality one of these keywords gets a lot more than searches than the other.

So here are ii ways yous can use to get some exact numbers… for gratis.

Method #i: Look at the estimated impressions for max. CPC

Begin past adding some keywords to your plan. You can do this by manually entering a list of keywords into the "Get search volumes and metrics" tool.

Alternatively, check some keywords in the Keyword ideas view and add them to your plan like that. Just make sure to select the "exact match" option when prompted.

Get to the Keywords view. You should see a box at the top that looks something like this:

Striking the driblet-downwardly and make sure the max. CPC is fix as high as possible. You can do this by clicking on the right-hand side of the graph, like so:

Now pay attention to the "Impressions" column. This tells y'all the estimated number of impressions your ad would get over the course of the next month if you were to run information technology for those specific keywords.

Because you lot gear up the max CPC then loftier, these impressions should be pretty close to the actual monthly search volume for that keyword.

Let's use Ahrefs Keywords Explorer to see cheque shut these numbers are.

Non too far off at all. 😉

Of import: This is a very rough style of gauging search volumes. Information technology is past no means definitive.

Method #2. Install Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a costless Chrome extension that adds search volume and CPC to the websites you lot already use: Google, YouTube, Amazon, etc.

Here information technology is in action:

But here's something a lot of people don't know: it also brings search volumes to Google Keyword Planner.

Don't believe me? Take a look:

Cool, right? The result is that in that location's no piece of cake way to export this data.

Only with a bit of XPath code and the Scraper Chrome extension, information technology is possible.

Whichever "hack" you use, I recommend taking the numbers with a pinch of table salt.

To learn why, cheque out the two articles by Tim [Soulo] in the further reading department below.

2. See keyword ideas for more than 10 terms at ONCE

Hither'due south what happens if you try to add more than ten seed keywords in Google Keyword Planner:

"No stairway, denied."

Only there is a way to get round this. Just do them ane at a time. Then add them to your programme by hitting the checkbox at the top of the list, choosing the choice to "select all XXX" and hitting "add together to programme.

Exercise y'all desire keyword ideas for upto x,000 seed keywords?

Let'south exercise that for the 743 suggestions based off the keyword "SEO."

And then echo for suggestions based on 10 other keywords (and then eleven seed keywords in full).

Now, if we go to the Historical Metrics tab nether Keywords, nosotros run across ALL of the keywords nosotros merely added. And best of all, the listing has been de-duped automatically, so in that location are no repeated keywords.

By default, they're shown in alphabetical order. Merely you lot can order by search volume, competition, whatever you like.

iii. Steal keyword ideas from your competitors

Google Keyword Planner can generate keyword suggestions from a URL.

Do you run into where I'thousand going with this? You can spy on your competitors and steal their keywords. But take hold of one of their URLs, paste it in, and select "Entire site" from the drop-downwards.

2,274 keyword suggestions.

If you lot see a lot of keywords related to the competing brand, as nosotros do here, use the filter to exclude them.

Filter > keyword text > brand proper noun

Rinse and echo for multiple competitors for a never-ending stream of fresh keyword ideas.

PRO TIP

Looking to find keyword ideas for a particular page or web log mail service? Select "This page only" instead.

Let'southward do that for a competing guide to Google Keyword Planner. (I know, how meta!)

652 results.

Some overnice ideas in there too. I think I'll sprinkle a few of those throughout this guide—come across if you can spot them 😉

4. Notice the questions people are asking

Knowing what questions your audience are asking tin be super-useful for coming upward with content ideas. This is probably why complimentary keyword research tools like Respond The Public are so popular.

Merely you don't need to use a separate tool for this. With a little hacking, you tin can do this in Keyword Planner.

Filter > Keyword text > contains > enter i of the following: who, what, why, when, where, how.

Echo the process for the other five suppositions. It should await similar this when you're done:

Result: 211 questions-type suggestions.

At that place are some not bad content ideas in here, such equally:

• what is link edifice;
• what is search engine optimization;
• what is the best seo tool;
• etc.

Want more than question-type queries?

How about 28,848?

That'due south how many question-blazon queries Ahrefs Keywords Explorer finds for the seed keyword "SEO."

You may observe that these all accept exact search volumes too. 😉

Rinse and repeat this process with unlike seed keywords to build upwards a Large list of question-based queries.

Simply add together the filtered results to your programme each time. You tin can fifty-fifty create an ad group specifically for these terms.

This makes it easier to filter for these terms in Excel / Google Sheets if you export your plan.

five. Discover lucrative keywords by looking at suggested bid

Keyword suggestions are all well and proficient, only how do you know which are valuable to your business?

You could sift through them all manually but this is no fun, particularly if you have hundreds or thousands of keyword ideas.

My recommendation? Use the "Top of page bid (high range)" column.

Hither'due south Google's definition of what this is:

"Peak of page bid (high range)" shows the higher range of what advertisers accept historically paid for a keyword'due south top of page bid, based on your location and Search Network settings. The boilerplate CPC of your keywords may vary.

I know what you're thinking:

Josh, that sounds like it's for AdWords… how is that useful for SEO?

Simple. If people are willing to bid a lot for this keyword, it must exist converting to sales. And if it'due south converting cold Google traffic to sales or leads, it's probably worth pursuing and trying to rank for.

To sort past this column, just click the column header. Make sure it'due south sorted high to depression equally that way, the most lucrative keywords volition rise to the top.

Nine times out of 10, this volition instantly unveil the keywords with commercial intent.

pro tip

Are you thinking of targeting 1 of these keywords? E'er remember to check what businesses advertising are hither earlier doing and so.

You tin do this by Googling the term and looking at the ads.

Are they selling the same products or services every bit you? Then information technology'southward probably a good keyword to target.

Oh, and here'southward a bonus tip:

Sort this cavalcade in ascending order to find informational search terms. These are frequently corking topics for blog posts.

6. Run across keyword volumes for local areas… correct downward to the CITY level

Near keyword inquiry tools are incapable of telling you how many people search for a term in specific states, cities and other localized areas. They merely show search volumes for the entire state.

Such volumes are somewhat useless when information technology comes to local SEO.

Permit's say that you lot're a plumber. Using the impressions → search volumes hack (#1), we can see that the term "plumber" will receive an estimated ~286K impressions over the next 30 days.

But plumbers don't serve the unabridged land. That would be impossible.

The cool thing about Google Keyword Planner is that you lot tin actually see the estimated impressions for much more localized areas. Fifty-fifty for specific cities.

Simply beginning typing a location into the location filter at the height. Let's try it for Los Angeles (metropolis).

Now we see that "plumber" has just ~12K monthly impressions. Pretty neat, right?

This isn't but useful for local businesses though. You lot tin also use it to understand the well-nigh pop locations from which a term is searched.

But add a keyword (or many) to your plan—I'll go for "hendersons enjoy."

At present go to the Plan Overview, select "All locations" in the locations filter, and scroll downwards to the Locations box. Y'all will see a listing of the summit countries from which the keyword gets searched.

Sidenote.

Make sure to clear the metropolis-specific location filter showtime.

You lot can run into that for "hendersons relish," 94.five% of all impressions comes from the Uk. Hardly surprising, as it'south a British condiment.

But you tin go fifty-fifty deeper. Knowing that nigh searches come from the UK, we tin set Britain as the location in the location filter. Now the Locations box will show more localized areas.

93.1% of all searches are in England. Allow'south use the drop-down and narrow this down further… to counties.

17.1% in South Yorkshire, but as well eight.7% in London—seems it'southward pop amongst Londoners too (for some reason).

Now let's look at cities.

eight% in Sheffield. Once more, inappreciably surprising—that'southward where it'south made. 🙂

pro tip

You can besides apply this feature to help figure out WHO y'all should create content for.

For example, 3.ix% of all searches for "luxury car rental" come from the city of Los Angeles.

If yous ran a luxury car hire company, it might pay to create content that would entreatment to folk from Los Angeles… even if information technology wasn't totally car-related. This would be a slap-up way to go on the radar of potential customers.

Good idea? The folk at Rentalcars.com seem to think so.

Annotation. I have no affiliation with rentalcars.com. Information technology's just an instance.

Recommended reading: Local SEO: A Simple (But Consummate) Guide

7. Run into which devices people are using (and which you lot should be optimizing for)

People use many types of device to scan the spider web these days, namely smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Each of these accept very different screen sizes, which means information technology'southward difficult to perfectly optimize your site for all of them.

To illustrate, here's how a section of free keyword enquiry tools post looks on desktop…

…and on mobile:

While the text is totally readable, some of the numbers on the screenshot are pretty difficult to read on a minor screen size. This doesn't make for the best user-feel.

But here'southward the thing: I know that most of the people who read this guide do so on desktop.

How? I checked in Google Keyword Planner.

To do this, add a keyword to your plan and go to the Plan Overview. Look at the Devices section, namely the Impressions bar. Rollover this and it will tell you what percentage of impressions come up from each device category.

You can come across that for the keyword "gratuitous keyword research tools," 92% of impressions come up from computers—devices with big screens.

And so it makes total sense to prioritise the desktop user-feel higher up all else.

For some keywords, information technology will be the other mode round. Take "all-time restaurants virtually me" for example.

91.4% of all impressions come from mobile devices.

This makes sense. People Googling this are almost likely just looking for a good restaurant for tiffin/dinner while out and virtually.

Final Thoughts

Google Keyword Planner is clearly a powerful tool. I recommend incorporating it into your keyword research workflow. It's packed with super-valuable insights that you lot tin't become from any other keyword enquiry tools.

Merely information technology does have its limitations, the lack of authentic search volumes being a Large i.

Luckily, this can be solved with other keyword research tools, such as Ahrefs Keywords Explorer. Such tools combine data from Google Keyword Planner with clickstream data to generate authentic search book estimations, and more.

Take Ahrefs Keywords Explorer for a spin for 7 days here. Or check out our full guide to doing keyword research here.

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Source: https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-keyword-planner/

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