The Google Keyword Planner tool is a keyword research tool that helps you find keywords to build optimal search engine campaigns that gain organic traffic.

How to Use Google Keyword Planner

Using Google Keyword Planner, you can discover keywords that you can optimise your site for to achieve higher search engine rankings. When you first log in, you'll be presented with this screen giving you 3 options to find keywords:

Here you can find keywords by:

• Searching via phrase, keyword or website
• Getting search volume data and trends
• Multiplying keyword lists to get new keywords

Once inside, you'll be able to filter the keywords by a number of options.

The filtering options in Keyword Planner including via:

• Search volume
• Competition level
• Location
• Language
• Negative keywords
• Date range

While the temptation is to choose keywords that have the highest search volume, bear in mind, these keywords are often the most competitive. As a result, it can take months or years (if ever) for you to rank highly for these terms.

• See our complete Google Keyword Planner Tutorial here.

The aim for most online marketers is to choose keywords that have high volume and low competition. How much is high volume? You should at least be looking at 1,000 exact searches per month. Resources:

• Access Google Keyword Planner here: https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
• Our step by step Keyword Planner tutorial
• Google's own introduction to Keyword Planner

Note: You will need a Google account in order to start using the service. While there are paid tools that can make uncovering low competition faster, such as Long Tail Pro,

Google Keyword Planner is generally the best place to start when looking for keywords that will go on to form the basis of your site's search engine optimisation.