Google Keyword Planner, Free — Step by Step

If you already have a Google account (Gmail): go to ads.google.com and sign in with your existing Google account.

If you don’t have a Google account: create one free at gmail.com, then return to ads.google.com.

When you first access Google Ads, it tries to walk you into creating a campaign. You need to exit that flow and switch to Expert Mode.

Here’s exactly what to do:

1. Go to ads.google.com and click “Start now” or sign in
2. Google presents a “Smart campaign” setup wizard
3. Look for “Switch to Expert Mode” — a small link at the bottom of the setup screen
4. Click “Switch to Expert Mode”
5. On the next screen, you’ll see campaign type options
6. Look for “Create an account without a campaign” and click it
7. Fill in your business information: country, time zone, currency
8. Click “Submit”

You now have a Google Ads account with no active campaigns and no spending required.

Once your account is created:

• You’ll land on the Google Ads dashboard
• Click the grid icon (Tools and Settings) in the top navigation — it looks like a 3×3 grid of dots
• Under “Planning,” click “Keyword Planner”

You’ll see two options: “Discover new keywords” to find ideas from topics or websites, and “Get search volume and forecasts” to check data for a specific list of keywords.

This is the primary tool for bloggers doing keyword research. Click “Discover new keywords” and you’ll see two tabs:

Tab 1 — Start with keywords: enter words or phrases related to your topic (up to 10 seed keywords at once). Example: enter “affiliate marketing, make money online, AI tools for bloggers” and Google generates hundreds of related keyword ideas with search volume and competition data.

Tab 2 — Start with a website: enter a competitor’s URL and Google suggests keywords based on that site’s content — useful for finding gaps and opportunities in your niche.

Click “Get results” after entering your keywords or URL.

The keyword results table shows:

• Keyword (by relevance): the most valuable column — keywords Google thinks are most relevant to your input
• Average monthly searches: how often the keyword is searched. Without an active campaign, Google shows ranges (“1K–10K”) rather than exact numbers — more on that in Step 7
• Competition: low, medium, or high — based on advertiser bidding, not organic SEO difficulty. High advertiser competition often signals high commercial value
• Top of page bid (low / high range): what advertisers pay per click. Higher bids signal strong buying intent — useful for spotting monetizable keywords

With hundreds of keyword ideas returned, filter to find the best opportunities:

• Language filter: set to English (or your target language) to eliminate irrelevant results
• Location filter: set to your target country, or “All locations” for global targeting
• Average monthly searches: filter to at least 1,000 monthly searches to eliminate low-demand keywords

Then sort by average monthly searches (high to low) for volume, by competition (low) for easier wins, or by top of page bid (high to low) for the most commercially valuable terms.

The 1K–10K style ranges frustrate most users. Three ways to get closer to a precise number:

1. Add keywords to a plan: check the boxes next to keywords you like, click “Add to plan,” then open “Plan overview” — this sometimes surfaces more specific data
2. Use “Get search volume and forecasts”: paste your keyword list into this view for potentially more precise historical data
3. Accept the ranges and cross-reference: for most blogging purposes, knowing a keyword gets 1K–10K searches a month is sufficient — cross-check with a second free tool for the overlap

For exact search volumes you would need an active, funded campaign. For pure keyword research, the ranges are workable.

Seasonal trends are one of Keyword Planner’s most underused features. Click any keyword in the results and a small chart appears showing search volume over the past 12 months.

Why this matters: a keyword like “gift ideas for bloggers” spikes dramatically in November–December — publish in October to give it time to rank before the peak. “Best AI tools for students” spikes in August–September and again in January — time your article accordingly.

Once you’ve identified promising keywords, export them for planning. Click the download icon in the top right of the keyword results, select CSV, then open it in Google Sheets or Excel.

A simple way to organize the spreadsheet:

This becomes your keyword research master document — the foundation of your entire content calendar. Once you have a large exported list, grouping related keywords into a keyword cluster makes it far faster to plan which keywords share one article versus which deserve their own.

Keyword Planner isn’t just for new content — it’s invaluable for optimizing what you’ve already published.

1. Go to “Get search volume and forecasts”
2. Paste your existing article’s target keyword
3. Review the related keyword ideas
4. Identify keywords your article could target but doesn’t mention yet
5. Update the article to naturally include those additional keywords

This “content refresh” technique is one of the fastest ways to grow traffic from articles that already rank. It pairs well with a full SEO audit, which will surface exactly which existing posts are worth refreshing first.