The Google Keyword Planner is a great tool for researching keywords manually. However, it does require you to enter information and set parameters before it returns any useful data.
But what if the data you’re entering is incorrect or you’ve made a mistake somewhere and selected keywords that don’t convert? Google won’t tell you that’s for sure.
It’s not uncommon for marketers to overlook a set of keywords or be totally obviously to highly profitable keywords their competitors are ranking for.
If you only use the Google Planner to locate your keywords, consider supplementing it with any of the 4 platforms below broaden your findings.
- SEMrush
SEMrush is an online tool that helps marketers find profitable keywords. It allows you to search any website and will return keywords it ranks for organically. Asides from checking your own website, you can spy on a number of competitors to find keywords they rank for, and decide whether they are worth bidding for.
For example, SEOBook ranks for the following keywords:
If I were in direct competition with SEOBook, I would seriously consider targeting the keywords SEO tools, SEO training and keyword tool if they were within my budget and deemed profitable.
Under the top organic keywords list are its main competitors who I could also research to gain insights on what words they rank for. Research your 5 biggest competitors and see whether you find profitable keywords you weren’t targeting before.
SEMrush has both free and paid membership plans.
- Übersuggest
Übersuggest is a great keyword tool that makes finding those elusive long-tail words easier. You simply enter your keyword and Übersuggest lists the most common searched long-tail keywords that prospects look for on Google.
For example, I typed ‘paid search’ and Übersuggest returned 276 suggestions that may be worth targeting:
It won’t be the best use of your time to enter each keyword into the Google Planner individually to see their cost and monthly searches. Instead, I recommend you outsource this data entry task to a freelancer who can neatly sort out the keywords in a spreadsheet based on searchers and CPC.
From there you can decide which keywords you want to target in your next campaign.
- Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides in-depth information on how prospects find your business and interact on your website. Look for keywords that are leading prospects to your landing pages, keywords that result in prospects spending more time on your website, or words that lead to conversions and place more emphasize on them in your next campaign.
Just because you gain traffic organically from keywords, doesn’t mean you should neglect them in your PPC ads.
- Google Trends
Google Trends is another free tool that reveals how popular a keyword is online. It reveals data on how much interest a word has received over time, shows other keyword terms users have searched and suggests similar words that are trending right now.
For example, I searched ‘social media marketing’ and Google Trends returned data on regions the phrase is most popular and similar search queries made by users:
Google Trends is most useful to find trending keywords that you may be oblivious to. If you manage to locate a few golden keywords that nobody else is targeting, it’s not uncommon to pay only a few cents per click for highly profitable keywords.
Summary
Keywords are a huge part of any PPC campaign, if you only use one tool you’ll be missing out on huge batches of keywords that your competitors will be profiting from.
If you’ve only use the Google Keyword Planner as your main keyword tool, give any of the 4 tools above a test-drive and let me know what you think.
Nick Bridges
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