keyword research While far from a perfect tool (seriously skewed toward "commercial intent," not always inclusive of trend data, difficult to drill down into local terms), the Google Keyword Tool was one of the best keyword research tools available. The keyword volume numbers were more trustworthy than other keyword tools, simply because they came right from the source—who better to know what kind of search volume keywords get than Google itself?
With Google's recent announcement that their free Keyword Tool has gone away, replaced with their integrated PPC tool the Keyword Planner, a cry has gone up from SEOs: "What do we do now?"
Google Keyword Planner pros and cons
With the advent of the Keyword Planner, Google is making a strong statement that they'll continue to focus on supporting PPC advertisers rather than organic search marketers. To that end, the Keyword Planner is heavily focused on PPC ads; you even have to sign up for an AdWords account to use it (although you don't have to enter any payment information, and would only end up paying for the tool if you created and launched an ad). That said, the tool definitely retains some SEO utility.
Pros of Google Keyword Planner:
- Users can now view keyword volume on a hyper-local basis; I was able to view search volume not only for the Oklahoma City area, but even drill down into Norman, the smaller OKC-area town where I live. This is great for businesses doing local and hyper-local SEO to get a better idea of the volume and competition in their geographic area.
- The tool divides keywords up into suggested ad groups; this is designed to be a PPC-focused feature, but does provide some insight into which keywords Google deems to be semantically/topically related.
- The "multiply keyword lists" feature allows you to search on combinations of words from two different lists. This allows you to combine your terms with modifiers such as location or color and compare search volume without having to concatenate in Excel.
- Users can filter out keywords below a certain search volume, so you don't even have to look at them.
- Since you have to be logged in to use the tool, users aren't limited to 100 words like we were with the logged-out version of the old tool.
Cons of Google Keyword Planner:
- The ability to select Broad, Phrase or Exact match has been removed—only Exact match data is now available.
- "Average monthly searches" is calculated over 12 months, meaning the Keyword Planner isn't a good place to research trending topics. Use Google Trends for that.
- The option to only search for words closely related to your term has been removed. However, Google has said they will probably add it back in.
- Device targeting is gone—no more segmenting volume for desktop vs. mobile searches. This means volume numbers are, in general, higher for the Keyword Planner than they were for Keyword Tool since those two buckets have been combined.
- "Local" vs "Global" search volume is no longer automatically displayed. Instead, Global (which Google is now calling "all locations") is the default and users must drill down into specific locales for local search volume. To me, the added functionality around location targeting makes this a mixed blessing, but users will probably miss the easy comparison of seeing Local and Global side-by-side.
Alternative tools for keyword volume
Of course, for some of us, this latest example of data hoarding on Google's part is the last straw. Here are some other places you can look for keyword volume. Since the Google Keyword Tool was free, I kept these options to tools that are free or have a free option (which is why I didn't include the Moz Keyword Difficulty and SERP Analysis tool, even though I love it, since it's only available to paid Moz subscribers).
Google Webmaster Tools impression data
Anyone with a Google Webmaster Tools verified site can view how often their site has shown up for certain keywords.
Pros:
- This data still comes from Google itself.
Cons:
- Because it only shows how many impressions your site got from a keyword, GWT Impression data can't be used to research terms you're not already ranking for.
- There are disputes about the accuracy of the data—the consensus among SEO pros is that it's less reliable than the Keyword Tool data was.
Bing Keyword Tool
The Bing-provided alternative to the Google Keyword tool goes a long way toward making up for the tool's departure. It's what we use in our Keyword Difficulty and SERP Analysis tool.
Pros:
- Users can narrow searches by date range, to more accurately track recent search data.
- Recent keyword volume trend data displays alongside other metrics.
- A "strict" filter acts like the old "closely related" filter in Google's Keyword Tool.
- The tool is in Beta, so it's likely we'll continue to see more features and improvements as the Bing team keeps working on it.
Cons:
- Because this data comes from Bing, which has fewer users, all search volume numbers will skew lower than they would in Google.
- Geographic drilldown is only available at the country level.
- Users must be signed in to a Bing Webmaster Tools account with a verified site in order to use the tool (but you should be checking Bing Webmaster Tools anyway, it's free and there's a lot of good stuff in there).
WordTracker
Good old WordTracker. This was the first tool I ever used for keyword research and it's still plugging along.
Pros:
- Their proprietary Keyword Effectiveness Index gives a gauge of how competitive each keyword is for the amount of search volume it generates.
- WordTracker partners with SEMRush to provide paid users with paid search data as well.
- Users can filter results by match type: "keywords in any order", "exact keyword inside a search term" and "exact keyword only" as well as "related terms."
Cons:
- The full tool requires a paid subscription (starting at $69/month) to use—however, there's also a free version that offers less functionality: Global searches only, no SEMRush data, and only 50 results per search.
- Users must create an account with a valid email address to use the free tool.
- Depending on which version of the tool you're using, WordTracker data comes from one of two sources: a "major search engine advertising network," or from metacrawlers such as DogPile, which search multiple search engines at one time. Since only a small portion of searchers are using metacrawlers, the sample of searches may be skewed based on the demographic of people who use them.
SEMRush
Full disclosure: I blog occasionally for SEMRush and am part of their customer feedback team, which means they have generously provided me with free access to their PRO tool.
Pros:
- The free SEMRush keyword research tool provides PPC and SEO information in one view, which can be useful for marketers running hybrid PPC/SEO programs.
- SEMRush surfaces up both the root domain and the specific URL that rank for your keyword term in the first 20 slots.
- Related and phrase match terms, along with volume, are also served up in an individual keyword's report.
- Keyword volume data comes from the Google Keyword API, making it one of the more trustworthy sources of keyword volume data.
Cons:
- Users must create a login with a valid email address to use the tool—but it's free.
- SERP information doesn't take into account local, video, carousel or other non-text result types.
- Geographic drilldown is only available at the country level.
- Despite the related and phrase match keyword info, this tool is more effective at researching individual keywords, once you already have them, than it is at generating lots of new keyword ideas—so keep that in mind.
Don't Hit Enter
I'd be remiss if I didn't include one of my favorite keyword brainstorming tools, first introduced by Wil Reynolds at MozCon last year: Just start typing one of your core terms into Google, don't hit enter, and see which keywords are suggested. Then "start the next word" by typing different letters to get further suggestions.
Pros:
- Discover the results that Google is most likely to drive users to (since many users will use Google Suggestions that are close to their original query if they come up).
Cons:
- No "related terms" data—everything that comes up will start with that first word.
- No keyword volume data. You'll have to use one of the other tools listed above for that!
- Your suggestions may be skewed based on your location and search history.
The Future of Keyword Volume
I don't really think any one tool is going to cut it in this day and age—I'd always recommend using more than one tool for something like keyword volume research, especially since the data can vary so much depending on where the data comes from. The best (safest) way to use keyword data from any tool, including Google, is at a directional level to make inferences about Google: If Keyword A has 10 times as many searches as Keyword B in Bing, and 5 times as many searches as Keyword B in WordTracker, Keyword A will most likely also be more popular in Google. This kind of directional approach is much more likely to be successful than treating the numbers from any one tool as gospel.
There are a few other things to consider in your keyword volume research. For one, increased personalization in search results means that even if you rank very well for a keyword most of the time, you may not show up every time that term is searched; there's no way for keyword volume tools to predict how often you'll be personalized in or out of people's SERPs. Also, keep in mind that certain terms may be important to target even if they're lower in volume, whether because they're important to your brand or because they convert so highly that the lower traffic numbers don't matter.
I'll probably be using Google's Keyword Planner in conjunction with one or two of these other tools, plus Moz tools, for my keyword research going forward. How about you? Any awesome free tools I've missed? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
instead of "Don't hit enter" you can use ubersuggest.org ;)
Came here to suggest this, looks like you beat me to it!
Awesome guys, thanks for the tip!
+1 great suggestion tool!!
Yes, I always use ubersuggest.org for keyword research. Awesome tool.
ubersuggest.org
I have just check it nice tool.... Thanks for sharing
Ubersuggest is great but it uses more than just google results
Really what else does it use? it seems like it used the Googles Before you hit enter results no?
I use ubersuggest for some times now, and it works perfectly, and also in other languages (French for example).
@ubersuggest.org
Nice suggestion.
I found another tool that helped me a lot.
soovle.com
Its really easy to use and get some awesome result with this tool !! Cheers Mate
I like to use this tool when Ubersuggest is throwing API errors.
betterwaytoweb.com/keyword-suggestion-tool/
Thanks for telling us great tool. good luck
Hi Ruth,
It is possible to get a rough broad match estimate from the Keyword Planner tool, but it takes a bit of elbow grease. Here's how I do it:
1. Enter your list of keywords, choose "Get estimates"
2. Select segment by "Keyword", enter a very high estimated bid and budget: say $100 bid; $20K daily budget
3. Choose 'Edit Match Types' > 'All Ad Groups' > 'Broad match'
The results will show anticipated daily clicks and impressions for your keywords, roughly estimating if you were in ad position #1. If you take the impressions data and multiply it by 30, you can estimate monthly search volume for broad match.
You can also switch the match type to 'Exact match' - and multiply impressions by 30 to get estimated exact match search volume.
I've found that the exact match estimations are pretty close to the exact match figures provided when you use Keyword Planner and choose 'Get search volume" in step 1.
Awesome Allie! That is great to know but a shame it takes so much elbow grease.
I recently covered a full walk-through of both the keyword planner and the display planner in this post: https://www.seonick.net/how-to-do-keyword-research-for-seo/
I think that for volume, the best bet is still Google. For ideas, though, SEMRush, wordtracker, and even Bing are good places to start looking. "Don't hit enter" - or suggester.promediacorp.com is also good for ideas. Then we can throw these into Google last to see if there is really any demand out there or not.
I believe the Keyword Planner is still good at predicting trends since you can export any keyword and see the search volume over a period of 12 months.
For researching trends I like the Keyword Planner better than the Keyword Tool. The Keyword Planner gives us a nice overview of searches for each month, you just have to download the keyword list to Excel and choose 'Segment statistics by month'.
With Google's keyword planner, even though you can't just check the "only show closely related terms" option anymore, there's still some control over which terms are suggested.
It takes a little elbow grease, but if you work on refining the results with the include/exclude options, you can usually steer the suggestions in the right direction. It's not perfect, but neither was the "only show closely related terms" option.
Good post Ruth, very nicely highlighted the pors and cons of keyword research tools. Still we can not rely on search volumes as I am not sure to what extent keyword statistics shown in Google's keyword planner are authentic? Taking the directional approach I'll prefer to use Keyword planner in conjunction with WordTracker.
I agree, I'm skeptical of any keyword volume stat being taken as the gospel truth - there are too many variables in play.
Another con to the new Keyword Planner is one can no longer select specific terms of interest by checking a box and export just those terms. You have to export the entire list (often 800 or more) and sort through them yourself in Excel. I hate it!
Thanks for the post Ruth. I also did a post on this topic a few weeks ago located here:
How Google’s Keyword Planner Differs from the Old Google Keyword Tool
Thanks for sharing the info on SEMRush. Love the info you can get there and I didn't think to add it to my list of alternative keyword tools.
You can still select specific keywords to download to a .csv file. When you are going through the keyword ideas list, click on the blue arrow and those keywords go into a list of selected keywords sorted by ad group, "My Keyword Ideas" being the default. You can add new ad groups on the fly to sort your keywords directly in the Keyword Planner by clicking the plus symbol in the right column and creating a new ad group. To download only selected keywords, click on the underlined down arrow in the far right column. Doing this prevents downloading all of them and having to delete them in Excel.
Hi Ruth Great Post the old google keywords tools can't show the CPC.And the new google tools create the CPC & it also help in PPC also.
Thanks so much, exactly the info that I was looking for after spending too much time on the Google Adwords tool. Hopefully my time will be more productive now.
Hi Ruth,
Great post!
I really like the 'don't hit enter' option! So obvious, can't believe I have never thought of this before!
I guess I just don't understand why Google changed the Keyword Research Tool into the Keyword Planner Tool. I'm sure they have some reason but I just can't figure out what it is. The old tool worked just fine and gave site owners a very clean, easy to understand set-up.
I think it has to be all around encouraging people to use Google AdWords. The old Keyword Tool was also focused on AdWords, but this new tool (especially since it requires you to create an AdWords account to use it, and has a huge focus on CPC and ad groups) is really focused on adding PPC functionality at the expense of functionality for SEO.
I'm wary of how the Keyword Planner defaults to the "Ad Group Ideas" tab. I like to know I've gotten every keyword out there and I don't yet feel confident I've am squeezing it 'until the pip squeaks'. I guess it will just take a while for me to feel as at home in the Keyword Planner as I did in Adwords Keyword Tool.
On the whole I still think it's the best tool out there for keyword research, as good as it ever was really.
A few other options for your keyword research:
1. Looking at books for keyword research, ebooks online
2. Looking at Internal Search data
3. Looking at paid search data.
4. I also notice people selling old GKT data on discs already as they have stored it but how long will that be good for.
In the end of the day I feel Google is really trying to keep much of the data from SEO, to increase spend overall on PPC.
Internal search data is a good one! I thought about including Google Analytics keyword data but it has a similar problem to the GWT data - it can only show you information on keywords you're already ranking for.
Hi Ruth nice post.
I think that keyword planner is not easier than old google keyword tool.
Thanks for the post, it's a great summary. There's a real void now that Google took its keyword ball away -- at least, the ball most of us kids liked to use. While it's always good practice to consult multiple sources, natural search abhors a vacuum (to paraphrase), so it seems like the time is right for a new/better keyword tool to rise up.
lots of good ideas to get the creative juices flowing!
Hi Ruth Awesome Post ..
lots of good ideas to get the creative juices flowing!
I think Google creates a tool to give you insights on organic searches, just like the old Keyword Tool, even if they made a payment one.
Thank you for providing as much info as you were able about the source of the "data" for each tool. I feel there is a lack of transparency about this in general. It is important to trust the source so we can work quickly and be credible. Otherwise, KW research takes up way too much time, and is way too inefficient - not the best business plan, is it?
I still seem to have Broad, Phrase and Exact match options in the keyword planner. I like the fact I can drill down to local towns as this is important to local businesses. It's taken far to long to have this option.
I have also found it is better to run a PPC campaign along side SEO changes to gain more data from Google, it can be very insightful.
I think it is always wise to use more than one keyword tool, but the best keywords are always provided by the client and their customers, and having tracking in contact forms so you can pick up the keywords being used.
Those options don't show you different search volume, just the average CPC for that TYPE of keyword match. Its still showing you exact match search volume numbers.
Thanks, some great tips there. It's really frustrating trying to do research now I miss the free keywords checker but clearly its gone for now :(
You can however still use it it's just a bit more long winded which is frustrating to say the least.
thanks
Great post Ruth, I enjoyed the alternative options.
Hi Ruth,
it's obvious that the most of us used the old keyword tool only for keyword research (to rank them in the SERPs) and not to use them in a PPC campaign. Google doesn't want help SEOs in their job and he is constantly searching for something to discourage companies to work with SEO Consultants. I work in the SEO and organic search ranking field but a friend of mine, that works exlusively in PPC field for a huge italian company, told me that Google added an automatic campaign generator that crawls all the pages of your website and manage by itselfs the PPCs simulating an organic long tail ranking, you'll obtain visits to every page of your site for every matching keyword and, obviously, with a very very low CPC price. The result is that customers (when will realize that) could say "why do i have to risk a budget with you when i can obtain sure visits at a low price of 0,02€ x click?"
A customer told me exactly that... i replied "because when a keyword is ranked you don't have to pay ever more until it's up!, you missed the TIME variable in your counts, you have to pay forever with PPC"
This is only to say that Google will invent a new trick every day to get rid of the most of SEOs :)
Sorry for the long reply (in, maybe, wrong english), i'll listen your seminary in Italy at SMX Milan with pleasure :) i'm one of the sponsors.
Bye,
Ivano
Your information is very good, thank from France, i like your job !
Great Articles, its very useful informative post. But is their any idea other keyword tools accept Google keyword planner. because some confusion about new tools its not give proper data which old one keyword tools.
So please anybody can help me out other tools???
Nice post! I'm a big fan of the 'don't hit enter' rule - what can be better than building out your keyword list from none other than suggestions that Google is already giving you.
I noticed you didn't mention the Bing Ads Intelligence tool Excel add on - such a great tool to use, especially from right within your keyword list excel doc.
I too use SEMRush for PPC research, but heavily rely on Google's keyword tool over the others, but I do wish the Keyword Planner was a bit easier to use.
Oh yay, I love Excel add-ons. Thanks!
Great Post,
When looking locally it's an completely other matter though. For exemple, many of the tools only support English. For dutch or german the posibilities are even viewer. Though Google Keyword Planner is not as powerfull in the same way it was i still use it, only I have to question the information that is in it. Same goes for do not hit enter, Google Analytics and WMT, I've noticed to many times that Google gives information about a search term that actually scores a lot higher (how are you to advice a client on such a matter?).
When your back is against the wall there are limited options to use. I know that the English language is a lot broader but still.. we also need to do our jobs.
my 2 cents
Regards
Jarno
Wasn't initially a big fan of the Keyword Planner tool, but the more I use it, the more it seems to grow on me.
For free guys with best results,I think Google keyword planner is still the best solution.Adwords guys surely needs to use it.For SEO guys Wordtracker is good but paid one,free one is very limited.SEM rush never tested.
Considering all pros and cons I still think Google keyword planner is the best but when it comes to narrow down searches to some area it not thats great giving relevant searches.
Everything happens for a reason. Not having the famous keyword tool, simply pushes us all to excel in other ways. Possibly using a combination of 3 keyword tools, and then using simple excel to combine all the reports.
Furthermore, any business not using AdWords needs to be using Adwords. So maybe this new keyword tool, where it is required you have an Adwords account, will open up eyes and force more business owners to use Adwords. If not using Adwords to generate leads, at least use Adwords for testing titles, meta descriptions, etc.
Also running Adwords ads, in itself is a great way to discover new keywords, and is even better than any keyword tool. Looking at the Adwords search terms report, indirectly is the best keyword tool ever.
It is time to grow folks, expand and mature in your old marketing ways. Using only one keyword tool is not the best way to go about keyword research. I used solely the keyword tool back several months ago, like most of us, but when Google discontinued it, I was luckily forced to grow my array of tools that I use for keyword research. It ended up a good thing for my team.
Again, everything happens for a reason in life and business. We can use change as a way to grow and improve, or we can dwell on change.
By the way excellent post Ruth. My team needed some basic tips on how to use this new tool. So this was perfect.
Oh and by the way, anyone who is a paid member needs to check out the newest mozinar on PPC and SEO, it is simply awesome and will help you with some of the same issues mentioned on this blog post. Lots of great tips are included on using Adwords for keyword discovery.
Thanks Ruth. Awesome post.
Hey Ruth, thank you for summarize the keywords tools, generally for defining the pros n cons of the tools, that is be really helpful for identifying the search terms. Google’s free keywords tool was always my first choice and then work tracker but there must be some good change in Google Keyword Planner Tool.
Ultimately Google is favoring for the PPC advertisers rather than Organic marketers. Other keyword search tools aren’t like Google tools but they are providing measurable results on instant local searches.
Ruth, awesome post! I had a chance to catch up with Rand at Inbound in Boston a few weeks ago and we talked about this very issue. I was right smack dab in the middle of using Google's free keyword tool for a whole slew of keyword research for the relaunch of our blog and then bam! The tool was gone! Well done.
@AaronMandelbaum
Hi Ruth Burr
I have Read you moz post, and it's interesting to read is with free Keyword Tool has gone away, but i really missed that tool. because i was habituated to use this and easy to use.
Another things is you have explain the another tool available online to help your requirement, like
1) Google Keyword Planner - it's new in market
2) Bing Keyword Tool - I recommended that to use this, if you are targeting Bing
3) WordTracker - It's Nice - Reveal high performing keywords in minutes with the keyword research tool
4) SEMRush - To know Advanced competitors keywords research tool.
I have another few suggestion which you like,
1) https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool - Enter one keyword or phrase per line to see what related word searches your ad will show on.
2) Keywordspy.com - Here’s a nice online tool that gives you a large amount of data free. Luckily
3) ubersuggest.org - You will never find such keywords options awailable with this tools, really awsome
4) https://www.spyfu.com - SpyFu is best tools to find organic kws as well paid kws and copetitors.
I Suggest Tried above,
Choices it Yours! It's depend on you what you pick
Have Nice Day! Enjoy :)
useful guideline for users, Thnx Ruth, keep it up.
Hi Ruth,
Great post!
For a website that is not Google Webmaster Tools verified, what other ways/tools are available to show the number of times the site has been shown/ranked for certain keywords?
Thanks.
ABsolutely Rockign and fantastic. Your article is user friendly and gave us much suggestions in the comments as well.I MEAN keyword research tools. but it isvery difficult for us to decide which is good or wrong and is more effective because everyone have his/her own way of doing keyword research and then experience. I hope you will figure this out. good luck very nice article by a nice SEO Expert(pataka) Actually pataka means firecrackers in Punjabi. Really nice (Y) <3
Why my comment is removed all the time?
Your comments aren't being removed, they're just sorted by "most popular" by default so they may not show at the end of the post. I am removing your duplicate comment, however.
Hi everyone, very valuable information and I see that are a lot of experts here.I am a newbie and i would want to ask what opinion you have about Market Samurai. If is a reliable tool or not. Thank you!
But what about long tail? KP shows "-" but all we know that's over 80% of traffic. I think it's good to choose main keywords with high volume of traffic as a base for long tail.
good article, thank you so much
how to mix up more keywords tools-you mentioned above to gain good keyword for my website?
"Don't Hit enter" technique is awesome. Definitely now i will be using this ways
Thanks Ruth
Would appreciate if any one would help to my site foor seo https://www.goodkarmatrekking.com
Helpful for keyword suggestions but useless for volume. These tools perform worst everyday, I don't know why? but let me know if you know about a tool with organic volume numbers.
Very helpful information... When I am checking keyword volume in Google adwords, it is showing very low volume for every keyword ... Why? any reason
i am fiddling around with the long tail keyword from google's search autocompletion. how to find the search volume of those keywords ?
Just reading this, and I stopped at the first inaccuracy. Google Keywords Planner still offer the opportunity to refine searches for Broad, Exact and phrase.
Look at the far right side of the column headers and you’ll see a pencil icon with a drop-down arrow. Clicking on this icon it will display the match options for your keywords.
Hi Andrea,
If you had kept reading, you would have discovered that the keyword volume numbers do not change when you select different match types - only the estimated CPCs change. Hope that helps!
This helpful for keyword Research for my blog..
Thanks
Thanks for the tips. Very usefull post about keyword research.
Frutiko Team
I was confused I saw monthly searches in Keyword Planner. Before it I remember one keyword had (exact match) 200k av. Now it has 27k av. Why so low? Was the data updated or previously wasn't true? I checked other keywords I remember stats and I saw the same - monthly searches are very low now...
Great article, thanks. So first a full disclosure, I actually work at Wordtracker in the marketing dept! You mentioned our free tool and I just wanted to let you know what that entails..
We now have a new database of 3.5 billion search terms and 350 million unique searches - meaning bigger and better data. Wordtracker’s free Keyword Tool gives you Global searches with 50 results and when you confirm your email it’s upped to 100 and you’ll have access to UK/ US searches too.
An addendum for this post: it looks like Broad, Phrase, and Exact match are back in the keyword planner. While you cannot select them, this time, you can specify a match type by adding punctuation, according to the tool: Broad Match, "Phrase Match", and [Exact Match], respectively.
i want search search volume of a keyword but i am confusing which is the best one ? help me
The fact that it averages the number over 12 months really makes search volume a grey area. I wish we had something a little more accurate.
Brilliant. Thanks for sharing the knowledge that the keyword planner using instead the Keyword volume. It helps in determining the right Keyword, also increases in traffic automatically increases the Page rank. Hence it is proved that keyword planner is perfect for determining the right Keyword. Thanks
Hi, I have a list of 400,000 keywords and I want search volumes for Google Australia for all of them.
Currently Google keyword planner imports 250,000 but only shows 10,000 results.
Is there a way to get results for all 400,000 keywords?
Hi Shion,
This might be a better question for our Q&A forum, where more people are likely to see it and respond.
Very helpful article but it still leaves me as a non-expert with a problem that I don't understand how to solve (Any suggestions would be very welcome as I feel that im going round in circles!)
Is this uncertainly about search volumes devaluing the use of SEO as a viable marketing tool? If it is completely impossible to even roughly approximate search volume - because the different tools come up with very different results - then how can anyone estimate whether it is likely to be worthwhile? It's a bit like asking someone to advertise in a magazine and telling them that the circulation is between 1,000 and 600,000. My point is that three different keyword tools - the old Google Adwords tool, the new tool which has replaced it and the Moz keyword tool tend to come up with very different results and the question I don't know the answer to is which figure most closely corresponds to the actual number of searches. As regards some Global Keyword Volumes sent to me using the new Google keyword tool, I simply do not believe the global volumes for many those terms are that low(examples: "travel to Venice" global 320 "travel to athens" global 110, "Cheap Travel To Europe" global 320) and many differ dramatically from the volumes displayed by the Moz.com tool which uses Bing and not Google to get its figures but even that is confusing as it says it is searching on Google US but provides the Bing local and global volumes.
Can someone offer any advice?
Hi David,
I'd recommend taking this question over to our Q&A section, where it's more likely to be seen by a broader audience and you can get feedback from Moz staff and our awesome community members alike.
Hi Ruth, your post is still helpful for me because I got many factors from this article, also I'm able to see the Broad, Phrase and Exact match in the keyword Planner Tool. Anyway nice effort on the strategy to researching keywords for business and profitable PPC campaigns. Keep Writing helpful things :)
Hi Ruth ,
You provide nice comprehensive list of tools which are pretty helpful for keyword researching. Google keyword tool is very annoying
Interesting. I had always thought that a lot of these tools were probably leveraging data from the Google Keyword Tool. Would be interesting to compare the data between all of these tools as well.
Hey Ruth Burr, if you click on pencil button next to Ad impr. share, you will be getting the options like Broad Match, Exact Match and Phrase Match. Will you please check the Planner tool once again?
That only shows CPC for those types of keyword matches. It doesn't change the search volume numbers to anything other than what already shows (exact match).
Lghaffari is right - the keyword volume is for exact match only. Because Keyword Planner is a PPC-focused tool it's more concerned with providing bid information than volume information.
Thank you Ruth however for such clear and wonderful explanation about different keyword research tools. Actually I found this post useful to understand the things better. After using Google Keyword Planner, I would just say its much better than Google Keyword Tool and yes you are right, it very helpful for PPC.
Still not a fan of Google's Keyword Planner!!! The Google Webmaster Tools data as well as some of the other keyword tools mentioned above have really become more useful.
hi ruth your post are very helpful for keyword research i wana share another handy keyword reasearch tool.. hope you all enjoy it https://www.keywordbuzz.net/
Thanks Adeel!
Excellent post Ruth! I've just written something similar on the Koozai blog and asked what other tools readers use that I may have missed, you've certainly covered a few! Very useful & worth a bookmark, thanks!
I think Google has changed its point of view: they just want to gain money forcing you to buy adwords rather than just letting you use a free tool to optimize your website.
I wish Google creates a tool to give you insights on organic searches, just like the old Keyword Tool, even if they made a payment one.
Very useful post Ruth however we can still see broad and phrase match in Keyword planner tool. You can find the option under edit icon in keyword ideas table.
That's great to know, thanks!
lolz.. but its not working.!
Great blog, very informative. I have been using GWT queries since the Keyword Tool was taken away but have been on the look out for alternatives that will give me keywords that our sites aren't already ranking for. Will definitely try a few of these out!
Hi Ruth
Really an informative and descriptive post about Keyword planning tools. There are many software like traffic travis and IBP that also offer keyword research.
i have tried both but not getting expected results may be they work on old data. Now am going to use tools suggested by expecting these to work positively for me.
Maddy from PreviewsNation
Nice collection of tools. Just one tip you can still get access to monthly data through the adwords API through tools such as the SEOGadget Google Adwords Excel API addon.
There's going to be suspicions over the numbers as found by Nathan at Conductor
https://www.conductor.com/blog/2013/09/somethings-fishy-in-the-state-of-googles-new-keyword-tool-data/
Thanks for a great read, I hadn't seen that! Yes, any tool that uses the AdWords API will still have access to that volume data (that's where SEMRush gets their data, too).
Great post Ruth. Also, good link typeaccord. Wonder how much data Google makes public is motivated for business purposes (some may say all).
To me, the inability to research competitors is the worst con. For languages that are not English or a few other popular languages – there is now no way to view a competitor's site keywords – for me that was the single most valuable tool in the old keyword tool and it is now gone
WordTracker, SEMRush and the Moz Keyword Difficulty tool all provide data on which other companies rank for a chosen term - hope that helps!
Hi Ruth!!
Nice tools.
Few tools which are also good but not free are-
Keyword Discovery- It compiles keyword search statistics from all the major search engines world wide, to create the most powerful Keyword Research tool.
KeywordSpy- Through this tool you can perform advanced keyword research and keyword tracking to study what your competitors have been advertising in their Adwords Campaigns.
Hope these are useful !
Thanks for the tips! I have used KeywordSpy in the past but found it to be too PPC-focused for my purposes. Maybe I'll give it another try!
Don't hit enter is very helpfull - I also use SEMrush and the Keyword Planner isn't that bad. As a german - I can ignore Bing completely :) Sorry Microsoft - it is how it is - and Bing SERPs are really spammy trash in german. They are fixing much - it's getting better last few month.
I also use the don't hit for translations and to see the correct orthography
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for the post. Some keyword tool I come up with are :-
I think it is very unfair from Google to replace the old one with Keyword Planner which is not a match with the previous one. Right now, I'm really missing "Yahoo's Overture Keyword Tool" which was fabulous & never want you to go to Google. If they are looking to get more adwords customer via this trick then surely they must provide us some SEO keyword tool. Someone, should ask this question to Matt Cutts.
Bye.
Thanks for the tool suggestions!
Thanks for the post Ruth. Are there only 3 tools?
Whilst there is still good data in the Google keyword planner for SEO research, the most annoying thing is that if you wish export your results for your keywords (not the PPC ad groups) you have to export the whole lot and then cull them. If anyone has any insight here it would be appreciated as prior we could select which ones we wanted at the start. Interesting that people are selling old GKW data @JamesNorquay. Also a lot of the SEO tools are not working now due to the new keyword planner. Same as what happened to SEOMoz when the API was lost to a certain extent.
You can create a pretend "ad group" with just the keywords you want and export that - it's all still before you have to put in payment information so it should work.
Thank you for giving us an overview of the alternatives, Ruth!
Another resource for keyword research (for those of us who also do PPC anyway), is the search query report in AdWords.
"The option to only search for words closely related to your term has been removed. However, Google has said they will probably add it back in."
THANK GOD. I found that feature to be crucial when doing keyword research for clients in the past - I've found it much harder without it. You have to manually put everything in, but at least Übersuggest is a massive help on that front. Are WordTracker, SEMRush or any other tools not listed above good at filling the void on the "Only show ideas..." front in the meantime?
Also, TBH, I think the fact that it's only now [exact] match is a good thing. With the default set to broad with the KW Tool, some clients (and even some colleagues/industry peers!) were saying "hey, this keyword gets 50,000 searches!" when it's only actually 50... So at least it'll remove confusion or - worse - overestimated keyword strategies...
Oh and IMO the KW Planner is an absolute usability nightmare. I can only use it in IE unfortuntately - on Firefox and Chrome I can't scroll down (to see generated suggestions/keyword ideas) for some reason...!
I haven't experienced the same difficulties in Firefox or Chrome, that sucks! I think Bing keyword tool is really the best at the "only show ideas" functionality with their "strict" option.
A great portfolio of tools that will be sure to come in handy.
Thanks
Great post but its true ubersuggest the best alternativ tool...
Yeah !! Google keyword planner is best tool for find keyword and also searches about the keyword.
Great post but its true ubersuggest the best alternative tool...
Thanks Ruth. Very informative indeed.
Great post. I definitely like the localized search option with the Keyword Planner. We do SEO in Chicago, and being such a big geographical area, I like being able to localize searches for our clients on some of the suburban cities. We also use SEM Rush and like that as well, it's good to have multiple tools to evaluate with.
Hi Ruth, Thanks for sharing amazing tools with us. Really an insightful post. Amazing post especially for keyword research.
What's the best way to get total volume for a large number of keywords?
You can use the Keyword Planner tool to upload your list and get volume that way - that would probably be the first thing I would try.
Cool, Finally a straight and simple article to guide people on Google Planner. Thought I didn't like the new keyword planner much, am I still giving it a try to understand to teach my readers and people. Unless you poke it yourself, you don't understand how Google Keyword Planner works. I believe its decent enough to work for a while, but later you will be really annoyed with its local keyword suggestions! -_-
Good or bad, Google has finally updated their GWT recently. We have to move on.. Stop using free tools like Google to get keyword ideas when you are offering professional SEO services. I personally use Market Samurai, Long Tail Pro and Word Tracker for my SEO clients and niche websites. They are doing well, And trust me, It's always better to buy tools which don't ask you for monthly subscriptions.
I like "Average monthly searches" which is calculated over 12 month but many people don't. It helps to research the keywords which are in trend from a long time(12 month) and will in trend(most probably) so focus to drive your business from high "Average monthly searches" keywords.
Ruth@
An outstanding presentation and very practical approach, i appreciate your research and contribution. Keywords are one of the most sensitive topics in SEO, choosing right keyword for a website is always a challenging job. But if we are aware about the effective keyword research tools, it makes our job easy. Even i know many peoples who uses the Google Suggestion while searching and finalizing the keywords.
Ruth- i follow one more trick while finalizing the keywords, that is competitors website. Many times i got some very effective keywords by analyzing my competitors website also.
I'm a bit surprised that there is no mention of "Google Tends" on here. While it doesn't show exact traffic volume, if you are familiar in part with the market size then you can at least see a great phrase rank break down.
Plus breakout phrases and fastest growing queries is VERY powerful when it comes to keyword analysis!
But all in all another rockin' post by Ruth Burr!
Great ., Google Keyword Planner is the customized format and also good while compared with Google Keyword Tool, it has more options comparatively .
Ruth Burr
Actually, I am little bit confused about keyword search volume in new Google keyword ad planner.
Why its not showing difference in search volume figures if exact match and broad match. Actually i didn't refer whole new structure.
New structure is not comfortable in compare to old one.
Lets have 1 pole about the same.
Put your thought in Yes - if New Google keyword planner is comfortable than old one and No - if not...
Let see how much ration we can get from Mozers...
I have to say I don't like the new tool as much as the old one. The only thing that will change when you switch from broad to phrase to exact match in the Keyword Planner tool is the suggested CPC - search volumes remain for exact match only. Hope that helps!
Correct!
Actually i am assuming that, Google will make this tool paid for some certain features of this tool.
Google will offer all google adwords related data for free in this keyword planner. But Google will create paid version for organic comparison very soon.
What you say Ruth_Burr ?
I doubt that Google will make paid tools at all, whether for organic search or otherwise. Their business model is so predicated on AdWords, moving into the paid tools market would be a pretty big departure.
yep I saw the same thing. somewhat of a problem
These tools are amazing, They r providing alternative to Google annoying keyword tool
Hello Guys,
Is there any tools for Product Listing Ads (Google Shopping)?
That help to calculate avg cpc, search volume, est cost...
Please suggest me?
Thanks!
The only tool I know of is Google's display ad tool - anyone know of any other good ones?
You Are right Ruth,
But Google's display ad tool not giving best suggestion and idea about Product Listing Ads prediction..
So does anybody can help us???
I remember using the Excel export in Bing to get major city approximations then calculating for the average gap from Google search volume. Having location data strictly from Google will be a big help!
Great Post.
Simply very helpful for keyword Research and ideas.