The traditional method of keyword research to find buying keywords has always been through Google Ads with the keyword planner. However, there are some limitations using keyword planner if you do not intend to do Google Ads. Here is a great post from Moz about why the figures from keyword planner give really unreliable results. In this post, we will take a look about the other method of using Google Search Console to find out what people are searching for. This, of course, means you need to place your website on Google Search Console. If you haven’t done so. use this link on how you can install Google Search console on your website.

The Truth about Google’s Keyword Planner

While Google keyword planner is a great starting way to get general short tail keywords that are applicable to your business, they aren’t really accurate unless you use Google ads. If you do not use Google ads, you get a wide range which might not be accurate. We are going to use an example of flowers for an account that does not use Google Ads. Just take a look at how vague the results are.

They even tell you that for more detailed statistics, run a campaign! The Average monthly searches for the top performing keyword, “flowers” has a range of 10-100k. Give this figure to any marketer or business trying to run ads and definitely they will have something negative to say about the wide range of results. There just isn’t any way to find buying keywords with such a wide range of searches.

However, this situation automatically changes as long as you run ads on Google. Take for instance another account where we have been consistently spending 1k a month.

From this picture, you can get an exact figure and even the trend of monthly searches. Correlate this with your calendar and you’ll be able to tell which months are receiving more searches and how much to set aside for your budget. With Google Ads out of the way, let us take a look at how you can get more accurate findings on what people are searching.

Google Search Console to Find Buying Keywords

Previously known as Google Webmaster, Google search console is a web service by Google for Website and business owners. it allows you to see important statistics about your website and how your website is doing on Google’s search engine. We are assuming that your website has already been added to Google Search Console. If you haven’t done so, refer to this link to find out how to add your website onto this free platform.

Once you have entered your website’s profile, head to “Search Traffic” “Search Analytics”. This tab allows you to see what keywords have been used by visitors to search for a product or service related to your website.

Once loaded, you will be able to see the different keywords used by visitors and how many actually clicked into your website, the Click Through Rate (CTR) and your average position over 30 days.

The key Metric you want to be looking at is “impression”. An impression is counted each time your website details are shown on the search engine result pages. This practically tells you the exact number someone searches for that certain keyword. With that valuable information, you can identify buying keywords for Google Ads to use for Search Engine Marketing or build links and posts about the topic to help improve your Website’s Search Engine Optimisation.

Other Uses for Search Engine Console

Besides tracking your Search Traffic for your site, there are many uses for Google Search Console. You can suggest to Google the country you are targeting, check messages on an error on your website, indexing issues or even disavowing links that come across as spam.