18 Comments
User's avatar
Hebrew By Inbal's avatar

I wish I had this to read when I was first starting out. This is SEO and search internet understanding gold. I’ll be forwarding to my team so that everyone benefits 🤗

Lidiya Kesarovska's avatar

Oh, how nice! Thank you.

I kept it really simple, no need to overcomplicate SEO ☺️

Hebrew By Inbal's avatar

It is brilliant. You are helping so many and I was going through my check list 🤗

Kathy Patterson's avatar

This is wonderful. Can't wait to dive into Google keyword planner!! Thanks for these insights. ♥️

Lidiya Kesarovska's avatar

Thank you, Kathy. So happy you’re taking the steps.

And Day 3 just dropped, where I share how to use the chosen keyword to optimize a post: https://2hourblogger.substack.com/p/optimize-substack-posts

In the OSI's avatar

Day 1 - Complete, just waiting for 24 hours as it doesn’t seem to have updated yet.🤞

Day 2 - Unsure if it’s where I am located (UK) but google ads doesn’t give me the ‘expert mode’ option, I’ve tried everything. Did you have this issue?

Lidiya Kesarovska's avatar

Thank you so much for participating. You’re an action taker!

It shouldn’t be a UK-specific issue.

Just checked on the main keyword planner page for the UK, and it indeed says this:

To access Keyword Planner, you first need to complete your Google Ads Account setup and create a campaign. If your account is using Smart Mode, you’ll need to switch it to Expert Mode. Then you can access Keyword Planner by clicking the “Tools” icon, selecting “Planning” from the section menu, then choosing “Keyword Planner”."

I did a quick research and it might be that:

Many new Google Ads accounts no longer see "Switch to Expert Mode" immediately.

The Google Ads account isn't fully set up yet. Sometimes Keyword Planner isn't available until the account setup is complete.

Possible solution:

Try going directly to Keyword Planner from Google Ads → Tools → Planning → Keyword Planner.

If you can access it, no need to worry about Expert Mode.

If Google forces you to create a campaign, you can create one and pause it right away (you don’t need to run ads).

Let me know if it works.

PS, As for Google Analytics and Search Console, it can take longer than 24 hours to see any initial data. It’s okay to give it a few days even.

Magdalena Gereva, PhD's avatar

As there are changes, I went to Help. Keyword Planner and then just clicked on the link provided on the right side of the screen. :)

Lidiya Kesarovska's avatar

Okay, glad it worked ☺️

In the OSI's avatar

Amazing, I followed the steps and got it all working. Ppened a Google ads account, used a virtual credit card and as i’m not actually running any ads they dont take payment. Keywords is now up and running. Now onto Day 3. Thank you btw 🙏

Lidiya Kesarovska's avatar

Yey!

Sorry you had to use a credit card, shouldn't be the case, but glad it worked.

Magdalena Gereva, PhD's avatar

Yes, Google found keywords around my topics, not so different from mine. All my articles are about these keywords. No surprise for me... But found that Flourishing performs much better than Freud, and may be this will be a topic for me next time, when I am done with the audit... so much work. :) Thank you for your brief and clear instructions! Thank you for your generosity, dear Lidiya!

Lidiya Kesarovska's avatar

You’re already making the most of the keyword tool, how awesome 🙌🏻

Welcome 🤍

Niharika Sikka's avatar

As another writer, this is SO helpful. I'm a marketing analyst and I've used google keyword planner be4, but have never thought about using it for this. Thanks a lot, very useful 👏☺️

Lidiya Kesarovska's avatar

Thanks for reading!

Have you ran ads campaign with it?

I’ve only used it for keyword research, hehe.

Niharika Sikka's avatar

Nope, I've used meta ads for all campaigns previously. I've just learnt how to use keyword search planner and Google ads recently coz I've never worked with them in practice. It's this course on Coursera by Google (assess the success smthg smthg). It's an entire specialization, but I chose only this course coz I just wanted to know the practical and not theory, it would take too much time.

Lidiya Kesarovska's avatar

Okay.

There's also plenty of free information about that everywhere online, with tutorials.

Niharika Sikka's avatar

Yupp ik. I just prefer to rely on smthg structured first (especially coz this course makes me practice. It will give me a sample property on GA4 for eg. And then have me filter for a particular date and fill in my insights in a template they provide. It's really helpful in that way). After getting the basics in a structured manner, I then rely on YouTube usually, by searching for whatever specific thing I want to learn