Update on Keyword Planner

Is Keyword Planner, a free tool?

Recently it has been reported that people have been experiencing trouble using the keyword planner as they are supposedly getting a message that they must have an active ad campaign running to use it. This has caused lot of flutter and inconvenience as keyword planner was launched as a free feature with no strings attached and had proved to be a hit among the webmasters who are into keyword research.

The problem appears to be only with selected users as most of them including me have been able to use the keyword planner without any issues. Initially this appeared to be a move of Google to restrict the use of keyword planner as a free tool and force users to have an active campaign running which in other words make it look like a paid tool as running a campaign involves money. But it has been clarified that the problem with accessing the keyword planner has been more of a technical glitch rather than anything alarming.

The overall functionality of keyword planner isn’t perfect either with number of issues like plural grouping, grouping of acronyms and abbreviations, irregular combining of synonyms. These flaws make keyword planner make it a not so perfect tool. One should also remember that the search volumes and estimated cost per conversions are just a guide to the users and not an exact fact. With all these flaws one cannot ignore the fact keyword planner is still an impressive tool that immensely helps webmasters in their quest to find the right keywords that might help them to satisfy their client needs in a more precise manner.