Google has officially discontinued its Keyword Tool and replaced it with the new Keyword Planner since the past few days. However, the new tool on the block has received mixed reactions from users although sentiments may change over time as they discover ways to use several new features offered by the Keyword Planner.
The new Keyword Planner now requires users to login into their AdWords account to use it unlike the Keyword Tool, which has caused some resentment from PPC managers and SEOs. Furthermore, the new tool lacks the match type data feature for search volume, which now allows only for exact matches. There is also no local versus global monthly search feature, no targeting by device, and no option to filter search terms with the Closely Related term. However, it seems that Google will be re-activating the Closely Related filter in the near future.
On the other hand, the new Keywords Planner brings in several helpful features that have been appreciated by initial users. For instance, users now get to upload higher number of keywords (10,000 keywords) from their lists and receive performance data. The Keywords Planner also displays search volumes by way of landing page or ad group or any other category that may have been defined by you.
You can also group together more geographical locations and can get data on keyword search volume for cities of your choice. Google has received a lot of flak for removing two important features to achieve search volume data, namely device types and match types. However, Google has clarified that the new Keyword Planner tool now shows the average number of searches for any keyword for all devices such as desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets, which was previously restricted to only desktops and laptops. The company explained that this was the reason as to why users saw higher numbers in the average search volume data report while using the Keyword Planner in comparison to the exact match search volume figures from the old Keyword Tool.
Google will, however, need to take feedback from users and act quickly to avoid discontent among loyal users while users will need to explore all the new features available in the new Keyword Planner to extract much more data from this tool.