Research and save keywords

Get keyword ideas from a few seed terms, save the ones you want, then filter, tag, remove, and track them for rank checks.

Keywords is where you find search terms worth writing for and keep a list of them. Select Analysis > Research in the sidebar. Keywords is the first tab. It has two views: Research gets new keyword ideas, and Saved is your list.

Each run of keyword research is a paid lookup. Nothing is requested until you select Run keyword research. Opening either view, saving, tagging, removing, and tracking are free.

Research keyword ideas

Select the Research view.
Enter one to five seed terms in Seed terms (1–5, one per line). The line under the box counts them. You'll see "Enter at least one seed term." until you add one.
Choose a Location and a Language. They start at United States and English.
Choose a Result count: 10, 25, 50, or 100 ideas.
Optionally select Include SERP overview (may increase provider cost). It adds a summary of each keyword's Google results, and it costs more.
Select Run keyword research. The button reads Running keyword research… until the results arrive.

A line under the button says how many ideas came back and what the lookup cost. If it says "No keyword ideas were returned for these seed terms and settings.", try broader seed terms or another location.

Read the results

Each idea has one row:

Keyword is the search term.
Volume is how many people search for it each month.
CPC is the average cost per click for ads on it.
Competition is how crowded the ads are for it, as a percentage.
Difficulty is how hard it is to rank for it. Higher is harder.
Intent is what the searcher is likely after, like informational or commercial.
SERP shows Available when the SERP overview came back for that keyword.

A dash means no figure came back for that keyword.

Save keywords

Select the box next to each keyword you want, or the box above the table to select all.
Select Save selected.

A line confirms how many were newly saved, and how many were already saved if any. Keywords save with the location and language of the run. Find them under Saved.

Find saved keywords

Select Saved. The newest saved keywords are at the top. Until you save one, it says "No keywords saved yet. Research keywords and save them here."

To narrow the list:

Fill in any of these:
- Search: part of the keyword.
- Tags: one or more tag names, separated by commas.
- Source: All sources, Research, Domain, Agent, or Search Console. Domain means you saved it from a domain lookup on the Competitors tab. A keyword keeps the source it was first saved from.
Select Apply filters.

Select Clear to see the full list again. If nothing matches, you'll see "No saved keywords match these filters."

Sort by Keyword or Saved by selecting the column heading. Select it again to reverse the order. Use Previous and Next under the table to move between pages.

Tag saved keywords

Select the keywords.
Enter a Tag name.
Select Add to selected or Remove from selected.

To remove one tag from one keyword, select the × on the tag in the Tags column.

Remove saved keywords

Select the keywords.
Select Remove selected.
Confirm with Remove, or select Cancel.

Removing deletes the keywords, their tags, and any rank history from your saved list. It does not undo.

Track keywords for rank checks

Tracked keywords get Mark's own Google rank checks for one of your sites. The results show on the Rankings tab and on Performance > Search. See Read performance.

If you have more than one site, pick the rank tracking site from the row of site buttons at the top of Saved.
Select the keywords.
Select Track selected or Untrack selected.

To track or untrack one keyword, select Track or Untrack on its row. The Rank tracking column shows Tracked or Not tracked for the site you picked.

Tracking is free. To run rank checks, see Check your keyword rankings.