Keyword research
Find what people search for, how hard it is to rank and what they want when they search.
Use keyword research to decide what to write, what to optimise and what is worth the effort. Give it a topic and a country, and it returns keywords with search volume, difficulty, cost per click and intent.
Run a search
Open Keyword Research
Find it in the left sidebar.
Enter your keyword
A seed topic works best, such as "project management". To check many keywords at once, paste a list with one keyword per line (up to 700).
Choose a country and language
Results are specific to the country you pick. It defaults to United States and English.
Press Explore
One click returns the keyword's own numbers at the top and, below them, its suggestions, ideas and related keywords in a single table, ranked by opportunity.
Let it run
You can move around the app while it runs and come back. A fresh search uses credit once it completes, and the button shows the usual price beforehand. Searching the same thing again is free while your saved result is still current.
Quick filters and opportunity
- Opportunity scores each keyword out of 100 from its demand, how easy it is to rank for, what advertisers pay and how close the intent is to buying. Use it to sort the best targets to the top.
- Questions, Long-tail (four or more words), Easy wins (volume of 100 or more and KD of 30 or less), Commercial and Rising narrow the table in one click, and they cost nothing.
- Group by topic keeps keywords about the same subject together, biggest topics first.
- Found via shows which reports returned each keyword.
- Load more fetches the next 300 rows of a single suggestions, related or ideas report.
Single reports
Open Single report under the search box when you want just one of these instead of Explore.
| Report | Use it when you want to |
|---|---|
| Keyword suggestions | Get a list of keywords that contain or closely match your topic. The best place to start. |
| Related keywords | Find topics connected to your keyword, for content ideas and clusters. |
| Keyword ideas | Explore a wider set of ideas from the same category. |
| Keyword overview | See the key numbers for one specific keyword. |
| Keyword difficulty | Check how hard it would be to rank for a keyword. |
| Search intent | Understand what people want: to learn, compare or buy. |
| Historical data | See how search interest for a keyword changed through the year. |
| Search volume | Get Google Ads monthly search volumes for a keyword or a pasted list. |
Read the results
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Volume | Estimated monthly searches. Higher means more potential visitors. |
| KD | Keyword difficulty. A lower number is generally easier to rank for. |
| CPC | What advertisers pay per click. A high CPC often signals commercial value. |
| Competition | How crowded paid search is for the term. |
| Intent | What the searcher wants, such as informational or transactional. |
| Monthly / yearly trend | Whether interest is rising, steady or falling. |
Work with the table
- Open a row to see the keyword's details in a side panel.
- Filter with up to eight rules, for example volume above 500 and KD below 40.
- Choose columns to show only what you need.
- Export to CSV the filtered rows, or just the ones you have selected.
- Searched keywords lists everything you have researched in this project. Reopening a saved search is free.