Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How many keywords do you recommend tracking?
-
I am working through thousands of organic keywords and would like to create a list of core keywords. I want the list to be small enough that we can really go after these keywords and track progress. I work for a B2B software company. I am thinking between 20-30 but I would love to hear any tips, opinions and recommendations!
Thank you!
-
thanks again!
-
I have had an account at SEMrush for a long time and they have a long history of what I track.
-
Can I ask why you use SEMRush vs. Moz to create your keyword baskets.
Thanks!
-
This is fantastic! Thank you!
-
I track "baskets" of keywords.
Let's say I am running a website about hammers and I want to rank #1 for the root keyword of "hammers". Early in the planning of this business and its website I do keyword research and determine that I will be selling hammers made by different companies (with a number of models from each company), hammers used by different occupations (and numerous hammers for some occupations)... I will also have lots of articles about hammers that include: how to select them, how to use them, how to avoid injuries, care of your hammer, etc.
So I am going to go for the root keyword of "hammers" (which might take several years to accomplish - but I am the hammer man and I plan to hammer at this until everyone else drops dead).
Then starts my baskets, each will be a keyword "project" at SEMrush. These keyword projects will each have many keywords tracked. We might have a few dozen projects running for this website. These will track website performance for different parts of the attack. Knowing where you are succeeding, where traction is hard to get, where you are making money, etc.
BRANDS: Estwing (and a keyword for each type of hammer, perhaps weight as well, or length), then Black and Decker, Kobalt, Irwin, Vaughan, etc.
HAMMERS by OCCUPATION: carpenter, mason, auto body, etc.
**ARTICLES: ** how to select, how to use, types of handles (wood, drop forged, fiberglass), how to care for, safety (each of these will have several articles)
REVIEWS: field tests of many types of hammers
RELATED PRODUCTS: that can be sold beside hammers
OTHERS: that will be discovered as the project progresses
Now we start a content attack and a battle that will advance across time, tracking keywords on all of these levels, using sales data and profit margins as we learn them to prioritize the attack.
Your website might be smaller. Your content attack might be simpler. Your industry or business might have broad or narrow product lines and content opportunities.
So the number of keywords tracked might be dozens, hundreds or thousands. You might have a nascent site and be tracking long tail easy, or you might have a mature site and be tracking mainly single-word root keywords.
I track a lot of keywords. But each day I mainly look at the progress of the baskets, looking at individual keywords occasionally, but focusing on the big picture. I load the baskets at the start of the project, knowing that I might not get to writing for some of those keywords for weeks, months or years - depending upon the size of the project. As the project advances and I populate the keywords and the baskets, things start moving up, up, up. That is what energizes me and keeps me on the attack. A person's mental state is worth a million dollars. The taste of blood and money is worth even more. It helps keep me motivated and keeps me hammering hard.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Ranking for keywords in multiple zip codes
Hello, We are trying to rank for keywords locally. We are on the edge of four zip codes in our area and are competing with businesses in those zip codes. Should we track each keyword separately for each zip code, or just one zip code we're in?
Keyword Research | | ifixcars0 -
Which keyword to use (plural / singular)
Hi guys. So I'm racking my brain with a question whether I should use plural or singular keyword as a focus keyphrase of my page. The page that I'm optimizing is basically a review page of different websites offering proofreading services. Considering the fact that this is a review and I mention a lot of websites on my page, I decided to rank for a plural keyword that ends with "services". However, this keyword is very unpopular (ahrefs doesn't show any volume for it), while singular "service" has about 100 searches per month. As far as I understand, Google sees both keywords as synonyms, because search results for both keywords are almost identical. Should I change my keyphrase to singular "service" (even though the page mentions a lot of services), or stick with "services" instead? Do I have a chance of ranking for "service" if I stick with "services" in this case? Thank you.
Keyword Research | | AslanBarselinov0 -
A Solution to Keywords Being Grouped in Google Keyword Planner
Hi guys, I am trying to get search traffic for a list of keywords which I put together a few years ago for one of my clients, this was before Google made changes to their Keyword Planner. When I am adding the list into Google Keyword Planner it is "grouping" a number of the keywords/phrases together, and therefore removing 13 of the keywords from the original list of 59 keywords. Is there a way around this so I can get search volume for the original list, and not the cut down one? I am specifically using Google Keyword Planner as I want to get search volume for a number of specific locations in the UK. Any comments/feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! Jack. I19Op
Keyword Research | | ChemistryMarketing1 -
Tool for wildcard keyword suggestions
Like others, I have also been oblivious to the options which were uncovered in this article, using stars or underscores to uncover more keywords suggestions. However, I am trying to find a way to avoid the manual labour. Did any of you find a successful tool that automatically adds all the possible combinations of these wildcards to give a comprehensive lists of suggestions? I am looking for a tool that also included my country (.nl).
Keyword Research | | Entertainment0 -
Keywords with and without diacritics
Hi, I am trying to make my site to appear in the search results even the searched term have or have not been wrote with diacritics for example: "șarpe" or "sarpe". The language is Romanian. If I seach for "Românul cu maşină, marea victimă" or "Romanul cu masina, marea victima" the first result for both searches is the same. I don't see anything special on their html code and I am wondering how do they did it. Regards, Bogdan
Keyword Research | | RIAdig0 -
Longtail keyword definition seems fuzzy?
So we all know about longtail keyword vs. short tail. However, it seems that the definition is a bit inconsistant. Some people say longtail keywords are keywords that get very low amounts of traffic, others that they are key phrases with 2 or more words. And others add to this that they have high conversion rate but describe specific features, product, service, model # etc. In an ideal model I suppose all of these things would be true. As keyword length increases, traffic tends to decrease, keyword is more specific pointing at features, model#, specific product etc and therefore the conversion rate is a bit higher as well. However, the data isn't a perfect curve. I will see keywords that get 18,000 searches but have 4 words. And then I will see single word key phrases that get <10 -20 searches a month. What am I to consider these? Its like they fit half the criteria. Any comments on this would be helpful and appreciated. I suppose the real question I am after is - it seems like the real definition of a long tail keyword cant be any of the above traits of a long tail keyword. How do you really define a long tail keyword in all circumstances (without it being this subjective idealized definition based on a perfect model) and where would the keyword circumstances (lots of words but high traffic, and low traffic but 1 word) fall in the graph? Center?
Keyword Research | | eastco0 -
How can i track keywords history
i need to keep a record for all keywords history , is there any way that we can track keywords history so we can compare each week with the previous weeks ?
Keyword Research | | omarfk0 -
Keyword Traffic Estimator Tools
Hello, I'm relatively new to SEO and looking to find a good tool for estimating the search traffic volume of different keywords in order to focus efforts on higher yielding terms. Right now I'm using Google's traffic estimator but it doesn't seem to have much data for long-tail keywords. Is anything else out there better or more accurate? Thank you!
Keyword Research | | rawberg0