How to research keywords

Keyword research helps expand your project's semantic core with new keywords that can be used to broaden semantics, optimize existing pages, or promote new pages and products on your website.

Check which keywords your website and competitors rank for in the Top using the Competitor Research tool 🕵️
With Competitor Research you'll see keywords ranking in Top ranks for your website and competitors, their snippets, relevant URLs, ad copy texts and much more. Use Competitor Research to target keywords where your competitors rank, but you don't.

Research keywords

There are 3 sources available for keywords research:

  • Google Keyword Planner (Google Ads);
  • Yandex Wordstat (Yandex Direct);
  • Webmaster Bing.

How to research keywords

  1. Go toKeywords.
  2. Click  on the toolbar.
  3. Select Research keywords.
  4. Tick the sources and select locations. Additionally, for Google you can specify the research language, for Yandex — the number of pages from which keywords will be collected.
  5. Add the search keywords that will be researched.
  6. Add negative keywords if needed.
  7. Click Start.
What does + "similar keywords" mean when choosing Yandex or Google?
If you tick this box, the keyword research results will also include phrases that are less thematically related to your seed keyword. However, these phrases can still be useful for expanding your website's semantic coverage.

"Similar keywords" in Yandex refer to the phrases from the right‑hand column in Yandex Wordstat. In Google, we consider "similar keywords" to be those that don't include the original seed keyword used for research. 

For example, if you research keywords in Google using "plastic windows" as your seed term:

    • The Keyword Planner suggestion "buy plastic windows" would be categorized as a main keyword

    • The term "PVC windows" would be considered similar

    • To include such similar keywords in your project, you need to tick "+ include similar keywords" during keyword research.

How to research keywords

The research is complete, but some keyword groups show zero results. Did your research not work properly?

This can happen in two cases: if your project already contains keywords that were found in the research (duplicates within the same project are not allowed and won’t be added). If the source truly has no phrases matching your research criteria.

Can I expand my semantic core without changing its structure or creating new keyword groups?
Yes! If you want to preserve your existing keyword core structure, use the group expansion feature. Switch to table mode , select the groups, and click .Expanding keywords core without changing the number of folders

How to exclude keywords from research results using negative keywords

To exclude specific words or phrases from the research results tick Negative keywords. Enter the phrases you want to exclude.

Research keywords: How to exclude keywords from research results using negative keywords

What do the abbreviations DI, AD, and BI mean in group names?

After research, groups will be created — each containing results from a specific keyword and source (unless you tick Band up all collected keywords within a single group, in which case the group will be labeled COLLECT). Depending on the source, group names will include these abbreviations:

  • DI — Yandex Direct (Wordstat left column, exact matches).

  • DI+ — Yandex Direct (Wordstat right column, "similar keywords").

  • AD — Google Ads (Keyword Planner).

  • AD+ — Google Ads (Keyword Planner, "similar keywords").

  • BI — Bing Webmaster.

Enable new groups after collecting keywords to display them inRank Tracker 🤖
By default, newly created groups are disabled after collecting keywords, and disabled groups do not appear in Rank Tracker. To make them visible, enable the groups:
  • Click the gray circle to the left of the group name;
  • Or, select multiple groups using checkboxes and enable them via the group activation tool in the toolbar.

A green circle indicates that the group is enabled and will be included in rank tracking.