Keyword research
Find what people search for, how often, how hard it is to rank, and what they expect to find, so you write pages people actually look for.
What it shows
Type a topic, called a seed keyword, and Keyword Research returns related searches with the numbers you need to choose between them:
- Volume: average monthly searches in the country you chose.
- Difficulty: how hard it is to reach page one, from 0 to 100.
- CPC and competition: how much advertisers pay per click and how many compete, both signs of commercial value.
- Intent: whether people want to learn, compare, buy or find a specific site.
- SERP features: what sits above the organic results, such as an AI Overview, a featured snippet or a local map.
- Trend: how searches changed over recent months.
Where to find it: Keyword Research in the dashboard, or keyword_ideas in your AI assistant.
Sources
Keyword ideas come from three sources, each useful for a different job:
| Source | What it returns | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Related | Searches Google itself connects to your seed | Understanding a topic around a seed |
| Suggestions | Searches that contain your seed word for word | Long-tail variations of an exact phrase |
| Ideas | Broader searches in the same category | Brainstorming beyond the obvious |
| Auto | Tries Related, then Suggestions, then Ideas, and stops at the first that returns results | When you are not sure |
How to use it
- Type a seed that describes what you offer, in your customers' words: "coffee grinder", not "burr comminution device".
- Choose the country where your customers are.
- Choose a source, or leave it on Auto.
- Sort and filter the results. Use the SERP filter to hide keywords where an AI Overview or other features push results down, or to find them on purpose.
- Save the keywords you pick. They go to your saved list so you can come back to them later.
When a domain is loaded in the dashboard, keywords it already ranks for show its current position, so you can tell new opportunities from pages you already have.
Tip: More rows use more credits. Start with the default number of rows and only load more for a seed that is clearly worth it.
How to choose keywords you can win
A good target keyword passes four tests:
- Someone searches it. Any volume above zero can be worth it for a specific, high-value search. Ten searches a month from buyers can beat a thousand from browsers.
- You can realistically rank. For a young site, favour difficulty under 30. Established sites can aim higher.
- The intent matches a page you can make. Search the keyword yourself or use the SERP checker: if the top results are all guides, you need a guide.
- It matters to your business. A high CPC or a commercial intent usually means the traffic converts.
Group keywords that mean the same thing ("how to make cold brew", "cold brew recipe") and target them with one page, not one page each.
The Find keywords you can win playbook walks through this with a worked example.
Reading difficulty
| Difficulty | What it usually takes |
|---|---|
| 0 to 14 | A good page can rank without many backlinks |
| 15 to 29 | A strong page plus a few relevant links |
| 30 to 49 | A strong page and a steady flow of quality links |
| 50 to 69 | An established site with real authority in the topic |
| 70 to 100 | Only the strongest sites, with many links, usually rank here |
Treat it as a guide, not a law. A focused site with deep coverage of one topic can beat much bigger generalist sites.
SERP features change the value of a keyword
A keyword where an AI Overview fully answers the question may send fewer clicks than its volume suggests, because many people read the answer and stop. That does not make it worthless: being cited in that AI Overview is its own goal. See How AI search works.
Cost
About 2 credits per source tried. Auto can try up to three sources, so it can cost up to 6 credits. Picking a source yourself keeps it at 2.
From your AI assistant
keyword_ideas takes a keyword, an optional location, an optional source and an optional domain to mark keywords you already rank for.
Try: "Find keyword ideas for 'coffee grinder' in the United States. Keep only keywords with difficulty under 30 and commercial intent, and group them by what page would target them."