Run Keyword Research

What keyword research does

Keyword Research in SEO Core lets you explore any topic or seed keyword and instantly see search volume estimates, keyword difficulty, and a list of related keyword ideas. Use it to find opportunities your site isn't targeting yet, validate the demand behind topics before creating content, and build lists that feed into your Keyword Mapper and Tracker.

Running a keyword research session

1. 1

   Open Keyword Research

   Select Keywords → Keyword Research from the sidebar. Make sure you have the right project selected — research is associated with a project and its domain.

2. 2

   Enter your seed keyword or topic

   Type a keyword, phrase, or topic into the search field. This is your starting point — SEO Core will expand it into a full list of related terms.

   Examples of good seed keywords: a product category (running shoes), a problem your audience has (how to improve page speed), or your main service (accounting software for small business).

   Tip

   Start broad. You can narrow down by filtering results later. A single broad seed term can surface hundreds of specific long-tail opportunities you wouldn't have thought to search for directly.

3. 3

   Select your target location and language

   Choose the country and language that matches your target audience. Volume and competition data is location-specific — research for the US market will look different from the UK or Germany.

4. 4

   Run the search

   Click Search. SEO Core returns a list of keyword ideas ranked by search volume. The list includes the seed keyword itself plus related terms, questions, and variations.

5. 5

   Filter and explore the results

   Use filters to narrow the list to what's most relevant:

   • Minimum volume — hide keywords with fewer than N monthly searches.
   • Keyword contains / excludes — filter by words that must or must not appear.
   • Question keywords — show only who/what/how/why/when keywords.
   • Sort by volume, difficulty, or alphabetically.
6. 6

   Save keywords to your lists or tracker

   Select the keywords you want to keep and save them. From the results you can:

   • Add to Keyword Tracker — start monitoring ranking positions for these terms.
   • Add to Keyword Mapper — assign them to specific URLs on your site.
   • Export — download the full list for use in external tools or reports.

Domain keyword analysis

Beyond seed-based research, SEO Core can analyze an entire domain — yours or a competitor's — and surface all the keywords it ranks for.

1. 1

   Open Domain Analysis

   Go to Keywords → Domain Analysis. Enter the domain you want to analyze.

2. 2

   Review the keyword profile

   SEO Core returns a list of keywords the domain ranks for, along with estimated positions, monthly volume, and traffic estimates. Use this to understand your existing keyword footprint or benchmark against competitors.

3. 3

   Start tracking selected keywords

   Find keywords where your domain is ranking on page 2 or 3 — these are your best near-term opportunities. Select them and click Start tracking to add them to your Keyword Tracker.

Understanding the data

Research history

Every search you run is saved to your research history. Access past searches from the Research History tab. This is useful for comparing results over time or resuming a research session you started earlier.