Keywords

Keyword tracking is part of the Professional and Strategic plans. Every week we check where you and your competitors / peers rank on Google Australia for the searches that matter to you. Each keyword also carries its monthly searches: how many times a month people in Australia search for it on Google. The monthly report shows positions, monthly searches and share of voice.

Get suggested keywords

Not sure where to start? We can suggest a starter list of buyer-intent searches, grouped by the sectors you sell into.

1. Go to Marketing Intelligence > your brand > Setup > Watchlist > Keywords.
2. Select Suggest. It takes about half a minute.
3. Check the Sectors. Select × to remove one, or type a name in Add a sector and select Add. Then select Regenerate to get suggestions for your sectors.
4. Tick the keywords you want tracked.
5. Select Add selected.

Suggestions come from three places:

• the searches your website already appears for in Google Search Console
• the keywords you bid on in Google Ads
• your website’s pages and services

Each suggestion shows its monthly searches (Google searches a month in Australia) and where it came from:

Label	What it means
Search Console	Your site already appears for this search. Shows impressions and average position over the last 3 months.
Google Ads	You bid on this keyword. Shows impressions and clicks over the last 3 months.
Suggested	A new phrase based on what your website offers, with its monthly searches. Suggested phrases nobody searches for are left out.
Suggested, no volume data yet	A new phrase we couldn’t get search volume for.

Within each sector, searches you already appear for come first, then the rest by monthly searches.

Connect Google Search Console and Google Ads for better suggestions. Without them, suggestions are based on your website only, so make sure your brand has a Website set.

Suggestions leave out your own brand name, your competitors’ / peers’ names and anything you already track. You can only add as many as your plan has room for. Add selected shows how many slots you have left.

The location you enter in the Add keywords form below also applies to suggestions you add.

Add keywords

Owners, admins and members can add and remove keywords.

1. Go to Marketing Intelligence > your brand > Setup > Watchlist > Keywords and select + Add.
2. In Keywords (one per line), type the searches your customers make, one per line. You can also separate them with commas.
3. Optionally, set a Location, for example Perth, Western Australia. Leave it blank for Australia-wide.
4. Select Add.

The section shows how many keywords you’re tracking out of your plan’s limit for the brand. When you reach the limit, remove one to add another, or move up a plan.

Monthly searches

The Monthly searches column shows how many times a month people in Australia search for each keyword on Google, as an average over the last 12 months. It fills in after the keyword’s first rankings check (a new keyword shows after first check) and is refreshed about once a month. No data means Google reports no figure for that phrase, which usually means it’s searched fewer than ten times a month.

Monthly searches are Australia-wide, whatever Location the keyword has.

When rankings are checked

Rankings are checked every Sunday. A new keyword shows Next Sunday under Last checked until its first check.

To check straight away:

1. Select Check now.
2. Wait while it shows Checking. Each keyword takes about half a minute and the list updates as results come in.

Rankings and share of voice appear in the next report. To see them sooner, re-run the month.

What the report shows

The Keyword Rankings & Share of Voice section of the monthly report shows:

• where you and each competitor / peer rank for each keyword, and each keyword’s monthly searches
• how many keywords rank in the top 30, on page 1 (top 10) and in the top 3
• the total monthly searches across your keyword list
• the local pack and ads on the page
• share of voice: your share of the clicks available across your keywords, compared with each competitor / peer. Once every tracked keyword has monthly searches, each keyword counts in proportion to how often it’s searched, so a #1 on a busy search is worth more than a #1 on a quiet one

Positions come from Google Australia mobile results. The month shows the latest check. See the Metric glossary.

Remove a keyword

Select Remove next to the keyword.

If a check fails

A keyword that couldn’t be checked shows Check failed under Last checked. Select Check now to try again, or wait for the Sunday check.