People usually start using keyword groups at the start of a PPC campaign. In Google Ads, the platform has you group together similar keywords that will run the same ad. In SEO, using groups is the kind of organization that helps you prioritize your work and develop strong content. We refer to groups as "Topics" in our SEO tools.

Breaking your keywords into ad groups is one of those positive domino-effect decisions. It triggers benefits down the line. If you keep related keywords in a tight group, you can run ads that address exactly what your reader was searching for. The more specific you get in your ad (and your landing page), the better your shot at higher quality score.

A higher quality score leads to better ad placement and can save you money in your bid.

Ad groups mean confetti and celebration all around.
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We have incorporated groups into 4 different sections of SpyFu.

Grouped keyword suggestions: Our related keywords feature will suggest thousands of keyword ideas based on a single keyword that you type in. We automatically group those suggestions for you.

Look for the "Related Keywords" tab under Keyword Research or the Similar Keywords section from the Keyword Overview: https://www.spyfu.com/keyword/related-keywords

Organize your keywords into groups: Type in (or paste) a group of keywords. We will sort them into related groups and add any missing keyword data. It’s a great place to combine keywords that you had been collecting offsite.

Look for the “Bulk Uploads” tab in the Keyword Research section. This will let you combine keywords from multiple sources (spreadsheets, lists, other tools) into one sortable and filter-ready grid.
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Domain research: Type in a domain to see its keywords automatically grouped together. For PPC research, we show these are Groups. For SEO research, we list these as "Topics."

When you search a domain in SpyFu, you can see its SEO Keywords and its PPC Keywords in a tab, and those keywords will be automatically grouped. Look for it in the Filter section on the left side of either page.
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My SpyFu project manager: Our newest addition, the My SpyFu keywords section (exclusive to premium members) lets you store and organize keywords.  Groups are a central part of its structure. Create your own or take action on the automatic groups we can find for you.

Look for the sliding bar on the right side of your screen when you log in. That opens the project manager.

When you work with groups in your keyword research, you can measure and monitor keywords from the same category–all at once.

Instead of interpreting the performance of one keyword at a time, you can watch how related terms perform overall.

This approach plays remarkably to your advantage. You get away from the hyper-focused micro view of single keywords that distract you from the big picture.

Think about presenting to a client. Their attention span is only as good as the most dramatic information. Imagine wrapping up the month on all the gains you made on their content surrounding new business franchises.

Sure, you dominated the “franchise” niche with your ongoing content, but while you’re talking about your strategy for next month’s content, your client brings your momentum to a halt as he demands to know why you don’t rank well on “franchise loans with bad credit.” Or worse, why did their content take a tumble on this one very specific keyword when most things overall performed well.

Keyword groups put the control back in your hands.

We think that keyword groups calm the noise of rogue terms–the exceptions and outliers. You’re a pro, so you’re not brushing anything under the carpet, but you understand how to present sporadic and volatile ranking changes in your keywords in your own way.

With keyword groups, you can take a step back to look at related keywords. It helps you to better understand how well you capture share on the whole idea instead.  In other words, it’s not just how you do on “franchise opportunities,” but on “franchise opportunities for military” alongside “affordable franchise opportunities” and “hot franchise opportunities.”

It cuts the risk of one keyword giving you the wrong idea about how your content is faring. Think of it as the SEO way of seeing the forest in spite of the trees.

Measuring groups is an effective way of understanding what you’ve accomplished and what you can do.

Our goal with groups is to help you with discovery, organization, measurement, and presentation. Remember the 3 sections of SpyFu we mentioned earlier where we focus on groups? There’s one more spot that drives home the idea of presenting to your clients with your best foot forward. Here are all 4 sections where you can use groups to your advantage:

By typing in a competing domain and selecting “keyword groups,” you can get ideas for potential new ad groups to use in your own campaign. Creating content? Use those groups as topic starters.

When you paste your own keywords into the Bulk Upload section, we will group them together for you so that use that structure in your AdWords account. We can remove any duplicates and add missing data–helping you manage keywords from multiple lists.

The My SpyFu project manager takes the concept of Keyword Grouping and gives you more options for tracking and customization. Your groups here don’t have to follow the “similar keyword” pattern we use for Keyword Grouping. Get creative. They might be groups of branded keywords, keywords that you just added, or maybe keywords you dropped your bid on.

Since we added tracking inside of MySpyFu Keywords, you can set up a group and see how those keywords collectively rise or fall in the ranks. Drill in for individual rank tracking and history.

The Recon report (a special custom report on a domain) recaps the value you created for a client via SEO.

We’ve developed these to make your work shine, and a section devoted to performance by keyword group helps you tell the best story.