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Glossary: SEO Keywords
Glossary: SEO Keywords

What does this mean? We cover the definitions of sections and headers on the page.

Sidra Condron avatar
Written by Sidra Condron
Updated over a week ago

Most Valuable Keywords (sort): This sort gives weight to keywords that earn the most clicks for the domain.

Newly Ranked Keywords (sort): This lists keywords that only recently started ranking in the top 100 organic spots.

Biggest Rank Gains (sort): This sort lists keywords that had the biggest movement up from the organic position they held last the last time we searched.

Biggest Rank Losses (sort): These are pages that dropped from their previous organic position on a keyword. However, if they dropped out of the keyword’s top 100 altogether, we won’t include it in this list.

Biggest Click Gains (sort): This compares the number of clicks that a domain got from a keyword, up from the amount we reported in the previous update. The sort lets you see the biggest, most recent jumps.

Biggest Click Losses (sort): This compares the number of clicks that a domain got from a keyword, down from the amount we reported in the previous data update. The sort lets you see the biggest, most recent drops.

Keywords that just made it to the first page (Sort): If a page started ranking within the top 10 organic spots (when it wasn’t there at the last update), we include it in this sort.

Keywords that just fell off the first page (sort): Similarly, if a page had been ranking within the first 10 results when we saw it last, but it fell below that cutoff this time, we say that it "just fell off the first page."

FILTERS AND COLUMNS

Total Keywords/Total Volume/Total SEO Clicks: These metrics shown at the top of the keyword list will update every time you filter the keywords or change your segment. It shows the keyword count and estimated traffic that comes from the keywords currently being displayed. Total Volume is an estimation of how many searches are being done for all of these keywords combined.

Keywords (include/exclude)

Include: This filter lets you narrow your results to keywords that have specific words or phrasing in them. That way you can zero in on a niche without limiting your initial search up front. If you search “pc reviews” you can include “vs” to get comparison ideas.

Exclude: This filter lets you take out results that you don’t want to consider. It’s helpful if some of them don’t match what you offer. For example, search “online tax return software,” but exclude the word “free.”

URLs include/exclude: This filters the pages in the results (instead of keywords). It responds to both short phrases and full URLs.

Type your phrase, and any URLs that match it will be included or excluded (depending on your selection).

Typing "/blog" will return spyfu.com/blog as well as matching pages like spyfu.com/blog/content-calendar. However, if you want ONLY the blog, add a slash at the end: "/blog/" will return only spyfu.com/blog.

Including two keywords at a time like "google" and "keywords" will return URLs that match either phrase. You can click the blue "OR" above the results to switch to "AND." This will require both phrases in the results like in "spyfu.com/blog/google-keyword-planner."

Exclude Homepage Keywords: This will remove keywords where the domain's homepage ranks instead of a longer page. This is more common with branded terms.

Chasing a competitor's homepages could be an intensive effort with little return. This filter lets you skip those keywords in your results.

Search Volume: This shows the number of searches done this past month across the US on Google.com (or in the UK on Google.co.uk if you are looking at UK data). We blend data from multiple sources to give a better snapshot of search activity on this keyword, so it won’t be identical to Google’s metrics for search volume.

(KD) Keyword Difficulty/Ranking Difficulty: We’ve calculated how difficult it would be to rank on this keyword. The score is based on a scale of 0-100 (with 100 being the most difficult to rank for). Compare this number to other keywords you're targeting to get an idea of how to prioritize your SEO campaign.

Keyword difficulty takes into account the strength of the domains, on-page signals like “keyword in title,” and the number of .gov and .edu domains.

(CPC B) Cost per Click: The average amount advertisers pay Google anytime someone clicks their own ad for this keyword. The default is “broad match” costs, but exact match and phrase match are available.

You can find more information on Google's match types here.

Monthly Cost: Our estimate of what an advertiser would spend, on average, to advertise on this keyword each month. We include it with SEO research to help with reference points and benchmarks. When shown as Monthly Cost (B), it means that figures are based on broad match cost estimates.

Clicks: This is the estimated amount of total clicks to this keyword's search results page (SERP) every month. That counts clicks to both paid and organic results.

Organic Clicks (Percent): Of all clicks made to this keyword's SERP, this percentage measures how many went to organic results.

Desktop Searches (Percent): When we have a breakdown of how many of the searches for this keyword come from desktop vs mobile, we will show it here.

Advertising on higher desktop-search keywords could have different results on research-driven terms like "SAT prep" or "antivirus software."

Mobile Searches (Percent): When we have a breakdown of how many of the searches for this keyword come from mobile vs desktop, we will show it here.

Searches Not Clicked (Percent): Some SERPs return enough information that the user does not have to click any results. There might also be unexpected results that cause the user to abandon the SERP without any clicks. This is the rate that searchers leave the page without clicking any result.

Ads: This is the total number of advertisers we've seen over the last 6 months for this keyword. It's helpful to know how competitive the field is and how many advertisers have tested this keyword over time.

Homepages: This is the number of homepages (from any domain) that rank within the first 100 results for this keyword.

A homepage might be “https://webmd.com ” vs a longer path like “https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise.”

Adult Filters: If we detect any potentially NSFW search terms, we hide them by default and keep them out of the roll-up metrics. You have options to include, exclude, or view them alone in your results.

Cost Selections: You can change the metrics displayed on this page from the default of "broad match" to exact or phrase match.

CPC Selections: The CPC metric is calculated off of broad match metrics, but you can change the metrics displayed on this page from the default of "broad match" to exact or phrase match.

Rank / Rank Change (Shown in the column only, not the filter)

A domain's rank is the position that it reached on the SERP for this keyword.

We compare this ranking to its previous ranking from the time we last saw it. Moving up from position 5 to position 3 is a change of 2.

SEO Clicks (Change)

We estimate that the domain should get this many clicks to its page (per month) based on its current ranking. The "change" count shows how many more clicks (or fewer clicks) the domain got from this ranking compared to the last time we searched the keyword.

**Differences in the Export Page**

Export pages are usually spreadsheets that cannot rely on icons and charts in the same way that our live pages can. A chart that you see on the live page might appear as a number in the export. Or, we include some notations that are used for sorting purposes on the live page. Because of that, we list any significant differences below.

Total Monthly Clicks (same as "Clicks" above)

Number of Ranking Homepages (same as "Homepages" above)

Top Ranked URL: This is the page that ranks highest from the domain for that keyword.

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