Research and save keywords

Get keyword ideas from a few seed terms, save the ones you want, check who ranks for them, then filter, tag, remove, and track them for rank checks, and add buyer questions from People Also Ask.

Keywords is where you find search terms worth writing for and keep a list of them. Select Analysis > Research in the sidebar. Research has four tabs: Keywords, Competitors, Buyer questions, and Rankings. Keywords is the first tab. It has two views: Research gets new keyword ideas, and Saved is your list. For Buyer questions, see Add buyer questions from People Also Ask.

Each run of keyword research is a paid lookup, and so is each audience check. Nothing is requested until you select Run keyword research or Check Google top 10. Opening either view, saving, tagging, removing, and tracking are free.

Research keyword ideas

Select the Research view.
Enter one to five seed terms in Seed terms (1–5, one per line). The line under the box counts them. You'll see "Enter at least one seed term." until you add one.
Choose a Location and a Language. They start at United States and English.
Choose a Result count: 10, 25, 50, or 100 ideas.
Optionally select Include SERP overview (may increase provider cost). It adds a summary of each keyword's Google results, and it costs more.
Select Run keyword research. The button reads Running keyword research… until the results arrive.

A line under the button says how many ideas came back and what the lookup cost. If it says "No keyword ideas were returned for these seed terms and settings.", try broader seed terms or another location.

Read the results

Each idea has one row:

Keyword is the search term.
Volume is how many people search for it each month.
CPC is the average cost per click for ads on it.
Competition is how crowded the ads are for it, as a percentage.
Difficulty is how hard it is to rank for it. Higher is harder.
Intent is what the searcher is likely after, like informational or commercial.
SERP shows Available when the SERP overview came back for that keyword.

A dash means no figure came back for that keyword.

Save keywords

Select the box next to each keyword you want, or the box above the table to select all.
Select Save selected.

A line confirms how many were newly saved, and how many were already saved if any. Keywords save with the location and language of the run. Find them under Saved.

Find saved keywords

Select Saved. The newest saved keywords are at the top. Until you save one, it says "No keywords saved yet. Research keywords and save them here."

To narrow the list:

To search, type part of the keyword in the search box and press Enter. Your filters stay applied.
To filter, fill in any of these, then select Apply filters. Your search stays applied.
- Tags: one or more tag names, separated by commas.
- Source: All sources, Research, Domain, Agent, or Search Console. Domain means you saved it from a domain lookup on the Competitors tab. A keyword keeps the source it was first saved from.
- Audience verdict: All verdicts, Unchecked, Keep, or Kill. See Check who a keyword's searchers are.

Select Clear to reset the search and every filter. If nothing matches, you'll see "No saved keywords match these filters."

Sort by Keyword, Volume, or Saved by selecting the column heading. Select it again to reverse the order. Keywords without a volume sort last either way. Use Previous and Next under the table to move between pages.

Check who a keyword's searchers are

A keyword can match your product word for word and still be searched by the wrong people. Search volume doesn't tell you who they are, and volume tools can disagree by about four times on the same query. In Mark, volume only orders your list. It never decides that a page should exist.

The audience check shows you who Google ranks for the keyword today, so you can judge whether that crowd is your buyer.

On the keyword's row, select Check in the Audience column. It says Review once the keyword has been checked.
Select Check Google top 10. It is one DataForSEO call, about $0.004. The keyword's own location and language are used.
Read the results. Each of the top 10 organic results shows its position, title, domain, and a rough page type: Article, Product or service, Directory or listing, Forum, Video, or Government or edu. SERP features lists which of People Also Ask, AI Overview, Local pack, Video, and Shopping appeared.
Decide. Select Keep or Kill. Kill needs a reason of up to 200 characters, like "Ranking pages are DIY forums, not homeowners hiring." The reason is optional for Keep.

The Audience column shows Unchecked, Keep, or Kill for each keyword. Mark never sets a verdict for you. Volume, difficulty, and every other metric leave it alone.

Select Re-check to fetch the results again. The new results replace the old ones, and your verdict stays. If DataForSEO fails, you'll see a message, nothing is saved, and you can try again.

Tag saved keywords

Select the keywords.
Enter a Tag name.
Select Add to selected or Remove from selected.

To remove one tag from one keyword, select the × on the tag in the Tags column.

Remove saved keywords

Select the keywords.
Select Remove selected.
Confirm with Remove, or select Cancel.

Removing deletes the keywords, their tags, and any rank history from your saved list. It does not undo.

Track keywords for rank checks

Tracked keywords get Mark's own Google rank checks for one of your sites. The results show on the Rankings tab and on Performance > Search. See Read performance.

If you have more than one site, pick the rank tracking site from the row of site buttons at the top of Saved.
Select the keywords.
Select Track selected or Untrack selected.

To track or untrack one keyword, select Track or Untrack on its row. The Rank tracking column shows Tracked or Not tracked for the site you picked.

Tracking is free. To run rank checks, see Check your keyword rankings.

Add buyer questions from People Also Ask

Buyer questions is the list of questions your buyers ask AI tools. When AI answer checks are on, Mark asks each active question every week on ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overview, and AI Mode. Select the Buyer questions tab to see the list. To leave a question out of the next check, select Deactivate on its row. Reactivate brings it back.

To add your own question, type it in Question and select Add question.

Once you track keywords and a rank check has run, the tab also shows Suggested from People Also Ask when there are any. These are the questions Google showed in People Also Ask for your tracked keywords on the latest rank check for each site and locale. Mark saves them during the check at no extra cost, so viewing suggestions never starts a paid lookup. See Check your keyword rankings.

A suggestion is not a buyer question. Mark never asks it in an AI answer check and never adds it for you.

Read the question. Seen for shows the tracked keyword whose results showed it, plus a count like +2 if more keywords showed it too.
Decide if a buyer would ask it in those words. Once added, a question can't be edited, only deactivated.
If the wording is close but not right, type your own version in Question and select Add question. Otherwise, select Add to put the suggestion on your list as written. It starts active.

Suggestions leave out any question already on your list, active or not. The questions Google showed most often come first. Mark shows up to 50. When there are more, a line under the table gives the total, like "Showing 50 of 64."

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