Research and save keywords

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 shows Your keywords, your saved list. The Research keywords button at its top right opens keyword research. 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 the tab, saving, tagging, removing, and tracking are free.

Research keyword ideas

1. Select Research keywords, at the top right of Your keywords. Research opens in a window over the list. If you close it and open it again during the same visit, your last search and its results are still there.
2. Enter one to five seed terms in Seed terms (1–5, one per line). The line under the box counts them. If you select Run keyword research with no seed terms, you'll see "Enter at least one seed term."
3. Choose a Location and a Language. They start at United States and English.
4. Choose a Result count: 10, 25, 50, or 100 ideas.
5. Optionally select Include SERP overview. It adds a snapshot of each keyword's Google results page: which kinds of results show up, how many results Google reports, and when the page was last checked. Hover the info icon next to it for the details.
6. Select Run keyword research. The button reads Running keyword research… until the results arrive.

If you see "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.

The table starts with the highest Volume first. Select a column heading to sort by it, and select it again to reverse the order. To narrow the ideas, type part of a keyword in Filter keywords or pick an Intent. A line above the table shows how many ideas are showing, like "Showing 12 of 50." Filtering is free and makes no new lookup.

Save keywords

1. Select the box next to each keyword you want, or the box in the table's header row to select all the ideas showing.
2. Select Save to your keywords, at the bottom of the window.

The window closes. A line above Your keywords confirms how many were newly saved, and how many were already saved if any, and the saved keywords are highlighted in the list. Keywords save with the location and language of the run.

Find saved keywords

Your keywords shows a count of saved keywords next to its title. The newest saved keywords are at the top. Until you save one, it says "Start your keyword list" with a Research keywords button.

The filters sit in one row above the table. Each applies as soon as you change it, and they combine:

• Search by keyword: type part of the keyword and press Enter.
• Tag: pick one of your tags. It shows once you've tagged a keyword.
• Source: All sources, Research, Competitor lookup, AI agent, or Search Console. Competitor lookup means you saved it from a competitor's page on the Competitors tab. See Research a competitor's domain. 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 filters to reset the search and every filter. If nothing matches, you'll see "No saved keywords match these filters."

Each row shows:

• Keyword, Volume, CPC, and Intent, as in the research results.
• Difficulty, colored as easy (under 30), medium (30 to 69), or hard (70 and up).
• Competition, how crowded the paid ads are, as a percentage. It's colored as low (under 34%), medium, or high (67% and up).
• Audience, the verdict and a Check button. See Check who a keyword's searchers are.
• Rank tracking, Tracked or Not tracked, with Track or Untrack. See Track keywords for rank checks.
• Tags, your own labels on the keyword.
• Market, the location and language the numbers are for, like "United States · English".
• Source and Saved, where the keyword came from and when you saved it.

Hover the info icon on any column heading for a short explanation of it.

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.

1. On the keyword's row, select Check in the Audience column. It says Review once the keyword has been checked.
2. Select Check Google top 10. It's a paid lookup. The keyword's own location and language are used.
3. 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, Shopping, and Discussions and forums appeared.
4. If the list has a shaded Discussions and forums row, read it. It's Google's block of forum threads, separate from any single Forum result, and it sits where Google placed it among the top 10, or at the end of the list if Google placed it lower. The line under the title reads "Google shows these threads here. Buyers are asking each other, not a business." Each thread shows its title, which opens the thread in a new tab, and its source, post count, and month when Google gives them, like "r/HomeImprovement · 12 posts · Mar 2026". Open a few threads to see who is asking and what they want. Threads full of people looking to hire someone point to Keep. Threads of people doing it themselves point to Kill.
5. 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 the lookup fails, you'll see a message, nothing is saved, and you can try again.

Act on selected keywords

Select the box next to each keyword, or the box above the table to select all on the page. A bar shows how many are selected, with Track rank, Stop tracking, Add tag, Remove tag, and Remove. Select Clear selection to deselect them all.

Tag saved keywords

Tags are your own labels for grouping keywords, like "service pages".

1. Select the keywords.
2. Select Add tag, enter a tag name, and select Add tag again.

To take a tag off, select the keywords, select Remove tag, and pick the tag. The list shows only tags on the selected keywords. To remove one tag from one keyword, select the × on the tag in the Tags column.

Remove saved keywords

1. Select the keywords.
2. Select Remove.
3. 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.

1. If you have more than one site, pick the site from Tracking ranks for next to Your keywords. It's the same site menu as on Analysis > Website.
2. Select the keywords.
3. Select Track rank or Stop tracking.

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.

1. Read the question. Seen for shows the tracked keyword whose results showed it, plus a count like +2 if more keywords showed it too.
2. Decide if a buyer would ask it in those words. Once added, a question can't be edited, only deactivated.
3. 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."