Build your keyword library

Your keyword library is the full set of searches you care about for a location. Adding keywords does not use any allowance and there is no limit on how many you keep, so build the list out as widely as you like. A keyword is checked once you put it on a rank-check schedule, which is also when it starts using rank checks.

Add keywords to a location

1. Go to Keyword Research in the sidebar and select Add keywords.
2. Choose the location the keywords belong to. The bar at the top shows how many keywords it already has and how many are not on a schedule.
3. Pick a source:
   • Type or paste your own list, one per line or separated by commas.
   • Build a strategy with the agent, from your business details. The card shows how many strategies you have left this month.
   • From Search Console to import the queries your site already shows up for. The card tells you whether a Search Console property is linked to this location.
   • Keyword ideas for searches found in data you already have: Search Console, what people type into Maps, your competitors' keywords and the searches AI engines run. The card shows how many ideas are ready.

To add the same terms to several branches at once, select Add across locations under the Type or paste card.

Duplicates are skipped. A keyword the location already has is never added twice, whatever the capitals or spacing.

Put keywords on a schedule

Adding a keyword keeps it in your library. It is checked when a rank-check schedule includes it. After you add keywords to one location, select Check them on a schedule (or Put them on a schedule) to do that straight away.

You can also schedule keywords at any time from the keywords table:

1. Open the location from Keyword Research, or use the All keywords view.
2. Tick the keywords, then select Schedule…. A keyword marked Not scheduled in the Checked column can be scheduled by clicking it.
3. Add them to an existing schedule or create a new one, and pick how often: Daily, Weekly, Every 2 weeks or Monthly.

Before you save, you see about how many rank checks a month this adds and how many you have left this month. Checking a keyword weekly uses about 4 rank checks a month; daily uses 30.

See what is being checked

The Keyword Research page shows, across your account:

• On a schedule: how many tracked keywords a schedule checks. If some are not, select the count to see exactly which ones.
• Schedules use a month: the rank checks your schedules will use at their current size, against your plan.
• Used this month: rank checks already run, and how many are left.

Each location card shows its keywords, how many are scheduled, the checks a month and when it was last checked. Open a location to see how many keywords are in the top 10 on Google and the top 3 in the Map Pack.

Read the numbers

Every figure in the keywords table comes from checks you have already run, so opening it uses nothing:

• Demand is how often your business showed for that exact search: Search Console impressions over the last 28 days or, where there are none, how often your Business Profile appeared on Maps for it.
• Ads says whether Google showed ads for the search on its latest rank check. Businesses only pay to appear on searches that bring in work.
• Map Pack rivals shows the businesses holding the Map Pack on the latest check and their typical number of reviews, which tells you what it takes to get in.
• Searches/mo appears once you look up search volume from Google Search Visibility. It is the whole country's searches, not the ones that reached you.

In the keywords table, the Checked column shows how often each keyword is checked and when it last was. The Source column shows where each keyword came from: typed in, Search Console, Strategy, Keyword ideas, Competitor gap, Business Profile or the Assistant.

Tidy up your library

In the All keywords view you can filter by location, source or status (including Not on a schedule), then track, untrack, schedule, copy, move or delete keywords in bulk. Moving a keyword to a location that already has it leaves it where it is, so no location ends up with the same search twice.

Untracking stops checks without losing history. Deleting removes the keyword and everything measured against it, so untrack instead if you might want the history.

Next steps

• Already rank for terms? Pull them in: Import keywords from Google Search Console.
• Understand the allowance in full: Rank checks explained.