How to build a keyword master list

What a keyword master list is

A keyword is simply a search someone types, or says, to find something. Your keyword master list is one shared list of the searches you want your website to be found for, with a few facts beside each one: roughly how often people search for it, how well it fits what you sell, and which page on your site should answer it.

It sounds like paperwork, but it saves a lot of guessing. Without a list, every new page, title and blog post starts from a hunch. With one, you can see at a glance which searches you already win, which you are close to, and which nobody on your site answers yet. Every later step in this phase, from mapping keywords to pages to topic clusters, works from this list.

Step 1: collect searches from many places

Start wide. At this stage you want every search that might matter; you will cut the list down later. The best sources cost nothing:

• Search Console. Open Performance, then the Queries tab, and export the last 16 months. These are searches Google already shows you for, so they are the most reliable starting point. Our guide to reading Search Console data explains the report.
• Your customers’ own words. Read emails, chat logs, reviews and the questions people ask on the phone. Customers rarely use the trade terms you use inside the business. A garden shop may say “perennials”; its customers search “plants that come back every year”.
• Google itself. Type the start of a search and note the suggestions that appear. Look at the “People also ask” questions and the related searches at the bottom of the results page.
• Google Keyword Planner. It is free inside a Google Ads account and suggests related searches with a monthly volume. Without much ad spend, it usually shows volumes as broad ranges rather than exact numbers, which is still enough to compare searches.
• Google Trends. It shows whether interest in a search is rising, falling or seasonal, and compares two searches side by side. It shows relative interest, not search counts.
• Your competitors’ pages. Look at the titles and headings of the businesses that rank above you. They tell you which searches those pages aim at.

Step 2: clean the list

A raw list has many near-copies: singular and plural, different word orders, spelling mistakes. Google understands that “running shoe” and “running shoes” mean the same thing, so you don’t need a separate line for each. Group them under one main search and keep the others as notes. Remove searches in languages or countries you don’t serve, and searches about something else that only share a word with yours.

Step 3: sort by fit

Fit is the first and most important filter. Ask of every search: if someone typed this and landed on my site, would they find what they wanted? A running-shoe shop that sells no hiking boots should drop “best hiking boots”, however often it is searched. Visitors who leave straight away don’t help you, and a page about something you don’t offer will struggle to rank anyway.

Then note what the searcher is trying to do. Someone searching “how to choose running shoes” wants to learn; someone searching “buy trail running shoes size 11” wants to buy. Both can fit, but they need different pages. Our guide to search intent gaps explains how to read this from the results page.

Step 4: judge the value of each search

With the poor fits gone, give each remaining search a rough value. You don’t need precise numbers; you need to compare searches with each other. Four things matter:

Searches that fit well, carry a clear buying or enquiry intent, and where the current results are beatable go to the top of the list. Searches you already appear for in positions 8 to 20 in Search Console deserve a special mark: Google already connects your site with them, and they are often the quickest to improve.

Step 5: give the list a shape

A list of three hundred searches in one column is hard to use. Add a few columns so it can be sorted and filtered:

1. Add a topic for each search. Group searches that a single subject would answer: “running shoes for flat feet”, “flat feet running” and “best shoes for overpronation” belong together. These groups become your topic clusters.
2. Add the intent. Learn, compare, buy or visit, read from the results page.
3. Add the page that answers it. The address on your site that should rank for this search, or “none yet”. Our guide to mapping keywords to pages covers this column in detail.
4. Add the country. If you sell in more than one country, results and wording differ. “Trainers” and “sneakers” are the same thing in different places.
5. Add today’s position. Where you rank now, or “not in the top 50”. This is the baseline you will measure progress against.

Track a manageable number

Not every search on the master list needs to be tracked every week. Choose the ones that matter most: the searches your main pages are built for, the near wins from Search Console, and a few harder ones you are working towards. For a small business, a few dozen well-chosen searches tell you more than a few thousand you never look at.

Positions move a little from day to day and differ between phones and computers, between towns, and from person to person. Look at the direction over several weeks rather than any single check, and compare positions with your clicks in Search Console, which show what the positions are worth.

Keep the list alive

Revisit the list every month or two. Add the new searches that appear in Search Console, remove the ones that no longer fit what you sell, and move searches between topics as your site grows. When you launch a product or a service, add its searches to the list before you write its page, so the page is built for them from the start.