Keyword Lists Overview

In this guide you’ll learn how to create a Keyword List in Keyword Explorer as well as how to manage, update, and filter your lists. To learn more about the Rank Check feature in Keyword Explorer, please see our rank checking guide. If you need help understanding any of the metrics used throughout Keyword Explorer please see our keyword metrics guide.

Quick Links

• Creating Keyword Lists With Keyword Explorer (Video Available)
• Getting Started
• Uploading CSVs to Keyword Explorer
• Add Keywords to Keyword Lists (Video Available)
• Adding Long Tail Keywords
• Managing Your Keyword Lists
• Exploring Keyword List Data (Video Available)
• Expired SERPs and Keyword Lists Last Updated
• Applying Filters and Sorting Keywords
• Move Keywords Between Keyword Lists
• Find More Keyword Suggestions From Your Keyword List
• Export Your Keyword List to CSV
• Understanding Keyword List Terminology

To create a Keyword List in Keyword Explorer, follow these steps:

1. Head to Keyword Explorer

2. Click on + Create or upload a new list

3. Name your Keyword List

4. Select Enter Keywords or Upload CSV

5. Enter your keywords, comma separated, or upload a CSV of keywords

Organizing your keywords into categories is an important part of keyword research. With Keyword Lists in Keyword Explorer you can keep track of an abundance of keywords. You can also use the Keyword List overview to compare metrics across groups of keywords. Once you've created a list and added your keywords, simply open the list and you'll see a breakdown of metrics like Volume, Difficulty and Organic CTR.

Option 1: Upload a list of keywords

All you need to do is enter your keywords starting on the first column and row of your spreadsheet. Make sure to list the keywords one per cell all the way down column A. This method will default to US search volume data, unless a country is selected from the drop-down menu.

Option 2: Upload keywords with My Score (Importance) and Country

This allows you to add specific countries and My Score (Importance) for each keyword.

The three header columns required are:

Column A: Keyword

Column B: Importance

Column C: Country

You will need all three columns for this to work. If you don't want to adjust your My Score (Importance), insert 3 in this column for each keyword, as this is the default, neutral score. The country indicated in the CSV will override the country chosen from the upload selector.

You can add keywords to your lists as you run searches in Keyword Explorer using these steps:

1. Search your keyword in Keyword Explorer
2. Click on Keyword Suggestions
3. Select the desired keywords from the suggestions using the checkbox on the right-hand side
4. Click Add to... and select Keyword List from the drop-down
5. Select an existing Keyword List or +Create New List

Your target keywords can be made up of multiple words. Typically single word keywords are called head keywords, and keywords made up of multiple words are called the long tail. For example mouse is a keyword, as is optical mouse and best optical mouse. You can enter head keywords and long tail keywords into Keyword Explorer, comma separated, to analyze metrics and hone your list of target keywords.

All your Keyword Lists can be viewed here: https://moz.com/explorer/lists/keywords

From this view you can compare Keyword Lists, open them up for closer inspection, and create new Keyword Lists.

Click the little gear icon at the bottom of the Keyword List to rename or delete it.

You’ll also see a breakdown of high level metrics that include the Total Keywords, the Total Volume, and Average Priority Score.

Just below the title of the list, you will see a count of how many keywords in the list could use a data refresh - identified as Expired SERPS. Towards the bottom of each Keyword List tile, you’ll also see when the Keyword List was Last Updated.

Expired SERPS means that the SERPs may have changed since we last collected data for your list and that your list needs to be refreshed to get the latest Difficulty and Priority scores.

To refresh your Keyword List, follow these steps:

1. Open your list

2. Select all the keywords using the top check box at the left

3. From the More Actions drop-down on the right, click Refresh

Below the Keyword List metrics is your full Keyword List and a whole range of filtering and sorting options. These filters allow you to organize your Keyword List pretty much any way that you’d like.

You will also have the option to view Monthly Volume as a single number or a range. Single number Monthly Volume is available for Google US, CA, AU, and UK.

Once you’ve fine-tuned your Keyword List, scroll down to see the results — all of which can be further sorted by clicking on the column headers.

Have multiple Keyword Lists and need to shuffle your keywords between them? Select the keywords and click Add to > Keyword List. You can also Delete keywords using this method.

Looking for more suggestions? You can explore more suggestions directly from your Keyword List. On the right-hand side of your Keyword List you'll see a handy magnifying glass. Click on this to be directed to the Explore by Keyword section of Keyword Explorer.

If you ever need to export your Keyword List, you can do so via the link on the top right.

The following data will be included in the CSV export.

CSV Header Data:

List Name - The name of the exported list

Total Keywords - The total number of keywords in the list at the time of data export

Total Volume Range - The total volume range of the list which is calculated by adding all the lower range numbers together (Column C) and all the higher range numbers together (Column D) to get the total volume range

Average Volume Range - The average search volume of the keywords in the list at the time of data export

Average Keyword Difficulty - The average Difficulty of the keywords in the list at the time of data export

Average Organic CTR - The average organic CTR of the keywords in the list at the time of data export

Average Priority - The average priority score of the keywords in the list at the time of data export

Last Updated - The date this keyword list was last updated

Export Date - The date of export

CSV Column Data:

A. Keyword - Notes the keywords in your keyword list at the time of export.

B. Country - The designated country for the keyword in column A.

C. Min Monthly Volume - The lower end of the search volume range for this keyword. Search volume indicates the demand for a keyword by estimating the number of times it is searched per month.

D. Max Monthly Volume- The higher end of the search volume range for this keyword. Search volume indicates the demand for a keyword by estimating the number of times it is searched per month.

E. Specific Monthly Volume - The single number search volume for this keyword.

F. Features - If SERP Features are present in the SERP at the time this keyword is analyzed it will be indicated in this column. The SERP Features present will be noted, separated by colons (for example adwords_top:adwords_bottom:basic) where basic indicates the presence of organic blue links in the SERP.

G. Difficulty - The Difficulty score for this keyword which shows you how tough it would be to rank in the top 10 spots for that keyword.

H. Organic CTR - The Organic CTR for this keyword which is an estimated relative click-through rate for organic web results in the SERP for this term.

I. Importance - Also known as My Score, this is an adjustable score that helps you to assign a value of importance to a keyword. 3 is considered neutral and is the default score.

J. Priority - The Priority score for this keyword which combines all our other metrics to create a single, sortable number you can use to effectively prioritize keywords.

K. Date Analyzed - The date this keyword was last analyzed.

More information about Keyword Metrics is available in the Keyword Metrics section. More definitions for Moz Pro terminology can be found in our glossary.

Monthly Volume - The number of searches for that keyword for any given month - this is an indication of demand for that keyword

Total Volume - (Seen in Keyword Lists Overview) Represents the total volume of the keywords in this list - it is calculated by adding all the lower volume range values together and all the higher volume range values together to get a total volume range

Average Monthly Volume - (Seen in Keyword Lists Overview) Represents the average monthly volume range for the keywords in this list

Difficulty - Shows you how hard it would be to rank in the top 10 positions in the SERP for this keyword

Average Difficulty - (Seen in Keyword Lists Overview) Represents the average Difficulty score for the keywords in this list

Organic CTR - An estimated relative click-through rate for organic web results for this keyword

Average Organic CTR - (Seen in Keyword Lists Overview) Represents the average Organic CTR for the keywords in this list

My Score - An adjustable score which allows you to apply importance to keywords in your list

Average My Score - (Seen in Keyword Lists Overview) Represents the average My Score set for the keywords in this list

Priority - Combines all our other metrics to create a single, sortable number you can use to effectively prioritize keywords

Average Priority - (Seen in Keyword Lists Overview) Represents the average Priority score for the keywords in this list

Total Keywords - (Seen in Keyword Lists Overview) The total number of keywords in this keyword list

Expired SERPs - Indicates that the SERPs may have changed since we last collected data for your list and that your list needs to be refreshed to get the latest Difficulty and Priority scores

Last Updated - The date this list was last updated or refreshed