Introduction to Keywords Explorer Tool

In this section, Tim introduces himself as the head of marketing at Ahrefs and explains the three scenarios for using Keywords Explorer in keyword research.

Scenarios for Using Keywords Explorer

• Generate thousands of keyword ideas.

• Do an in-depth analysis of a specific keyword.

• Pull metrics for a custom list of keywords.

Generating Keyword Ideas

Tim explains the different reports available in the "Keyword Ideas" section of Keywords Explorer.

Reports in "Keyword Ideas" Section

• Phrase match: Shows all keywords that have the exact match seed keyword as part of them.

• Having same terms: Shows all keywords that contain the words of the seed keyword in any order.

• Also rank for: Generates a report by taking the top 10 ranking pages for the seed keyword and pulling all other keywords that these pages also rank for.

• Search suggestions: Contains suggested keywords that appear as you enter your seed keyword into Google.

• All report: Shows keywords from all of these reports.

Generating Keyword Ideas with Multiple Seed Keywords

Tim demonstrates how to generate more keyword ideas by adding multiple seed keywords.

Adding Multiple Seed Keywords

• You can use up to 10 seed keywords to generate lists of keyword ideas.

• By adding additional seed keywords, you can significantly increase the number of generated keyword ideas.

Extensive Keyword Idea Generation

Tim showcases how extensive and diverse the generated keyword ideas can be, even with broad seed keywords.

Example with Broad Seed Keyword

• With a broad seed keyword like "content," over 400,000 keyword ideas are generated.

• Keywords Explorer runs on a database of over four billion keywords, updated monthly.

Metrics for Each Keyword

Tim explains the two metrics provided for each keyword in Keywords Explorer.

Metrics for Each Keyword

• Search volume: Shows how many times people search for this keyword per month in the selected country.

• Keyword difficulty: Indicates how hard it would be to rank in the top 10 search results for this keyword.

Filtering and Identifying Promising Keywords

Tim demonstrates how to filter and identify promising keywords using search volume and keyword difficulty.

Filtering and Identifying Promising Keywords

• By filtering by keyword difficulty and search volume, you can narrow down your list of keyword ideas to find the best ones.

• Example: Filtering by a keyword difficulty of 1-5 and a search volume of 500-1000 reveals a potentially valuable keyword, "content writing jobs."

In-depth Analysis of a Keyword

Tim introduces the second use case of Keywords Explorer, which is conducting an in-depth analysis of a specific keyword.

In-depth Analysis of a Keyword

• Clicking the "get metrics" button calculates advanced metrics for the selected keyword.

• The tool provides insights into various factors that affect ranking.

Understanding Keyword Difficulty

Tim explains the concept of keyword difficulty and its relevance to ranking in search results.

Understanding Keyword Difficulty

• Keyword difficulty shows how hard it would be to rank in the top 10 search results for a specific keyword.

• Backlinks from approximately 6 to 8 websites may be needed to rank in the top 10.

• Ranking number one is much more challenging, as there are additional factors beyond backlinks.

• Ahrefs' keyword difficulty estimates the chances of ranking in the top 10.

Further Reading on Keyword Difficulty

Tim suggests reading an informative post on Ahrefs' blog about keyword difficulty.

Further Reading on Keyword Difficulty

• Ahrefs has a detailed blog post explaining keyword difficulty and its significance.

• The link to the blog post is provided for further exploration.

Search Volume Metric

Tim explains the search volume metric and its relevance in understanding keyword popularity.

Search Volume Metric

• Search volume indicates how many times people search for a specific keyword per month.

• The tool provides an annual average of search volumes from Google Keyword Planner.

These notes provide an overview of the content covered in the transcript, highlighting key points and insights related to using Keywords Explorer for generating keyword ideas, analyzing keywords, and understanding metrics.

New Section

This section introduces the concept of search volume and its importance in keyword research. It also mentions the reliability of Ahrefs' search volume metric compared to Google's.

Search Volume Metric

• Ahrefs' search volume metric provides more accurate numbers than what Google shows.

• The article about Keywords Explorer on the Ahrefs blog explains all keyword metrics in detail and provides examples and use cases. Link

New Section

The speaker recommends checking out the article mentioned earlier and proceeds to discuss the next metric.

Click-through Rate (CTR)

• Not all searches result in clicks, as demonstrated by the example of the keyword "Donald Trump age" with a high search volume but only 14% clicks.

• Instant answers provided by Google for certain queries reduce the need for users to click on search results.

New Section

This section introduces the return rate metric, which indicates how often people search for a specific keyword again.

Return Rate

• Return rate measures how frequently people search for a keyword again.

• Example: "Donald Trump age" has a return rate of 1.1, indicating that people rarely search for it again due to its easily memorable nature.

• Example: "Donald Trump" has a return rate of 1.83, likely because of fresh news updates in the top news block of search results.

New Section

The speaker clarifies that return rate is a relative metric used for comparing keywords and understanding continuous user interest.

Understanding Return Rate

• Return rate is not an absolute measure but helps compare keywords against each other.

• Higher return rates indicate greater ongoing interest from users.

• Example: "Facebook" has a return rate of 3.63, suggesting sustained interest.

New Section

This section introduces the clicks metric and its significance in understanding user behavior on Google.

Clicks per Search

• The "best backpack" keyword example shows that there are more clicks than searches.

• The "clicks per search" metric reveals that users often click on multiple search results when searching for certain keywords.

• This insight indicates that ranking lower can still generate significant traffic if the search snippet is eye-catching.

New Section

This section discusses the concept of parent topics and how they relate to long-tail keywords.

Parent Topics

• Long-tail keywords like "wireless headphones for workout" are part of broader topics.

• Example: "Best workout headphones" has a higher search volume (7,000) and encompasses the specific long-tail keyword mentioned earlier.

• Ranking for a parent topic automatically includes ranking for related long-tail keywords within it.

New Section

The speaker mentions additional reports available in Keywords Explorer to gain further insights about target keywords.

SERP Position History

• This report shows how pages currently ranking in the top 5 positions have maintained their positions over time.

• Example: For the keyword "Walt Disney," the same 5 pages consistently rank at the top, occasionally swapping positions.

• Such stable SERPs can be challenging to penetrate.

Ranking History

• The ranking history report displays how rankings have changed over time for a specific keyword.

• Example: The ranking history for "Twitter marketing."

This concludes the summary of the transcript.

SERP Overview

This section introduces the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) overview report in Keywords Explorer. It explains how this report provides information about the pages that rank on the front page of Google for a target keyword and their SEO metrics.

Understanding SERP Overview

• The SERP overview shows:

• Pages ranking on the front page of Google for a target keyword

• SEO metrics associated with each ranking page

• Key insights from the SERP overview include:

• Number of backlinks pointing to each ranking page

• Domain rating of the parent website

• Amount of traffic coming to each page

• Number of other keywords that each page ranks for

• This information helps in determining what it would take to rank for a specific keyword and whether the resulting traffic is worth pursuing.

Get Metrics for Your List of Keywords

In this section, the speaker explains how to obtain metrics for a custom list of keywords using Keywords Explorer.

Analyzing Custom Keyword List

• Users can copy/paste or upload a list of keywords in txt or CSV format.

• The number of keywords that can be uploaded depends on the user's account limit.

• Once uploaded, an overview page displays aggregated statistics for the list of keywords.

• Processing time may vary if the list is large.

• The overview page provides information such as:

• Total search volume and clicks for the keyword list

• Presence or absence of paid ads in search results

• Distribution of keywords by search volume and difficulty

• Number of SERP features present in search results

• Countries with highest search volume for these keywords

• Websites receiving majority search traffic related to these keywords

Viewing Advanced Metrics

• Switching to the "metrics" tab displays all keywords along with their advanced metrics.

• Hovering over specific metrics reveals additional details, such as SERP features or search volume-to-clicks proportion.

• Filters can be applied to refine keyword ideas and select the most promising ones.

Organizing Keywords

• Users can create lists within Keywords Explorer to store selected keywords, eliminating the need for external storage tools like Excel or Google Sheets.

Conclusion and Contact Information

The speaker concludes the presentation on Keywords Explorer and provides contact information for further inquiries.

Wrapping Up

• The overview report from a list of keywords provides valuable insights into SEO metrics.

• The "metrics" tab offers detailed information about individual keywords and their advanced metrics.

• Users can select promising keywords and organize them within Keywords Explorer.

Contact Information

• For any questions about the tool, users can reach out via Twitter (@timsoulo) or email (Tim Soulo at Ahrefs dot com).