How to Use KeySearch to Find Keywords Your Site Can Win

The short answer: for a site that is still building authority, the 200 daily searches on KeySearch's Starter plan (pricing) are plenty: enter a seed keyword, filter out low volume and short phrases, bulk-check difficulty on the rest, keep the scores your site's age and authority can reach, read the SERP table for the finalists, add competitors' keywords, and put the winners in the rank tracker.

Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.

The job: turn one topic into a short list of keywords a small or young site can rank for this year, with a page planned for each. KeySearch's own tutorials, written by its founder, walk the method with golf clubs as the example; this guide follows them with your topic in place of his. For plans and prices, see the KeySearch glossary entry.

Rule of thumb before the first search:

1. Work out the daily budget. Each search counts against the daily limit, so 200 searches a day on Starter is 200 / 5 = 40 searches per topic across five topics, per the pricing section. That is more than enough for one session a day.
2. Start from your own pages and rivals. List your five most important pages and three competitor domains that outrank you. The competitor domains feed step 7.
3. Decide the test now. A keyword earns its place if a page targets it and its position moves within three months. The rank tracker holds 80 keywords on Starter, so the list has to be short.

Step 1: Start the trial

KeySearch offers a 7-day free trial that you can cancel at any time, according to the homepage. Run the whole method below during it, so you know whether the scores make sense for your market before you pay.

Step 2: Enter a seed and read the three columns

Type a broad topic and run the search. The long-tail tutorial explains the columns: search volume (approximate monthly Google searches), Score (keyword difficulty) and CPC (what advertisers bid). Scores checked in the last 30 days show in full colour, older ones dulled, and keywords without a score show an eyeglass icon you can click to check.

Step 3: Filter by volume and length

Open the keyword filter and set a minimum search volume, then a minimum number of words. The tutorial starts at a volume of 100 and five-word phrases for a crowded niche, and notes that the right thresholds move with the niche. The filter guide adds two operators for the Keyword and Negative Words boxes: a plus sign means AND and a comma means OR, so crm+pricing keeps phrases with both words in any order, and crm,pricing keeps phrases with either.

Step 4: Bulk-check difficulty

Tick Select All, then click Bulk Check to score every keyword that has no score yet, as the long-tail tutorial shows. Then filter the Score to a ceiling. The tutorial's author uses 35 when there are plenty of green keywords, 40 when there are fewer, and lower for easy niches.

Step 5: Match the score to your site, not to the colour

KeySearch groups scores into six levels, from very easy to very difficult, and its competition levels guide ties each one to the kind of site that can compete. A site younger than 6 to 12 months should stay out of "moderate" for now; easy-to-moderate is the range it names as the long-term target for newer sites. High-authority sites can reach further. The guide is clear that these are guides, not guarantees.

Step 6: Read the SERP table for the finalists

Click a keyword to see the top 10. The SERP table guide explains each column: Moz Page Authority and Domain Authority, linking domains to the page and to the whole domain, dofollow links, and estimated traffic. The guide's example of a strong domain carrying weak pages is Amazon and Wikipedia, whose pages rank with few backlinks of their own. For a keyword you care about most, the orange Deep Analysis button adds domain age, social shares and the common one-, two- and three-word phrases in the ranking pages, per the Deep Analysis guide.

Step 7: Take what competitors already rank for

Enter a competitor's domain in Explorer and click View Keywords, use the Organic Keywords page for more filters, or switch the keyword research search type to Competitors Keywords, as the competitor keywords guide describes. The Competitor Gap tool compares several competitors with your own domain and lists the keywords they share that you do not rank for. Run the new terms through steps 4 to 6.

Step 8: Let Foresight suggest, and verify what it suggests

On the Pro plan, Foresight reads your site's niche, authority and current rankings and suggests keywords, including ones where you already rank outside page one (the example on the homepage is a page sitting 23rd). Treat its list as a second seed list. Before a suggestion joins the plan, a person runs it through steps 5 and 6: the score against your site's level, and the actual pages in the top 10. Starter does not include Foresight.

Step 9: Save and track

Save the finalists to a list, give each a page, and add them to the rank tracker; KeySearch's tutorials page has video walkthroughs for My Lists and Rank Tracker. Check positions monthly against the test you set at the start.

A keyword tool shows you thousands of ideas because ideas are what it sells. Your site can rank for a few dozen this year, and the method above exists to find them.

What KeySearch's guides warn about

• Chasing the top of the scale. The competition levels guide reserves "very difficult" for a handful of the most authoritative sites in a niche.
• Trusting Links Score alone. It uses one metric, linking domains, and the SERP table guide calls the main difficulty score, built on more than a dozen metrics, much more accurate.
• Stale scores. Recheck scores older than 30 days before you commit to a keyword.
• Overusing Deep Analysis. The Deep Analysis guide says it is overkill for many users, because the main score already takes most of that information into account.

FAQ

What difficulty score should a new site aim for?

Below the "moderate" level for its first 6 to 12 months, according to the competition levels guide. In the long-tail tutorial, the author filters at 35 or 40 depending on how many green keywords the niche offers.

Can KeySearch show the keywords a competitor ranks for?

Yes, in four places: Explorer, the Organic Keywords page, the Competitors Keywords search type and the Competitor Gap tool, per the competitor keywords guide.

Does Starter include rank tracking?

Yes, for 80 keywords; Pro tracks 200 and adds Foresight, according to the pricing section, checked on 24 October 2026.