How to Use Mangools to Find Keywords a Small Site Can Win

The short answer: a young site gets misled by generic difficulty scores, so score keywords against your own page instead: set your URL for Relative Keyword Difficulty in KWFinder, search your seed terms in your market, import the queries you already rank for, filter by volume and difficulty, read each SERP, save the shortlist and send it to SERPWatcher. The free plan's import allowance of 15 keywords 5 times a day is enough to start, per the KWFinder guide.

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The job here is one list: the ten or twenty keywords worth writing for next quarter, each one a term your site can plausibly reach page one for. Mangools is built around that question. For what the suite includes and costs, see the Mangools glossary entry.

What decides whether this works:

1. The allowance, worked out. The KWFinder guide puts the free plan at 15 x 5 = 75 imported keywords a day and Basic at 200 x 100 = 20,000. Scoring a first list of 75 costs nothing.
2. Starting from your own queries. You already own the most useful seed list: the queries in Google Search Console's Performance report. Export them before you open KWFinder.
3. Deciding now how you will know. Write down today's position for each shortlisted term. SERPWatcher will hold that baseline, and Search Console clicks will tell you whether a new position brought visitors.

What you need first

• A Mangools account. The free plan needs no credit card, according to the Mangools FAQ.
• The URL of the page or domain you want to rank.
• The country, and if it matters the city, where your buyers search.
• A CSV of your Search Console queries, if you have the property set up.

Step 1: Make your own page the yardstick

Generic Keyword Difficulty compares the first-page results with each other. Relative Keyword Difficulty compares them with you. In KWFinder, click the toggle next to Relative values, enter your URL and press Set URL, as the KWFinder guide describes. The higher your page's Link Profile Strength, the lower the relative score, and switching it on rescores every keyword in the table. KWFinder remembers the last 10 URLs you set.

Step 2: Search in your market, not everywhere

Under Search by Keyword, type a seed term, choose the location and language, and click Find keywords. The guide warns that different locations give different results, so pick the place your audience is. Then choose a source: Related keywords comes from the Mangools database, while Autocomplete and Questions pull long-tail ideas from Google's autocomplete.

Step 3: Import the queries you already have

Paste your Search Console queries as tags, upload a TXT or CSV file, or drag the file into KWFinder, then select the location before you click Process keywords. Importing a list counts as one keyword lookup, per the FAQ. The guide adds that normal limits still apply when you analyse difficulty and SERPs for those keywords.

Step 4: Filter down to what you can win

Open Filter and set a minimum search volume and the highest difficulty your site can beat, which the guide names as the place to start. Add a word count range for long-tail terms, list words that must or must not appear, and hide keywords already saved to a list.

Step 5: Read the SERP before trusting the score

Click a keyword and the right-hand panel shows the first-page results with Moz Domain Authority and Page Authority, Majestic Citation Flow and Trust Flow, link counts and estimated visits for each position. This is where you check intent: if every result is a product page and you planned a guide, the score does not matter.

Check the date too. Difficulty and SERP data can be cached for up to 30 days, the guide explains, and cached scores appear washed out. Clicking the row refreshes the score, and Fetch new SERP costs one SERP lookup.

Step 6: Save the shortlist

Click the grey star next to a keyword, or select several and click Add to list, and name a new list. From Lists you can rename it, refresh difficulty for selected keywords and export a CSV, per the KWFinder guide.

Step 7: Track it in SERPWatcher

From the open list, choose to track the selected keywords in SERPWatcher. A tracking needs a domain, a location and a search platform, according to the SERPWatcher guide, and keywords can also come from a file, a paste or the terms you already rank for. Basic tracks 200 keywords across any number of domains, with weekly updates.

Step 8: Put a report and an alert on it

Click Reports & alerts, choose Weekly or Monthly, add recipients and name the report. Add an alert with the triggers you care about. Share tracking creates a link to an interactive report for anyone without a login.

One step for an AI assistant

Mangools runs an MCP server at https://mcp.mangools.com/mcp. In Claude, add it under Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector, then sign in with your Mangools account, as the Mangools MCP page sets out. Ask the assistant to batch-check your exported Search Console queries (up to 700 keywords per request) and return volume and difficulty, sorted.

Keep the next step human. The same page warns that creating trackings and adding tracked keywords may consume paid quota, so you read the sorted list, pick the shortlist and add it to SERPWatcher yourself.

What the Mangools docs warn about

• Old volumes look current. Search volumes arrive with roughly a one-month lag, and a keyword the provider stopped covering keeps its last known figure, per the FAQ.
• Desktop plus mobile is two. Tracking a keyword on both platforms uses two tracked keywords.
• Autocomplete errors are temporary. Autocomplete and Questions depend on Google, which can block an IP for a few minutes after many requests.
• Two positions for one keyword. In Search by Domain, the left table shows the position from the last database check and the right panel a fresh SERP.

A tool metered by daily lookups does well when you browse, which is fine for the vendor and costly for a free allowance. Decide the seed list before you open KWFinder and the 75 imports go a long way.

FAQ

Does importing a keyword list use many lookups?

One. Importing your own list counts as a single keyword lookup, but opening each keyword's SERP still counts as a SERP lookup, per the Mangools FAQ.

What is the difference between KD and RKD?

KD rates how hard the first page is in general. RKD rescores that difficulty against the Link Profile Strength of a URL you enter, so it falls as your page gets stronger, according to the KWFinder guide.

How many keywords can Basic track?

200 across an unlimited number of domains, updated weekly, on the pricing page checked on 24 October 2026. Daily updates start on Agency.