Keyword Universe

What this page is for

  • The Keyword Universe page gathers into one list every keyword — the phrases people type into Google — that matters to your business. We collected them from four sources: the keywords Google already shows your site for, the keywords you pay for in Google Ads, the keywords your competitors built pages for, and the keywords you suggested to us.
  • Why you need it: without this list, decisions about which pages to write and which keywords to pay for in Google Ads are made on intuition. With it, they are made on numbers: how many people search for each keyword, what it costs to appear on it, whether you have a page for it or not, and what it has already brought you.
  • What you gain concretely by using this page monthly: (1) a short list of new pages to write, where competitors already have pages and you don't; (2) a list of existing pages to improve, where you are close to Google's first page; (3) keywords to add to Google Ads, because people search for them and you don't bid on them; (4) money saved in Google Ads, by pausing keywords that cost and bring nothing.
  • One table row = one keyword. Traffic, click and cost figures cover the last 365 days (12 months). Search volumes are Google's estimates, refreshed monthly.

The filters at the top

The filters narrow the table and the two numbers above it to the rows you care about. Combine as many as you like; to get the full list back, clear them all with the Reset button.

  • keyword_type — the keyword's type: client_brand (your brand name or the names of brands you own), competitor_brand (a competitor's name or the brands it owns), product_brand (a brand you or a competitor sell), generic (any other keyword — this is usually where the volume is biggest and most of the work is).
  • intent — the search intent, that is what the person searching wants: transactional (wants to buy or book now), commercial (compares options before buying), informational (wants to learn something), navigational (looks for one specific site).
  • on_site_status — whether your site has a page written for this keyword: optimised (a page title starts with it), partial (it appears in a title, a meta description, a heading or a page address), absent (nowhere on the site), unknown (we have not analysed the site yet). Careful: it says how your pages are written, not where they appear in Google.
  • is_untapped — TRUE means at least one competitor has a page built for this keyword and your site does not mention it at all. The most direct filter for the new-pages list.
  • competition — how many companies bid on this keyword in Google Ads: LOW (few), MEDIUM, HIGH (many). It tells you how expensive it is to enter on it in Ads, not how hard it is to rank organically.
  • The month (the date box on the right) — the month the search volumes refer to. Google publishes them monthly, so one or two months behind today is normal. You don't need to change it.
  • Extracted From — where we found the keyword. A keyword can be TRUE on several sources at once:
    • in_gsc — TRUE = Google already shows your site in the organic results, the free ones, for this keyword. The data comes from Google Search Console.
    • in_ads — TRUE = the keyword is already in your Google Ads account and you bid on it.
    • in_search_terms — TRUE = someone typed exactly this phrase into Google and clicked your ad; it is a real search term. Proven demand, even when Google's estimated volume shows 0. The difference from in_ads: in_ads is the keyword you chose, in_search_terms is what people actually wrote.
    • in_suggestions — TRUE = we added it by hand, from the list of suggestions you gave us.
    • If all four are FALSE, the keyword exists nowhere on your side: it comes only from competitor sites. These are the genuinely new keywords for you.
  • keyword — the search box: type a word or part of a word and the table keeps only the rows containing it (for example "camp" or "ski").

The numbers at the top

  • avg_monthly_searches — the monthly searches of all keywords in the list added up (or of your selection, if filters are active). It is the total demand you could be in front of, every month. Example: filter is_untapped = TRUE and the number becomes the monthly demand competitors cover and you don't.
  • keyword — how many keywords are in the list (or in your selection). Use it to see how big each list you build with the filters is.

The "Keyword universe" table, column by column

The table scrolls to the right; the columns are in screen order. Click a column name to sort by it (a second click reverses the order; hold SHIFT and click a second or third column to sort by several columns).

  • keyword — the keyword, as people search for it.
  • keyword_type, intent, on_site_status, is_untapped, competition — the same values as the filters above.
  • score — the reading order we recommend. A higher score means more demand, confirmed by more evidence (more sites built around the keyword, data from your own accounts). Brand names always get 1.0: a name is watched, not worked on. The table is sorted by score when you open the page.
  • avg_monthly_searches — Google's estimate of monthly searches for this keyword. A 0 on a phrase people clearly typed (in_search_terms = TRUE) usually means Google merged it with a close variant; the demand is real.
  • site_count — how many sites (competitors and yours) have pages built around this keyword. Three sites are solid proof it is worth it; eight is not much more than three.
  • gsc_impressions — the impressions: how many times your site appeared in Google's results for this keyword, last 12 months.
  • gsc_clicks — how many times people clicked your site from those results, last 12 months. Organic, free traffic.
  • gsc_position — your site's average position (ranking) in Google for this keyword. 1 is the first result; positions 1–10 are the first page; 11–20 the second. An empty cell means Google did not show you at all.
  • ads_clicks — how many clicks you bought in Google Ads on this keyword, last 12 months.
  • ads_cost — what those clicks cost you, in the currency shown on the page.
  • ads_conversions — how many conversions — orders, forms, bookings, whatever you set as the goal in Google Ads — came from those clicks.
  • term_clicks — clicks from people who typed exactly this phrase (the search term), not the keyword you bid on. When term_clicks is high and avg_monthly_searches is low, trust term_clicks: it is measured, not estimated.
  • sites — the list of sites that have pages for this keyword, separated by semicolons. This is where you see concretely which competitors got ahead of you on a keyword.

The monthly routine: what to look for and what to do

Go through the steps below once a month, in order. Each step tells you how to find the relevant rows (what to filter, what to sort by) and what to do with them. Write the chosen keywords down in a document or export them (see "Notes"); at the end you should have a short list of tasks, not a long list of keywords.

  1. See which keywords have the highest confirmed demand. How to find them: clear all filters and sort by score, descending. The first 20 rows are the most important keywords in your market this month.

    • If a keyword in the top 20 has on_site_status = absent, put it on the new-pages list (step 2 will bring it up anyway).
    • If a keyword in the top 20 has in_ads = FALSE and intent = commercial or transactional, put it on the Google Ads list (step 4).
    • If a keyword has nothing to do with your business (it happens), tell us and we remove it from the list.

  2. Find the keywords competitors have pages for and you don't. How to find them: filter is_untapped = TRUE and sort by score, descending. Each row is real demand a competitor covers with a page while your site does not mention it at all.

    • If avg_monthly_searches is above 100 (a rule of thumb; in a small market, lower the bar), write a new page for this keyword: the keyword at the start of the page title and in the first heading, and the text answering what the person is looking for (the intent column tells you what). One page per topic, not one page per spelling variant.
    • If two or three rows are variants of the same topic (for example the same keyword in singular and plural), they make one page together.
    • If you have nobody to write the page, export these rows and hand the list to a writer or your agency: the keyword, intent, avg_monthly_searches and sites columns are the complete brief.

  3. Find the existing pages whose ranking can be improved relatively easily. How to find them: filter in_gsc = TRUE, sort by gsc_impressions descending and keep the rows with gsc_position between 4 and 15. For these keywords Google already shows you, but you are at the bottom of the first page or on the second, where almost nobody clicks. Small changes have the biggest effect here.

    • If on_site_status = partial, open the page that appears for this keyword and: put the keyword at the start of the page title, use it in the first paragraph and in a heading, add an internal link to this page from your home page or menu.
    • If on_site_status = optimised and gsc_position is still between 4 and 15, the page is well titled but too thin: complete it with what it lacks against the competitors' pages (check the sites in the sites column) — usually answers to customers' questions, prices, photos, reviews.
    • If gsc_impressions is high but gsc_clicks is close to 0, the problem is the title and meta description shown in Google: rewrite them to say clearly what you offer and why from you.

  4. Find the keywords worth adding to Google Ads. How to find them: filter keyword_type = generic, intent = commercial or transactional, in_ads = FALSE and sort by score, descending. This is demand with buying intent that you are not buying yet.

    • If competition is LOW or MEDIUM, add the keyword to the Google Ads campaign closest in topic, with the phrase match type, a small budget, and check the result after 30 days.
    • If competition is HIGH, add it only if you already have a good page for it (on_site_status = optimised); otherwise the cost per click (CPC) will be high and the page will not convert.
    • If in_search_terms = TRUE and in_ads = FALSE, people already type exactly this phrase and click your ads: add the phrase as it is to the campaign — it is the safest keyword you can add.

  5. Check where you waste money in Google Ads. How to find them: filter in_ads = TRUE and sort by ads_cost, descending. You see the keywords you spent the most on in the last 12 months.

    • If ads_conversions = 0 and ads_cost is significant for you, pause the keyword in Google Ads and move the budget to a keyword from step 4.
    • If ads_conversions > 0 but gsc_position is between 1 and 3 for the same keyword, you are already first organically: people would click you without the ad. Lower the bid by about a third for one month and watch whether total clicks (gsc_clicks + ads_clicks) stay the same. If they do, you saved the money; if they drop a lot, go back to the original bid.
    • If keyword_type = competitor_brand and in_ads = TRUE, you pay to appear on a competitor's name: keep the keyword only if ads_conversions shows it brings customers; otherwise, pause it.

  6. Monitor the competition. How to find them: filter keyword_type = competitor_brand and note avg_monthly_searches for each competitor; then filter keyword_type = client_brand and note your own figure.

    • The ratio between searches for your name and searches for competitors' names is your share of awareness. There is nothing to do directly on a competitor's name (you cannot rank organically for it and paying for it is rarely worth it); you can only watch, month by month, whether the ratio improves.
    • If searches for your name fall two months in a row, the signal is about awareness (advertising, PR, word of mouth), not about the site.
    • If one competitor appears in the sites column on many of your high-score generic keywords, that is your main competitor on Google: look at their pages for these keywords when you write or complete yours (steps 2 and 3).

Notes

  • Export any table. Hover over the table, click the three dots in its top-right corner and choose Export → Google Sheets with "Keep value formatting" ticked, or CSV. The export contains exactly the rows you see (with your filters and sorting), so you can mark in a spreadsheet which keywords you add to Google Ads, which pages you write and which you optimise — and pass the list on.
  • How the data updates. The page has no date-range control, so the period is fixed: the Google Search Console and Google Ads columns (gsc_, ads_, term_clicks) update every night, and the values shown are summed over the last 365 days up to the last day with data — yesterday for Google Ads, two or three days back for Search Console, which publishes late; the current day is never included. Search volumes, competition and the month top right update once a month, when Google publishes the figures. The keyword list itself (which keywords are in it, keyword_type, intent) is maintained by us: new keywords appear when we run a new research round or when you send us suggestions.
  • What the numbers don't say. avg_monthly_searches is a Google estimate, rounded to steps (10, 20, 50, 100 …), not a measurement; gsc_clicks and ads_clicks are measurements. on_site_status rests on the latest analysis of your site; a page published yesterday shows up at the next one.
  • Related pages. To see how a keyword's organic position and clicks move day by day, go to Organic Search › Queries. For the daily performance of your paid keywords, by campaign, go to Paid Search › Keywords; the search terms people typed, with their status, are on Paid Search › Search Terms. If your plan includes Opportunity Gap (Insights menu), open it after this routine: it reads the same keyword list and gives you the tasks ready formulated, with the evidence attached.

Remember!

  • The score is a reading order, not a verdict. What you know about the business beats the score: use it to decide what to read first, not what to do.
  • Few keywords, taken to the end. Five keywords you acted on are worth more than five hundred you only read. Pick the rows, write them down, close the dashboard.
  • Volumes are estimates, clicks are facts. When the two disagree, trust the clicks.