How to Choose Keywords to Track (and How Many You Actually Need)

Knowing how to choose keywords to track matters more than which tool you use. It also sets the size of your keyword rank check, and with it the price. A list built from guesses produces reports full of “not in top 30” rows that nobody acts on. A list built from your pages and your customers produces a report you can read in ten minutes and act on the same day.

This guide gives you six sources for the list, a number to aim for, a way to group keywords so the report flags problems by itself, and a checklist to run before you order. I’ll use our pricing tiers to show how list size maps to cost, because that is usually the next question.

Start with what a tracked keyword is for

Every keyword on the list should pass one test: if it moved five positions, would you do something about it? If the answer is no, it doesn’t belong on the list, however often people search for it.

That test removes most of what bloats keyword lists: variants nobody searches in that form, broad terms you’ll never realistically rank for, and topics your site doesn’t cover. What remains are keywords tied to a page and a decision. If you’re unsure how a rank check reads those keywords in the first place, our guide to checking keyword rankings accurately explains the methods and where each one breaks.

How to choose keywords to track: six sources

1. Money keywords

Start with the searches closest to a sale or an enquiry: the service plus a location, the product category, and words like “price”, “cost”, “hire” or “book”. There are usually fewer of these than you think, and they are the ones your boss or client will ask about.

2. The pages you want to rank

List the pages that matter commercially: service pages, category pages, key product pages and your best guides. Give each one its main keyword and one to three close variants. If an important page has no keyword you’d track, ask what search it is meant to win.

3. Search Console queries with impressions

Google Search Console’s Performance report groups your data by the search query people typed. For each query it shows impressions (how many times your site appeared in results) and the average position of your topmost result. These are searches where Google already shows you, which makes them the most honest source for your list.

Sort the queries by impressions over the last three months and pick the relevant ones with an average position somewhere between 4 and 30. They are close enough to improve and visible enough to matter. Then match each one to a page: if the query belongs to a page you care about, add it.

4. Question keywords with AI Overviews

Google’s guide to AI features and your website says AI Overviews help people get to the gist of a complicated topic or question, appear only when its systems judge them helpful on top of the usual results, and link to supporting pages. To be one of those links, a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet. That makes question keywords worth a place on your list.

In our public sample, on google.co.uk desktop, “how to calculate revpar” had an AI Overview that didn’t cite the site, while “adr vs revpar” had one that mentioned it as source 2 of 6. Track a handful of the questions your best guides answer. For each one, a Rank Check Report records whether an AI Overview appeared and whether it cited or mentioned your site.

5. Brand terms, but only a few

Your company name, perhaps with “reviews” or “login”. Two to five are enough. You should rank first for them, so tracking them is about catching the day you don’t.

6. Competitors’ terms, only if relevant

Track a competitor’s keyword only when you sell the same thing to the same customers and have a page that answers the search. Their brand name or their whole keyword set fills your report with rows you can’t act on. Note that a Rank Check Report doesn’t supply competitor lists: it checks the keywords you send against your own site.

How many keywords to track

For most businesses, the honest answer is fewer than you’d guess.

• A small site (a local business, a consultancy, a shop with a few categories): 50 to 100 keywords.
• A larger site (many services or categories, several locations, a content library): 200 to 400.
• Over 400: we quote large lists at a per-100 price, but check first that every keyword passes the test above.

Remember that each keyword is checked on several engines. Our pay-per-check rank reports include four: your Google edition on desktop and mobile, plus google.com on desktop and mobile. So 100 keywords make 400 keyword rows, as in our public sample. That is already a lot to read every month.

The reports are priced by tier, so the size of your list decides the price:

The price doesn’t change as the list grows within a tier. If you have 87 keywords, the 13 places left in the tier cost nothing, so fill them with the next-best candidates from Search Console. Duplicates are removed when you order, and the count after removal is what is priced.

Group keywords by page and intent

Before you order, put two labels next to every keyword: the page that should rank, and the intent (buy, compare, learn, brand or local). It doesn’t take long, and it pays back on every report.

The page label turns the ranking URL column into an alarm. In our public sample, “hotel pos system”, “hotel point of sale systems” and “point of sale system for hotel” all rank with the same guide page, which is what you want. “adr hotel calculator”, on the other hand, ranks with a guide about OTA commission. When a keyword ranks with a different page from the one you planned, either two pages compete or Google prefers the other one. Both are worth knowing.

The intent label tells you what a move is worth. A drop on a buy keyword matters this week; a drop on a learn keyword can wait for the next content update.

Keep the labels in your own sheet. The report’s Excel file has a Keywords sheet that imports into Google Sheets as it is, so you can line it up with your labels and filter by page or intent.

Prune the list before you track it

• Merge near-duplicates. For singular and plural, or the same words in a different order, keep the version Search Console shows people using, unless both bring impressions.
• Drop keywords with no page. If nothing on your site answers the search, write the page first.
• Drop keywords you’d never act on, however tempting the topic.
• Check the market. Every keyword in an order is checked on every engine in it. A keyword in another language or for another country only makes sense if that country’s Google edition is in the order, included or as an extra engine; otherwise it belongs on a separate list.
• Keep a “next in line” list to fill spare places in your tier.

Keep the list stable between checks

A rank report compares each keyword with its own previous check and builds a trend from your earlier checks (for regular clients we keep reports for 6 months). Change the list and you lose that: a keyword added this month has nothing to compare with, and one you drop stops building its trend.

So change the list on purpose, not by accident. Review it once a quarter, swap only keywords that fail the test, and keep the same Google editions, devices and depth. If you report to a client, a stable list is also what makes month-on-month comparisons believable; our monthly SEO report template shows where rankings fit in that report.

A keyword list is finished when every keyword on it has a page and a reason.

If you’d rather have someone choose the list and turn each report into actions every month, that is what our SEO rank tracking service does. If you’d rather keep it in-house, order a rank report for your keyword list once it passes the checklist.

FAQ

How many keywords should I track?

Between 50 and 100 for a small site, 200 to 400 for a larger one. Count the engines too: each keyword is checked on every engine in the order, so 100 keywords on four engines already make 400 rows. Fewer, better-chosen keywords give you a report you’ll actually read.

Which keywords should I track first?

The searches closest to a sale, and the main keyword of each page that matters commercially. Then add Search Console queries where you already appear, a few questions with AI Overviews and a few brand terms.

Should I track my competitors’ keywords?

Only where you sell the same thing to the same customers and have a page that answers the search. Their brand names and full keyword lists add rows you can’t act on.

How often should I change the keywords I track?

Review the list once a quarter and change as little as you can. Each keyword’s trend depends on being checked the same way every time, and a new keyword starts without history.