Keyword Research and Weekly Rank Tracking Guide

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of finding the words and phrases your potential customers type into Google when looking for what you offer. Targeting the right keywords is the foundation of good SEO — if you are not visible for the searches that matter to your business, no amount of other optimisation will bring in new customers.

RnkRocket's keyword tools cover everything from discovery through to weekly tracking.

The Keywords Page

Open Keywords in the dashboard sidebar. Across the top sits a headline band you see on every tab — Appearing in Google (searches you already show up for, from Search Console), Top 10 (how many keywords rank on page one — your health number), and Average position — with a Refresh button. Below the band are four tabs:

Overview — your headline. What changed this week (your biggest movers) and Worth lifting (keywords sitting just off page 1 — one push from a win). These "worth lifting" picks are the same ones Mission Control surfaces, so the two always agree.
Tracked — every keyword we check your Google position for, each week, in one table. This is also where you add your own keywords.
Find keywords — discovery: keywords you already rank for (one-click Track), keywords your competitors win, and seed research for brand-new terms.
Lists & campaigns — organise keywords into lists (folders) and campaigns.

Discovering Keywords

Open the Find keywords tab. Once Google Search Console is connected, the top of the tab lists keywords your site already ranks for — these are your quickest wins, and you can start tracking any of them with one click of Track.

To research brand-new keywords, use the research box further down the Find keywords tab. Enter a seed term — for example, "plumber Bristol" or "wedding photographer London" — and RnkRocket returns a list of related keywords along with:

Search Volume: How many times per month people search for this term
Keyword Difficulty: How competitive the term is (0-100, lower is easier to rank for)
CPC and Competition: What advertisers pay per click, and how contested the term is
Intent Type: Whether the searcher is looking to buy, compare, or learn

Start with terms that have a reasonable search volume and a difficulty score you can realistically compete with. For most small businesses, targeting keywords with a difficulty below 40 is a sensible starting point.

Keyword Credits vs Keywords Tracked

These are two separate quotas and it is important to understand the difference:

Keyword Credits are used when you look up keyword data (search volumes, difficulty scores). Each keyword lookup uses one credit.
Keywords Tracked is the number of keywords you can monitor weekly for your Google position. This is a fixed limit set by your plan.
Deep Check Credits are a separate, premium quota used only for live on-demand SERP reads — checking a keyword's live ranking right now, or pulling the real "People also ask" questions for a money keyword. 1 Deep Check = 1 keyword's live lookup. Most of the Keywords area is already free (it runs on your own tracking data and connected Google Search Console), so Deep Checks are only spent when you ask for a fresh live read.

You can research hundreds of keywords, but only track the most important ones on your Tracked tab. Your monthly credit allowance refreshes each billing period.

Keyword Tracking

Keyword tracking monitors where your website appears in Google's search results for your chosen keywords — checked every week.

There are three ways to start tracking a keyword:

Track a suggestion: in Find keywords, click Track next to a keyword you already rank for, or next to one your competitors win.
Type your own: in Tracked, click Add keywords and type or paste your own keywords (one per line, or comma-separated). They are tracked straight away and checked weekly — no list to set up first.
From research: in Find keywords, research a term to see its volume and difficulty — then track the ones you want via Add keywords on the Tracked tab. (Lists are for organising and planning — saving a keyword to a list doesn't start tracking by itself.)

On the Tracked tab you can see, for each keyword:

Your current position (e.g. page 1, position 4)
Which page of yours ranks, and the opportunity band (on page 1 / nearly page 1 / opportunity)
Whether you can realistically win it

Freshly added keywords show as "Not ranking yet" until the next weekly check fills in their position. Your position history builds week by week from the moment you start tracking. The Overview tab's What changed this week summarises whether you are moving up or down.

Organising Keywords Into Lists

In the Lists & campaigns tab, save keywords into lists. Think of these as folders — you might have one list for your main services, one for your local area pages, and one for blog content ideas. Keeping your keywords organised makes it easier to plan content and spot gaps.

Grouping by Topic

The Tracked tab groups your keywords into Topics so you can filter the table by theme. For deeper keyword clustering and content planning — turning a cluster of related keywords into one thorough page rather than ten thin ones — head to the Strategy Engine, linked from the bottom of the Overview tab. Use the Content Studio to turn clusters into structured content briefs.

Practical Tips

Start by tracking your most important 10-20 keywords before expanding your list
Focus on long-tail keywords (three or more words) — they are less competitive and often convert better because the searcher knows exactly what they want
Check your rankings weekly to spot trends and identify pages that need attention
Use the opportunity band on the Tracked tab to prioritise where to focus your content efforts

For an in-depth keyword methodology, see our Keyword Research Masterclass.