If you are looking for a free and straightforward SEO keyword research spreadsheet template download, then you are at the right place.
This Excel keyword research template sheet will work with Microsoft Excel, and Google sheets will help you track keyword research data quickly and easily during your keyword research process.
This is the template I use to track keywords when I teach keyword research process with different keyword research tools. I created this very simple keyword research tracking spreadsheet so anyone who’s watching my courses can follow along through the entire process.
You don’t need to use this – you can use any of your methods, notes, text files, your own spreadsheet or own database. But in case if you are looking for one, this template will be perfect for you.
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SEO Keyword Research Template Overview Video
Watch this video to get an explanation of the above excel keyword research template and see how I walk through each section of the spreadsheet.
Download Keyword Research Template
You can download the template from here: https://go.alstonantony.com/keyword-research-template
The spreadsheet includes the URL of all the resources which are created relating to keyword research – from all the theoretical educations, all the keyword research methods, how to do keyword research using variety of different techniques and software’s. All the resources you need for keyword research will be there so in case if you want to go back and find any resources, you can find everything here.
Download Keyword Research Template Google Sheets
In case if you prefer to download the template in Google Sheets format then you can check this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1feguuBhUpQY2OwzXkIYN7N4pAxVmVYce_wPkbFx8m3U/edit?usp=sharing
Keyword Research Template Explanation
The sheet itself is divided into four different sections, each designed to guide you through the complete keyword research process systematically:
1. Market Research
The first tab is the market research component where I have already explained in a separate lesson on why market research is important and why you should understand your customers before doing keyword research.
Once you know that and you’ve watched that video, you know the importance of market research. I have created this particular section to help you record some of the most important pain points and just understand your customer much better.
This spreadsheet’s goal is to give you an overview of your customers, understand their pain points, and also to help you remember what this keyword research is about. For example, if you are doing keyword research for multiple clients or multiple projects, I have created the overview section to help you understand “okay, these are my important points in this particular industry” so you can get a better idea when you are coming back to the spreadsheet.
Here you will answer some of the most important questions to get the right keyword ideas, such as:
- What is your industry?
- What are the pain points of your audience?
- What are the interests & discussions in this industry?
- What are the solutions in the market and you can offer?
- Where does your audience go for information or spend time?
- Where is your target audience located?
- What is the demographic of your audience?
- What are your competitors doing?
2. Find Seed Keywords
The second tab is called “Find Seed Keywords” where I have basically created a section where you can enter all the seed keywords you find. I have also created a separate lesson which shows how you can go about finding all the seed keywords, why the seed keywords are important, and what are the sources you can use for seed keywords – I have created a whole session on that and based on that I have created this section.
The idea behind it – I have mentioned 14 different sources. For every keyword you find on a particular source, you just list it out column-wise vertically so you can get an idea on “okay this is from this particular source.” I also created checkmark boxes here so you can check it or uncheck it anytime – this state will be saved so you know “okay these are the sources I have already used.”
I’ve also added a couple of extra columns also if you want to add more data sources or you can create more depending on that.
These 14 sources include:
- Keyword research software
- Forum and community
- Social media
- Talking with your customers
- News sites
- Shopping platforms
- Niche blogs
- Your competitors
- Local media
- Experts knowledge
- Search engine results
- Wikipedia
- Advertisements
- Questions and answers community
So the idea is to get seed keywords related to your topic, audience, and industry.
You will have all the keyword ideas on one sheet; this is very useful for keyword research or making a PPC campaign.
Here is video showing how I am using the template to generate keyword topic ideas.
3. Expand Keyword List
The expand keyword list is where you start going and collecting keyword ideas from keyword research tools. After the seed keywords – whatever the keywords you selected, whatever the keywords you are going after – you can keep on adding all the different keywords here.
Instead of “keyword one” you can replace that with whatever the keyword you are going to type. You can add volume inside it and also you can add keyword type – whether it’s a long tail keyword, regular keyword, short term keyword. You can create your own analogy and you can filter by that particular keyword itself.
That is what this section does and it will auto-calculate the total search volume also, so depending on the use case you can use this one.
There are many keyword research software in the market that will help you find the most relevant keywords for your campaign.
In this sheet, you will list all the keywords you have generated, the search volume, and the type of the keyword.
4. Keyword Clustering & Grouping
Finally, keyword clustering – this is just an idea I gave you. I didn’t want to create a fully focused template for the clustering or grouping part. I’ve just shown you how you can go about creating cluster examples or group examples.
You can have different color coding to show the priority of the keyword and have the main cluster topic heading inside here and give all the related or semantic keywords – all the related keywords inside that and color code within that group.
This way, as soon as I come into this section, I don’t care about the search volume when I’m looking into a cluster of keywords because the only reason the keyword has made it to the cluster is I know that it has already passed all the SEO validation factors and everything. So I don’t care about search volume or anything like that – I just want to look into the prioritization of which keywords should I go first and also the main topic as well as the cluster keywords which I need to include.
This is a critical step because you can get hundreds of keywords related to your topic, audience, and industry. However, if you do not group them correctly, finding the best keywords for your campaign may be very difficult.
So grouping is essential; you can group by keyword difficulty, organic search volume, revenue, or any search validation factor.
I kept the sheet simple and flexible for you to use with ease. You can use color-coding to group keywords to prioritize them.
How to Use This Template Effectively
This is basically a very simple Excel template I created in case if you are looking for a way to record your keyword research or you want to follow along when I do keyword research process using different tools. I use this template to record all the data during my keyword research courses.
The template is designed to work seamlessly with my keyword research methodology, allowing you to:
- Track your progress through each stage of keyword research
- Maintain organized records for multiple projects or clients
- Reference all important resources and lessons in one place
- Apply systematic approach to keyword discovery and analysis
Conclusion
In conclusion, the idea is to find the best keywords for your campaign, and you can use this sheet as a tracking and organizing tool throughout your entire keyword research process.
It is a simple keyword research sheet that will help you generate seed keywords, expand your keyword list systematically, and prioritize them for your SEO keyword research template needs.
I hope this video was useful and this template is useful for your keyword research journey!