Free SEO resource
Keyword research template
Free keyword research template in Excel. Ten columns, an automatic priority score, a clustering rule, and a tab mapping Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz and GSC exports.
A keyword research workbook with three tabs. Keywords holds one row per query across ten columns ending in a calculated priority score. Method holds the clustering rule that decides when two queries share a page. The third tab maps which column of an Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz or Search Console export feeds which column here, including the three that no export can fill because you have to judge them yourself.
- Best for
- Anyone with a keyword export and no idea which rows deserve a page
- Includes
- Excel workbook, 3 tabs, calculated priority column
- Time to use
- 2–4 hours for one category
Free to download and use in your own client work. No email address required.
Most keyword templates are a list with a volume column. This one has three tabs, and the two that are not the list are the ones that do the work.
The rule it is built around: cluster first, create second. The sheet is the plan, not the output.
It arrives with seven worked rows rather than blank, and they are real: every volume and difficulty in them came out of Ahrefs on 21 August 2026, US database, from the same pull published on the keyword research lesson. Three of the seven share one target URL, which is the clustering rule on the Method tab shown working, and three have no target URL at all, because “researched, not yet decided” is a real state and a template where every row is already decided teaches nothing. Delete them when you start.
Preview of the file
What each column is for
Ten columns, and three of them are the ones people leave blank.
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Keyword | The query exactly as someone would type it, misspellings included |
| Volume | Monthly searches from your tool. A directional signal, not a promise |
| Difficulty | Your tool’s competitiveness score. Compare within one tool only |
| Intent | Informational, commercial, transactional or navigational |
| Modifier | template, example, checklist, pdf, software, meaning, best, vs |
| Current position | Where you rank now. Blank if not ranking |
| Target URL | The single page that should own this query |
| Cluster | The group of queries one page can satisfy together |
| Priority score | Calculated from volume, difficulty and intent |
| Status | Not started, drafted, published, needs refresh |
Target URL, Cluster and Status are the three that get skipped, and skipping them is what turns a plan back into an export. A row with no target URL has not been decided about.
The clustering rule
One sentence on the Method tab decides more than the priority score does:
Queries belong in the same cluster when one page can satisfy all of them without compromise. If satisfying the second query would make the page worse for the first, split them.
That is a better test than word overlap, because it fails in the right direction. free ai note taker
and ai note taker free pass it and belong on one page. keyword research and keyword research jobs
share two words and fail it.
Where the columns come from
The third tab is the one I would not drop. It maps this sheet’s columns onto four real exports, and it is explicit about the ones no export can fill.
| This sheet | Ahrefs | Semrush | Moz | Search Console |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keyword | Keyword | Keyword | Keyword | Query |
| Volume | Volume | Volume | Monthly Volume | Not available, GSC reports impressions |
| Difficulty | KD | KD % | Difficulty | Not available |
| Current position | Position | Position | Rank | Position, the most trustworthy of the four |
| Intent | Intents | Intent | Not available | Not available, judge it yourself |
| Modifier · Cluster · Target URL · Status | You fill these in | You fill these in | You fill these in | You fill these in |
Do not mix two tools in one sheet
Difficulty scores are not comparable between tools. A KD of 4 in one is not a KD of 4 in another, and the same is true of volume: I have one keyword reading 655,000 and 243,000 in two exports from the same Ahrefs account on the same day. Pick one tool, use it for the whole sheet, and write the tool and the date at the top.
The method, in six steps
- List the jobs your customer is trying to complete, in their words.
- Expand each job into queries using your keyword tool and the search suggestions.
- Tag every query with its intent and its modifier.
- Group queries into clusters where one page can serve them all.
- Pick one target URL per cluster and write it in the sheet before creating anything.
- Score priority, then work down the list rather than around it.
Record current position as you go, so the refresh decision is evidence-based later rather than a guess about whether a page ever worked.
What this sheet will not do for you
It will not tell you whether a query is worth targeting. Volume, difficulty and intent are three inputs and none of them is business value, which is the axis no keyword tool has a column for and the one that overrules the rest. A query with 5,300 searches and a difficulty of 0 can still be worth nothing, and the sheet will happily give it a high priority score.
That judgement is the subject of the keyword research and search demand lesson, which has the metrics pulled live so you can watch volume and traffic potential rank the same eight keywords in two different orders. Use the lesson to decide, and this sheet to record the decision.