Tracking SEO keywords effectively is essential for any marketing strategy, and Google Sheets offers a simple yet powerful way to manage and analyse keyword data. By creating a structured spreadsheet to organise keyword research, track search volume, competition, and rankings, you can streamline your SEO efforts and make data-driven decisions. This guide will walk you through the process of using Google Sheets for SEO keyword research and tracking.

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Your SEO Keyword Tracker

  1. Create Your Google Sheet
    To get started, open a new Google Sheet where you’ll organise and track your SEO keywords. This will serve as the foundation for your SEO strategy and help you keep all essential data in one place.
  2. Set Up the Columns
    To make your keyword research effective, it’s important to organise the data properly. Create the following columns to track various SEO metrics:
    • Keyword: The main keyword or search term you’re targeting.
    • Search Volume: The average monthly search volume for the keyword.
    • Keyword Difficulty/Competition: A metric that shows how difficult it is to rank for the keyword, often measured by tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Ads.
    • Current Ranking: Where your website currently ranks for the keyword on search engine results pages (SERPs).
    • Target URL: The page on your website that you’re optimising for this keyword.
    • Clicks: The number of clicks your site gets from organic search results for this keyword.
    • Impressions: The number of times your site appears in search results for this keyword.
  3. Input Your Keywords
    Begin populating your sheet with the relevant SEO keywords. You can gather keyword ideas using tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush. Once you have a list of keywords, add them to the Keyword column.You can also organise your keywords by topic clusters or groups, making it easier to track related terms. For example, if you’re running an eCommerce website, you could group keywords by product categories like “Laptops,” “Smartphones,” or “Accessories.”
  4. Add Search Volume and Keyword Difficulty
    For each keyword, use your preferred SEO tool to find the search volume and keyword difficulty or competition score. Add this data to your spreadsheet. Here’s how to approach these metrics:
    • Search Volume: This is the average number of searches for a keyword per month. A higher volume indicates more potential traffic, but it’s also important to balance this with competition.Keyword Difficulty: This score indicates how competitive a keyword is. Higher difficulty means more competition, and it will take more effort to rank for that keyword.
    Be sure to update these figures periodically, as search trends can fluctuate over time.
  5. Track Your Current Rankings
    Next, add the Current Ranking for each keyword to your spreadsheet. This data can be pulled from tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or SEMrush. Regularly updating your rankings will give you insights into how well your SEO efforts are paying off and help you identify areas for improvement.
  6. Assign Target URLs
    Each keyword should have a corresponding Target URL — the page on your website you want to rank for that specific keyword. It’s essential to ensure that each page is optimised for its target keyword, focusing on factors like content relevance, on-page SEO elements (title tags, meta descriptions, headers), and internal linking.
  7. Monitor Clicks and Impressions
    By integrating data from Google Search Console, you can track how many clicks and impressions your site gets for each keyword. To add this data:
    • Go to Google Search Console and open the Performance report.Filter by keyword and export the data.Copy the relevant clicks and impressions data and paste it into your Google Sheet.
    Monitoring these metrics helps you understand which keywords drive the most traffic to your site, enabling you to focus your efforts on high-performing terms.

Advanced Tips for Tracking SEO Keywords in Google Sheets

  1. Use Conditional Formatting to Highlight Trends
    Google Sheets allows you to use conditional formatting to highlight key trends in your data. For example, you can use conditional formatting to automatically colour-code keywords that have:
    • Increased in ranking.High search volume but low competition.Decreased in clicks or impressions.
    This feature helps you easily spot the most important changes in your keyword data without manually reviewing each one.
  2. Track Keyword Movement Over Time
    To track how your rankings change over time, you can create a Rank Tracking Sheet:
    • Add a new sheet within your workbook.Create columns for each keyword, and add separate columns for dates (e.g., “Rank on October 1st,” “Rank on November 1st”).Each time you update your rankings, enter the new rank under the corresponding date.
    This will allow you to see how your keywords perform over time and determine whether your SEO strategy is moving in the right direction.
  3. Use Google Sheets Formulas to Automate Calculations
    Google Sheets offers powerful formulas that can help automate certain tasks in your SEO keyword tracking:
    • SUMIF: Use this to sum the clicks or impressions for specific keyword categories.AVERAGE: Calculate the average search volume or competition score across your keyword list.VLOOKUP: Use this to find specific data from another sheet, such as pulling in keyword data from an export of Search Console or SEMrush results.
    Automating these calculations will save you time and help you quickly identify key metrics at a glance.
  4. Share the Sheet with Your Team
    SEO keyword tracking is often a collaborative effort, so sharing your Google Sheet with your team ensures everyone stays on the same page. Use the Share button in the top-right corner to invite team members, assign permission levels (Viewer, Commenter, Editor), and allow real-time collaboration on keyword tracking.You can also set up notifications to alert you when changes are made, ensuring that you never miss an important update in your SEO data.

Optimising Your SEO Workflow with Google Sheets

Using Google Sheets for SEO keyword research and tracking allows you to stay organised, collaborate with your team, and maintain a clear view of your SEO performance. By setting up a well-structured spreadsheet, you can easily track search volume, competition, rankings, and other essential SEO metrics, allowing you to make data-driven decisions.

Mastering these techniques in Google Sheets will help you streamline your SEO efforts, giving you the tools to optimise your website’s visibility and drive more organic traffic.