You get 50 keywords to track. Picking the wrong ones is the most common reason Insights looks disappointing after a month: too broad, too generic, or terms nobody searches. This guide shows the nine tools Insights gives you to build that list, and when to reach for each.
Open the discovery hub
Go to Insights, Settings, General tab, and click the Add keywords button above your keyword list. The same button appears in the setup wizard, on the Position tracking step.
The hub opens on a grid of nine tools. Pick one, work through it, tick the suggestions you want, and the footer tells you how many you selected. Click Add N keywords to push them into your list; you can then reopen the hub and use another tool.
Duplicates are removed automatically, and the counter under the list keeps track of your 50 slots. Nothing is tracked until you save.
Start from what your site already ranks for
GSC Import
The best starting point if you have traffic already. It reads the search queries Google Search Console reports for your site, plus the focus keyphrases set on your posts with SEOPress, and lists them with their Position, Clicks and Impressions. Keywords you already track are excluded.
Sort by impressions and pick the queries with volume but a mediocre position: those are the ones worth watching week after week.
This tool requires SEOPress PRO connected to Google Search Console. Without PRO, it only offers your focus keyphrases.
Google Suggest
Type a query and Insights fetches Google’s live autocomplete suggestions for it. This is what real people type, straight from the source, and it costs nothing to check. Good for finding the phrasing your audience actually uses rather than the one you assume.
Start from your market
Industry Templates
Choose your industry and Insights proposes a curated keyword list for it. There is also an optional Your city field: fill it in and the suggestions become local, which is what you want for a business with a physical address.
The fastest way to go from zero to a credible list when the site is new and has no Search Console history.
Competitor Gap
Enter a topic and Insights builds the patterns that competitors typically rank on and you may not. Use it once your own list is set, to spot the obvious hole rather than to fill the whole list.
Expand around a topic
Topic Cluster
Give it a central topic and it builds a cluster of related keywords around it. Use it when you plan to cover a subject in depth across several pages, and want to track the whole cluster rather than a single term.
Seed Keyword Expander
Give it one keyword and it turns it into dozens of variations. Useful when you know your main term and want its long-tail declensions.
Trending Keywords
Enter a topic and it produces the time-sensitive variants of it, including the current year. Worth a couple of slots on a site that publishes regularly, but do not fill your list with terms that expire in December.
Filter by opportunity
Quick Wins
Builds low-competition, easier-to-rank variations of a topic. This is the tool to use if you are starting out: ranking eighth on a realistic term beats ranking hundredth on a prestigious one, and it gives you something to show after a month rather than after a year.
Intent-Based Keywords
Produces variations sorted by search intent: informational, commercial, transactional, navigational. A healthy list mixes them. If everything you track is informational, you are measuring readership rather than revenue.
The intent also appears as a column and a filter on the Rankings screen, and as a comparison segment, so it keeps paying off after the setup.
A reasonable starting split
With 50 slots, a mix that works for most sites:
- around 10 terms you already rank for, from GSC Import, to measure progress on solid ground;
- around 20 realistic targets, from Quick Wins and Topic Cluster, where the work will show;
- around 10 transactional or commercial terms, from Intent-Based Keywords, the ones tied to revenue;
- around 5 head terms you are far from, to watch the long game;
- a few slots left free, so you can add what the next months surface.
Remember that each keyword can target a different Google location, so a multi-country site does not have to spend its whole budget on one market.
Once your list is set
Save your settings and wait 24 to 48 hours for the first positions. Then track your keyword rankings and organise the list with favorites and tags so it stays readable as it grows.