Keywords Breakdown

What is it?

Keywords Breakdown shows every search query (keyword) that brought people to your site from Google, using Search Console data. A keyword is the words someone types into Google. The tab always covers the whole site. The Category filter does not apply here.

Why use it?

• To see how much traffic comes from people who already know your brand.
• To find keywords close to page one, or with a weak CTR.
• To see new and lost keywords.
• To find pages that compete with each other for the same keyword.

Before you start

• Connect Search Console. Otherwise you see Connect Search Console to see keyword data.
• For branded splits, save a pattern in Branded keywords.

How to use it

1. Open the tab

   In Advanced Analytics, click Keywords Breakdown. You see Loading keyword data… for a moment.

2. Pick your dates

   Turn on Compare to unlock the change numbers and the gainer and loser lists.

3. Read the coverage bar and KPI cards

   See how much of your traffic your keyword reports can explain.

4. Work through the lists

   Open Keyword Lists, then Keyword Cannibalization, then Keyword Explorer.

Understanding the screen

Keyword Overview

Keyword-level totals. Clicks and impressions here only count searches Search Console reports a keyword for.

The coverage bar says: X% of Search Console's N clicks come from N known keywords. The other N are (not set) — searches Search Console hides for privacy, which no report can break down. The legend shows Known keywords and (not set). See (not set) explained.

With Compare off, the hints show under the numbers. With Compare on, each card shows its change and vs N prior period instead. Position and CTR changes are shown in points. You also get four more cards:

Daily Trend

Switch between two views:

• Ranking keywords — lines All ranking, Top 10, Top 3.
• Clicks — lines Search Console total and Known keywords. The tooltip shows (not set): N.

Ranking Distribution

A one-day snapshot of the last day in your range that has keyword data. With Compare on, it is compared with the last day of the prior period. Buckets: 1-3, 4-5, 6-10, 11-20, 21-50, 51+. Page one is positions 1–10.

When you have a branded pattern, a dropdown lets you pick All keywords, Branded or Non-branded. Share of clicks is then worked out inside that group only.

The distribution, Search Intent and Keyword Length tables share these columns: label, Keywords, Clicks, Share of clicks, Impressions, CTR, Avg. position.

Branded vs. Non-branded

Two cards with Keywords, Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Avg. position and X% of known clicks. See branded keyword.

Search Intent

Each keyword gets one intent. Prism checks the rules in this order and stops at the first match.

Keyword Length and Click Concentration

• Keyword Length — 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5+ words.
• Click Concentration — the share of known-keyword clicks from your Top 10 keywords, Top 100 keywords and Top 1,000 keywords.

Keyword Lists

Top 50 per list. Each list button shows how many keywords it has. Columns: Keyword, Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Position. With Compare on, you also see the change in clicks and impressions, and the old → new position. The quick-win list adds Typical CTR and Missed clicks.

Lists that need Compare are greyed out with the tooltip Turn on Compare to see this list.

Keyword Cannibalization

Cannibalization is when your own pages compete for one keyword. The header says N non-branded keywords have 2+ URLs each taking 10%+ of their impressions — top N by impressions shown.

A keyword is listed when at least two of your URLs each have 20 or more impressions and 10% or more of the keyword's impressions. Branded keywords are left out, because extra URLs for brand searches are usually Google sitelinks. Versions of one page with anchor links or UTM tags count as one URL.

Columns: Keyword, Competing URLs, Clicks, Impressions, Split. Click a row to see URL, Share of impressions, Clicks, Impressions and Avg. position.

Keyword Explorer

Every keyword in range — search, filter and sort across all of them, then export the full list.

Search with Search keywords… and filter by:

• Type: All types / Branded / Non-branded (only with a branded pattern).
• Position: Any position, Position 1–3 up to Position 51+.
• Intent: Any intent, Question, Commercial, Other (and Branded with a pattern).
• Length: Any length, 1 word up to 5+ words.
• Movement: Any movement / New / Lost / Rank improved / Rank declined (only with Compare on).

Click Clear to reset. Click a column name to sort by it. Click it again to flip the order.

Columns: Keyword, Clicks, Δ Clicks, Impressions, Δ Impr., CTR, Position, Δ Position, Words, URLs. The Δ columns appear only with Compare on. Under each keyword you see its intent and its top URL. Hover on URLs: More than one URL ranked for this keyword. The table shows 50 keywords per page.

Exports

• Each keyword list has a download menu with Export Excel, Export CSV and Export PDF. The file adds a Branded column and the prior-period numbers.
• The cannibalization table has the same menu. It exports every keyword with each of its URLs.
• In Explorer, Export all N (CSV) downloads every keyword that matches your filters, in your sort order. The button shows Exporting… while it works.

See Exporting tables.

Example

For example, "seo audit tool" ranks at position 7 with 2,000 impressions and a 1% CTR. Your typical CTR at position 7 is 3%. 1% is under 70% of 3%, so it appears in Quick-win CTR. Improve the page title to win more clicks.

Tips

• Check Lost keywords after a site change, such as a redesign.
• Use the Ranking Distribution dropdown to look at Non-branded keywords alone.
• Note that this tab's position buckets differ from the Category Breakdown buckets.

Common issues