Changing the keywords we track for you

In this article, you'll learn how to change the five search terms we track for your business, and what happens to the history of a keyword you swap out. You'd do this when a service changes, a city gets added, or a keyword just isn't the one customers type.

The Ranking report is part of the SEO plan. If your plan doesn't include it, the Reports menu won't show Ranking.

To open the SEO Keywords panel:

  1. In your dashboard menu, click Reports.
  2. Under it, click Ranking.
  3. The SEO Keywords panel is the first thing on the page, above the scan cards and the map.

How the keywords are used

Each keyword you list gets its own 9×9 grid scan, 81 points spread across a 2-mile radius around your business location. Scans run once a week, in the evening on your business's own clock. The map, the trend chart and the numbers on the Ranking report all come from those scans, one tab per keyword.

Fill all five. The weekly scan only runs for a business with five keywords on the list, so a blank field means no scan that week. The N of 5 filled line under the fields keeps count for you.

Changing a keyword

  1. Click the field you want to change. The fields are numbered 1. through 5. and read Keyword 1 to Keyword 5 when empty.
  2. Type the new search term the way a customer would type it, for example a service plus a city.
  3. Repeat for any other fields you want to change.
  4. Click Save. It's greyed out until you've changed something, and reads Saving... while it works.
  5. A green Saved appears next to the button when the change is in.
Note: A change takes effect on the next scan. The current map and numbers don't change until that scan has run with the new list.

If the save fails, a red Save failed shows next to the button. Check your connection and try again.

What happens to a keyword you swap out

Nothing is lost. The moment you save, the old keyword's tab leaves the row of keyword tabs and shows up in the Old drop-down at the end of that row. Pick it there and you still get its map, its scan slider, its trend and its numbers from every scan that measured it.

Put the same keyword back on the list later and it moves back into the tabs, with everything it had before plus whatever the new scans add.

Tip: A brand-new keyword shows a greyed-out tab until its first scan runs. Hover it and you'll see No scan of this keyword yet. A keyword that missed the latest scan keeps its tab with a small dot, and the report shows its last grid with a note under the map saying so.

If scans can't run yet

If you haven't had a scan and your Google Business Profile isn't connected, the panel ends with an amber note: We need your Google Business Profile linked before we can run scans. Reach out and we'll get that connected. Scans center on your Google listing, so they can't start without it. Once it's linked, the page says your first scan hasn't completed yet, and the grid appears after it runs.

On the phone app

The same SEO Keywords panel sits at the top of Ranking in the phone app. To get there, open Reports and tap Ranking under Review Monster reports. Team members who aren't admins see the five keywords without being able to edit them, with the note An admin on your team can change these. Admins see the same fields and Save button as the web, and Saved once the change is in. Keywords you tracked before sit behind an Old chip at the end of the tab row, which opens a list called Keywords tracked before.

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