Tracked Keyword FAQs

Tracking a keyword monitors whether your website appears anywhere in the top 100 search results for that keyword each week. You can enable daily tracking if that is included in your account.

Here are some frequently asked questions about the keywords you track with Conductor.

Tracked Keyword Basics

What is a keyword?

Keywords are the topics your audience types into search engines. People want to find content that matches their search intent. If they search for “most comfortable running shoes”, they want informational content and not a product page.

In Conductor, a tracked keyword represents the keyword a person enters in to a search engine in a particular place and on a particular type of device. When you track a keyword in Conductor, you will select this combination of keyword, search engine, location, and device.*

Keywords alone can only teach you so much about the results that appear to users. Viewing this data with the added context and not simply the keyword gives you a more holistic view of your audience's search experiences.

With the Keywords activity in the Settings menu, you can monitor how you are using keywords and where you are tracking them, so you can configure your keywords across your web properties and search engines in one place.

Your tracked keyword make up the base for much of the data in Conductor. This data provides a wealth of information about the your organic marketing.

Note that there are other areas in Conductor where you may see untracked or discovered keywords. You can choose to track these keywords with the platform, and add the added context of search engine, location, and device to get the whole story behind the search.

*If you see "keyword search" mentioned in your contract or in the Knowledge Base, we are referring to the whole context of a search. Remember, you can't track a keyword in Conductor without selecting the context (location, device, and so on). Accordingly, whenever you see "tracked keyword" in Conductor or the Knowledge Base or elsewhere, we are referring to a keyword and its associated search context.

Why should I track a new keyword?

Monitoring target keywords in an SEO platform:

• Allows you to track the performance of your keywords and understand how well your site is ranking in search engine results. This information can help you determine which keywords are most effective for your content and which may need to be optimized further.
• Helps you identify new opportunities for content creation and optimization. By analyzing the search volume and competition for different keywords, you can identify areas where your content can fill a gap or where it may be lacking. 

This can help you create more targeted, relevant, and valuable content for your audience, which can in turn improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website. 

When should I track a new keyword?

Ideally, you should begin monitoring new target keywords in the platform before you even write related content so you can see how they perform overtime to either share our wins or take action and find new target keywords.

When should I stop tracking keywords?

You might want to deactivate some keywords from the platform that are no longer relevant your organization. Use the following instructions to remove keywords from Conductor reports based on considerations about a keyword's search volume or your rank:

1. In Conductor, follow the path Measure > Keywords (or click here).
2. Sort the table of keywords by search volume or by your rank for the keyword. You can do this by clicking the column header for the relevant metric.
3. Review the list of keywords and identify any that have particularly poor performance. Keywords with 0 search volume or keywords that you have not ranked for in the last 6-12 months can be a good place to start for deactivating keywords.
4. Deactivate the keywords you identify above.

What is the relationship between keywords and keyword groups?

A keyword group consists of keywords. You can add those keywords to a keyword group individually or with the Keyword Bulk Update tool.

What is a premium keyword?

Premium keywords allow you to track keywords on premium search engines, such as:

• 360
• Baidu
• Daum
• Naver
• Seznam
• Shenma
• Sogou

Note that, with the exception of Baidu, Conductor does not support keyword discovery on premium search engines—only keyword tracking and measurement. Read more about the distinction and our support here.

Tracked Keyword Settings

What does the Search Engine in a keyword's settings determine?

In the context of tracked keywords in Conductor, the search engine you select for a keyword is the source for your keyword data. When you select an engine such as "Google (US / English)", you are telling Conductor to collect data for that keyword as it appears for that search engine.

You can learn which locations Conductor supports in the Supported Search Engines, Locations, and Devices FAQs article.

What does the Web Property Group in a keyword's settings determine?

The web property group you choose for a keyword determines:

• Where data for the keyword your are tracking will appear across the Conductor platform. When you report on a specific web property group with a feature in Conductor, you see the tracked keywords associated with that web property group.
• The search result ownership for your web properties for the given keyword. 

What does the location in a keyword's settings determine?

The location determines the geographical area from which you want to track keyword data . You can learn which locations Conductor supports in the Supported Search Engines, Locations, and Devices FAQs article.

What does the device in a keyword's settings determine?

The device determines the type of device—Desktop, Smartphone, or Tablet—for which you want to track keyword data. You can learn which devices Conductor supports across different locations in the Supported Search Engines, Locations, and Devices FAQs article.

What is a Standard Keyword Group?

Keywords can belong to keyword groups—which are collections of keywords for which you can see data in aggregate. Learn more in the Keyword Groups FAQs article.

What are preferred URLs for a keyword?

A preferred URL for a keyword is the landing page you want to rank for that particular keyword. Each tracked keyword can have one preferred URL.

The concept of managing a preferred URL is common in paid search campaigns, but there are also good reasons for managing preferred URLs for SEO. Enterprise organizations that consistently succeed in SEO and who significantly increase revenue, apply preferred URL management to focus on getting the right URL to rank while increasing their overall share of search.

Optimizing preferred URLs can help direct traffic to other pages on your site. Doing this is also an opportunity to provide an enhanced user experience. For example, rather than leading most traffic to the home page where it may be unclear where to find what a user is looking for, direct users to internal pages more relevant to their query.

Best Practices for Configuring Preferred URLs

You can set a preferred URL for each keyword you track in Conductor. Not sure what URL to use for a given keyword? Here's our suggestion:

1. Follow the path Measure > Keywords.
2. Click Download XLSX to export your keyword list:
3. Open the downloaded file and view the Highest Ranking URL column.

You can review the URLs in this column to determine whether it should be the preferred URL or whether a different page should be optimized to rank. As you make those decisions, update the preferred URL for each keyword. You can do this all at once with the Bulk Update file.

What is a Prime keyword?

Represented by a star icon, you can use the prime designation to mark it as a favorite, important, or any other designation that you want to track.

You can set a keyword as prime when you create or edit a keyword. You can also set multiple keywords as prime with our bulk update tool or directly from reports in Conductor.

Changes to a keyword's Prime status will take effect immediately.

Best Practices for Prime Keywords

There is no limit to the number of keywords you can mark as Prime. However, you'll want to mark only those keywords that are most important for you to track closely.

A good rule of thumb is to choose one or two prime keywords for a given page you want to optimize. These pages might be those you determine as preferred URLs in Conductor.

Remember, you probably track several variations of a keyword, but you don't optimize a page for each of those keywords. Choose the keyword that is most important for that page.

By assigning those keywords as prime, you'll ensure that all of your pages are optimized for their prime keywords.

What is Daily Keyword Reporting?

Conductor tracks keyword ranks weekly, by default. You can also choose to track daily. Learn more about daily keyword tracking in the Data in Conductor FAQs article.

Tracking Keywords

What characters and symbols can I use in keywords?

Conductor does not allow certain characters to be tracked because of how search engines use them as operators in some queries.

These are the characters not allowed: 

• ,
• ;
• :
• "
• *
• [
• ]

The following characters are not allowed as part of tracked keywords specifically for yandex.ru in Conductor:

• <<
• !!
• ~

Additionally, for any Google search engine, "-" is an invalid character if it is the first character in a keyword or if it is preceded by a space. For example, "stand-up comedy" is a valid keyword, but "comedy -stand-up" is not.

Does Conductor consider capitalization in tracked keywords?

No. Conductor does not recognize a difference between lowercase and uppercase iterations of the same keyword string. For example, attempting to track "example", "Example", and "examPLE" will yield only "example" as a tracked keyword. Conductor will consider the other two as duplicates and not tracked.

Conductor uses this method based on Google's decision not to recognize or consider capitalization as a factor in their search results.

Note that—because Conductor does not recognize a difference between case—you may track only one iteration of a keyword with the platform. The case you choose when you first add a keyword cannot be changed, so consider the case you use carefully if consistency in case matters to your organization.

Do daily tracked keywords count against my keyword limit?

Tracking a keyword daily and at the usual weekly cadence counts as two, separate tracked keywords. When you choose to track a keyword daily, Conductor will also automatically track that keyword at the usual weekly cadence. Keep this in mind when considering your account's keyword limits.

How do I track keywords in other locations or on new search engines?

You can track keywords on new search engines and in new locations by simply selecting them in the Add Keywords form as you track new keywords.

Select a new search engine from the Search Engines menu:

Then choose from the available locations supported on the new search engine:

Refer to the Supported Search Engines, Locations, and Devices FAQs article to learn about Conductor's supported search engines and locations.

Can I add multiple keywords to multiple locations all at once without having to use Keyword Bulk Update?

Yes. You can track a keyword for multiple locations with the Add Keywords form. You can access this form from anywhere in Conductor by clicking the plus icon in the Settings menu:

You can also access this form from the Tracked Keywords activity (Settings > Keywords) and clicking Add Keywords.

Refer to the Tracked Keyword Setup article for more information on adding new tracked searches.

Can I track the same keyword more than once?

For a given web property, you can track a single keyword only once, for each location, device, and search engine. Note that each combination of keyword–location–device–search engine counts as a separate keyword towards your account's allotment.

Does Google or Conductor recognize foreign accents in keywords?

Yes, both Google and Conductor recognize accents in keywords. Note that this means a keyword with an accent and the same keyword without an accent count as two separate keywords if you track both.

Managing Tracked Keywords

How many keywords do I have tracked?

You can quickly find how many keywords you have tracked—and your account's tracked keyword limit—in the Add Keywords form.

Just click to add keywords from anywhere in the platform to find this information:

Can I see a list of all my keywords?

Yes, you can use the Keyword Bulk Update tool to download a list of all your keywords in Conductor.

1. Follow the path Settings > Keyword Bulk Update.
2. Choose to download either:
   • Only your active keywords.
   • All your keywords (active and inactive).

At this point, a Microsoft Excel file with these keywords is downloaded to your computer.

Why don't I see a preferred URL appear for a keyword?

Note that after you configure a keyword with at preferred URL, data in Conductor will reflect that configuration only after the following data publication period. For a keyword's preferred URL to be included in platform reports for a weekly data publication, changes must be made before the weekly publication cut-off on Thursdays at 5:00 P.M. Eastern.

• Each keyword has the option of having a preferred URLs. It can be added, modified, or removed at any time.
• Data will always be collected for a preferred URL, regardless of whether the page ranks for the related keyword.
• If you have a preferred URL configured for a particular keyword, it is included in the menu you can open for keywords listed on the Keywords report:
  
• The Keywords report indicates whether your highest ranked result for a keyword is your configured preferred URL:
  
• The Keyword Details: Visibility report indicates whether the highest ranked result for a particular keyword is your configured preferred URL:
  

How do I edit a preferred URL for a keyword?

You can edit a keyword 's preferred URL in either of the following ways:

• If you want to edit several keywords' preferred URLs at one time, you can use the bulk update tool.
• If you want to edit one or a few keywords' preferred URLs, you can do either of the following:
  • From the Keywords activity:
    1. Follow the path Settings > Keywords.
    2. Find and click the keyword you want to edit.
    3. Go to the Advanced Settings tab and enter a preferred URL in the Preferred URL column.
  • From the Keywords report:
    1. Follow the path Measure > Keywords.
    2. Locate the keyword for which you want to set a preferred URL.
    3. Click the ellipsis icon () and select Set Preferred URL from the menu.
    4. Enter a preferred URL and click Save.

What if I accidentally made all of my keywords inactive?

Download the keyword file again in step 1 of the Keyword Bulk Update process and mark the necessary keywords active and upload the Excel file again. It's important to do this as soon as possible so that there is no disruption in data collection for your keywords.

Why are keywords not appearing/appearing in my account, even though I just added/deactivated it?

You'll see changes to tracked keyword data take effect after the next time Conductor publishes data.

It is possible that, if you add a keyword late in the week, Conductor will not publish data until the following week. Try to add keywords before 5:00 P.M. Eastern on Thursdays to avoid any delays.