Keyword research runs

All keyword research in RankYak happens in runs, and every run is listed on the Research page. Each run shows what started it, how far along it is, and what it found, so your topical map never changes without a visible reason. This page explains the kinds of runs you will see, how to start research of your own, and how the review step works.

The research page

Go to Keywords in the left menu and click View research at the top of the page. When a run is ready for your review, a banner above your keywords leads there too. Every run appears here with its state: researching, ready for review, approved, or failed. Typically you will see a few kinds of runs.

• Core topics: the first research, started automatically when you confirm your core topics during setup.
• Goal research: research you started from a goal you described.
• Keyword import: a list of keywords you added by hand.
• Scheduled research: runs RankYak starts on its own to keep your map growing, when automatic research is enabled.

Starting your own research

Click Start research on the Research page. You may start a run in two ways.

If you would like RankYak to do the exploring, describe a goal: what you want to rank for, a product you are launching, or an audience you want to reach. RankYak researches new topics around your goal and fills them with the keywords you can win.

Each site may start 10 goal researches a day. The day follows your site's time zone, so once a site reaches the limit, its next goal research may start the following day. A keyword import does not count toward the limit, so you may still add keywords by hand on the same day.

If you already have keywords in mind, switch to the keyword list and enter them one per line. Each keyword is enriched with search volume and difficulty, grouped with keywords that share its search results, and filed under a topic.

Reviewing a research

When a run finishes, its findings wait for your review before they count anywhere. A run's findings are keyword clusters: groups of related keywords that one article covers, each represented by its strongest keyword. Open the run to see the clusters it found, grouped by topic, with each keyword's metrics beside it. Each cluster shows its strongest keyword, and you may expand it to see the variations the same article covers. Reject the clusters that do not fit your site, or a whole topic at once, then approve the rest. Approved clusters appear on your topical map and become available for the content plan; rejected clusters are archived, the same way archiving works anywhere on the map.

Of course, you may prefer to skip the review. The Auto-approve found keywords setting under Settings, then Automation, approves every scheduled run and keyword import automatically. A goal research is the exception: you described what it should look for, so its findings always wait for your review, whatever the setting. If none of them fit, Reject all archives every cluster at once and you finish the review with an empty run.

You may also settle a run from the copilot: ask what research is waiting and it lists the clusters the run found, then approves them once you agree. If some of them do not belong on your site, say which ones and the copilot rejects them before approving the rest, so you may shape a run without leaving the chat. Of course, the Research page shows the same clusters if you would rather work through them yourself.

Automatic research

Two settings under Settings, then Automation, control how much of this runs on its own. The Auto research chip next to the numbers above your keywords, and on the Research page, shows whether automatic research is on, and clicking it opens both switches.

• Automatic keyword research lets RankYak start scheduled runs that expand your topical map with new topics and keywords.
• Auto-approve found keywords skips the review step for scheduled runs and keyword imports. A goal research always waits for your review.

Both switches start off, so you drive each research yourself until you turn them on; see your free trial for how the guided first pass uses them.