Keyword Explorer & Research

The Keyword Explorer is Rankion's research workbench. You enter a seed keyword and get search volume, keyword difficulty, SERP top list, monthly trends across 12 months, related keywords, and people-also-ask questions — and with a single A→Z expansion you can generate hundreds of long-tail variants. Built for content strategists who think in clusters, not single keywords.

What it can do

• Keyword research — Per keyword: search volume (12-month average), keyword difficulty, parent topic, traffic potential, SERP URLs of the top results, monthly_searches[12] (full 12-month trend), related[90] (related keywords), questions[11] (typical W-questions).
• Keyword expand (A→Z) — For a seed keyword, variants from "A to Z" plus modifier bundles (free, online, comparison, alternative, best, buy…) are generated. Async job, 50–500 new keywords depending on the seed.
• Cache vs. refresh — Defaults are cached values (often days old, free). With an explicit refresh flag, live values are pulled — costs 50 credits inline.
• Project binding — Keywords are stored per project and immediately available in Rank Tracker and Content Editor.

When to use

• Before every new article: does the keyword fit your project goal? How tough is the SERP?
• Cluster building for a new content pillar: one seed → 200 long-tails → group manually into topics.
• Validation: does the chosen URL already rank in the top 100 (see SERP data)?
• Seasonality analysis: is the keyword huge once a year, or steady?

Workflow

1. Pick a project. Keywords are always project-scoped.
2. Start research — POST /keywords/research with {keyword, language, country} returns the full data bundle. 5 credits.
3. Save — Add the keyword to a project via POST /projects/{project}/keywords.
4. A→Z expansion (optional) — POST /keywords/{id}/expand starts the job. 10 credits.
5. Fetch expansions — GET /keywords/{id}/expansions returns the variants once the job is done.
6. Build clusters — Filter and sort the UI table, hand off to Storylines or directly to the AI Content Editor.

Guide with screenshots: Keyword Research.

API

The response from /keywords/research includes — beyond base metrics — the fields monthly_searches[12], related[90], and questions[11]. That's more than competitors return in a single call. Full structures: API Overview.

Credits & Limits

• Research (cached): 5 credits.
• Research (force refresh inline): 50 credits — only use when you need fresh data (e.g. after an algorithm update).
• Expand (A→Z): 10 credits per seed keyword. Generates 50–500 variants depending on seed breadth.
• Read endpoints (GET /keywords/...): free.
• Job pattern: Expand runs as a queue job. You get 202 + a job ID; the UI polls.

Related modules

• AI Content Editor — researched keywords land directly in the Generate form.
• AI Visibility Tracking — the tracking wizard can suggest keywords from your project.
• Agentic Chat — "Which long-tails for X have KD<30 and SV>500?".
• Guide: Keyword Research