What is a site’s keyword list?

This is a set of words and phrases that reflect your site’s content and determine which search queries it can rank for. These words and phrases are known as keywords.

When someone is looking for information, they type a query into the search bar, such as «how to properly clean a freezer» or «flower delivery in Dubai». The search engine then ranks websites, determining their position relative to one another in the results.

The relevance of a page’s content to the keywords in a query is one of the factors search engines use to rank a site. Page content includes the title meta tag, headers, text, images, and other elements.

For example, a store owner who sells refrigerators might label their catalog sections and subsections like this: «two-compartment refrigerators,» «refrigeration units,» «built-in refrigerators,» «refrigerators with freezers,» «car refrigerators.»

Why create a keyword list?

Creating a keyword list helps you achieve the following objectives:

• Refine your site’s structure. Keywords are organized into themed groups, and a page is created for each group. This helps you build a clear structure, streamline navigation, and speed up indexing, getting your pages into search engine databases faster.
• Determine which pages to add. When creating keyword lists, you can easily identify the content, product pages, or sections that need to be created. This is key for ranking in more queries and reaching a wider audience.
• Set up internal linking. Internal linking is the process of linking pages within your own site. Creating a keyword list helps identify which sections should link to each other. For instance, a product page might link to similar items in your catalog.
• Launch ad campaigns: For example, through Yandex Direct, whicht is a platform for running online ads. These ads appear across Yandex Search, Yandex Maps, and on partner sites in the Yandex Advertising Network, with over 55,000 platforms.

  Ads are shown when users search for specific products, services, or related items. Advertising motivates them to visit your site and take actions such as placing orders or scheduling appointments.

How can keywords be classified?

By frequency:

• High-frequency (HF) keywords usually consist of a few words that define the search topic, such as «buy a refrigerator».
• Mid-frequency (MF) keywords specify more specific search parameters, such as «buy a [brand name] refrigerator».
• Low-frequency (LF) keywords precisely reflect the user’s needs and intentions. For instance, «buy a [brand name] refrigerator in Dubai».

Although high-frequency queries generate more impressions, competition for them is also higher, making it harder to rank in the top search results. This is why it’s best to leverage all three frequencies for promotion.

You can collect frequency data using Yandex Wordstat

By user needs:

• Informational keywords convey a desire to gain new information. For example, «how does a microwave work?»
• Commercial keywords indicate a desire to purchase a product. For example, «buy a cheap microwave».
• General keywords consist of a single word, for example «window» or «couch». With these, it’s unclear whether the user wants to purchase or just learn more about the product.
• Navigational keywords help find a specific brand or product online, such as «Yandex Direct advertising».

By geo-dependency:

• Geo-independent keywords. Anyone from any region will see the same search results with these keywords. These queries are often informational, such as «how to make pancakes.» The user’s location doesn’t affect the results.
• Geo-dependent keywords. Based on these, the search engine displays links to sites relevant to the user’s region. Most commercial queries with words like «buy» or «order» are geo-dependent.

Important! When the user specifies a region, city, or district, the results become geo-dependent. This means that for keywords like «buy a microwave in Nizhny Novgorod,» the results aren’t based on the user’s current location but on the specified region.

To specify the region associated with your site, use Yandex Webmaster. This data can be considered when generating search results for users looking for services in a specific location. If you’re not interested in site promotion within a specific region, you don’t have to specify a region. To learn how to set up regions, see Yandex Webmaster Help.

For example, when a user from Istanbul searches for «buy a refrigerator,» they see this resul

By brand mention. Brand queries include the company’s name (for instance, Yandex). By default, brand sites usually rank first for brand queries, so they get minimal attention during promotion.

However, we recommend checking the frequency of these queries every couple of months to track your brand’s popularity growth and identify when it’s most relevant to your customers.

What types of keyword inclusions can exist in the text?

There are several ways to place keywords in a text, usually called inclusions. Below, we will discuss their main types, using the keyword «buy an oven» as an example.

Direct inclusions. With direct inclusion, keywords are added to the text unchanged — just as users enter them into the search bar. In this case, the keyword isn’t interrupted by prepositions or punctuation marks.

• Example: «In our online store you can buy an oven.»

Exact inclusions. In this case, the word combination remains unchanged, though it can be separated by punctuation or a preposition.

• Example: «Think carefully and understand what to buy: an oven or a stove with an oven.»

Diluted inclusions. Keywords can be interrupted by other words and clarifications.

• Example: «In our store, you can buy a built-in oven.»

Synonym-based inclusions. In this case, you can replace parts of your keyword with synonyms.

• Example: «Call us to purchase an oven with delivery.»

Morphological inclusions. Words can change form or case, but cannot be broken up with punctuation or other words.

• Example: «In our store, you can buy ovens»

Avoid stuffing pages with keywords. It’s more important to create materials that will be helpful to users and meet their needs.

According to Yandex’s principles, the best way to improve site effectiveness is to enhance its quality and fill it with useful content designed for people, not search bots. This is precisely what you should focus on.

How to create a keyword list for a site: A step-by-step guide

Building a keyword list involves several steps. Let’s examine each one.

Step 1. Identify your basic keywords (masks)

Masks, or basic keywords, describe your field of activity. They usually consist of one or two words and have a high or medium frequency.

For example, a soft furniture store could highlight the following masks: «sofas,» «sofa beds,» «armchairs,» «daybeds,» «ottomans».

To create a list of masks, write down all the services you provide. You can also brainstorm phrases potential customers might search for. Keep a record of all the resulting options in an Excel sheet, for example, or a similar tool.

When working with masks, filter out all those that are not related to your business. For instance, if you only sell appliances, exclude keywords like «household appliance repair».

Building your SEO strategy on mask words only is expensive and ineffective because of intense competition on such keywords. You need to expand the list and split it into groups.

Step 2. Expand your keyword list

Use Yandex Wordstat, our keyword planning service. It will help you determine how often people type certain search queries, gather a list of high-frequency and low-frequency queries for previously selected masks, and find more keyword ideas.

The Wordstat interface consists of a search bar and three sections: Top queries, Dynamics, and Regions.

The Dynamics tab includes a chart showing the changes in the keyword’s frequency, as well as statistics with the number of mentions per month

The Regions tab displays the query statistics for Yandex keywords associated with a specific geolocation

The Top queries tab shows the search statistics for different variations of keywords

The Top queries tab will help you gather low-frequency and medium-frequency keywords for your masks. If the tab displays many irrelevant keywords, you can exclude them by adding them to your original keyword with the «-» sign. For example, «iphone 15 -wallpapers -glass -case». This will show statistics without these keywords.

If you move the leftmost slider from Popular to Similar, synonyms for the keyword will appear in the results. For example, for a laptop, these could be «laptop», «ultrabook», or «netbook».

Analyze the «People also search for» section: It is located at the bottom of Yandex search results. It includes queries similar to yours that other people have entered.

This is what the «People also search for» section looks like

Gather search suggestions. These are additional keywords that appear when a person enters a query in the search bar. They are useful because they often contain user-specific queries related to your topic. You can find suggestions manually or use specialized services.

Keyword planning in Yandex Search

Analyze your competitors’ keyword lists. For this, review HTML tags and H1 headers on your competitors’ sites or use automated services.

Step 3. Remove irrelevant queries from your list

You can use specialized services for this, but remember that you still need to review the results manually.

Be sure also to remove rarely used keywords: For this, check their frequency while taking the region of your site or business into account. In Wordstat, there are four types of frequency:

• Basic (or WS) is a query without quotes and additional characters. It shows how often this keyword is used in any variation and with any word order.

Example: The frequency will include all combinations with «buy a laptop», including «buy a laptop in Dubai», «buy a good laptop» or «where to buy a laptop».

• Keyword-based or «WS»: The query is in quotes. It shows the frequency of the keyword enclosed in quotation marks, in any variation, but without any additions.

Example: «buy a laptop» — the frequency will include «buy a laptop» or «buy laptops».

• Exact (or «!WS») is a quoted keyword with an exclamation mark. It shows the frequency for a specific word form. If your business isn’t seasonal, you can remove combinations with an exact frequency of 0 from the list. For seasonal businesses, we recommend checking these during peak times, when your products are most often purchased.

Example: «!buy !laptop».

• Frequency with a specified order of words, or [WS]. This uses square brackets to specify word order.

Example: [buy laptop] — The statistics will include the keywords such as buy laptop cheap, buy laptop in Dubai, or where to buy laptop.

Wordstat keyword statistics for the combination "!buy !laptop"

Step 4. Clustering

Once the keyword list is cleaned up, keywords are clustered into groups by their meaning. Later, a separate page is created for each semantic group. The number of clusters for SEO promotion depends on your market niche.

You can cluster keywords manually in Excel or use automated tools. We recommend starting with an online tool for the initial organization, then fine-tuning the list manually.

How to create a keyword list for an ad campaign in Yandex Direct

It’s also necessary to select keywords for online promotion. Users will see ads when they search for information on Yandex Search or visit Yandex Advertising Network partners. Let’s take a look at the key steps.

1. Gather masks and expand them. Typically, keyword statistics are taken from Wordstat or Yandex Direct — these tools suggest relevant phrases for your ads automatically.

Yandex Direct supports autotargeting, a tool that automatically determines which queries to show ads for. This feature is enabled by default in all campaigns.

2. Collect commercial queries. The main goal of contextual advertising is to attract «hot» leads — people who are ready to make a purchase. That’s why it’s often best to build keyword lists based on commercial keywords: «buy», «order», «...price».

3. Create a separate column for negative keywords. Be sure to collect these throughout the campaign period. Track which irrelevant keywords trigger your ads and add them to the negative keyword field.

How to create a keyword list for a YouTube channel

Creating a keyword list is also essential for promoting videos on YouTube. These keywords go into the video title, description, hashtags, and the most eye-catching ones go onto the thumbnail. Let’s discuss the steps of creating a keyword list for a YouTube channel.

1. Select queries. You can use special tools, for example, Yandex Wordstat. Next, create a group. This will help you find relevant topics for videos, categories, and playlists.

2. Collect search suggestions. One way to find suggestions on YouTube is by starting to type in the search bar. The platform will suggest possible options. You can also use suggestion services.

Here are some example suggestions that mattress sellers might find useful for their channel

3. Research the semantics of competitors. Online tools can help with this, but it’s also possible to do it manually. For this, review the description and title of the video and note the queries used to promote it.

4. Review the Analytics section in YouTube’s Creator Studio. It shows the queries viewers use to find your videos and the referral sites they come from. This will come in handy when creating the keyword list.

Common mistakes when creating keyword lists

Focusing on semantics of keyword lists and ignoring the business specifics. For instance, using the combination «microwave purchase with delivery» when you do not offer delivery for household appliances.

Considering only high-frequency queries. For these queries, you’ll have to compete with a large number of platforms. For newly created resources, start your SEO campaign with medium-frequency and low-frequency queries, then add high-frequency ones. Gradually target all three types of query frequency.

Ignoring informational queries. By using only commercial queries, you might lose a portion of your engaged audience.

Only analyzing general frequency. You should also consider exact and keyword-based frequency, and even the seasonal nature of your business.

For seasonal businesses, gather search queries during peak periods, when products or services are in demand. This way, you can gather a complete list of keywords.

However, you also need to gather frequency data during other periods to predict traffic volume and sales for those times.

Forgetting about synonyms. Sometimes people write queries with similar meanings in different ways. For example, «book an appointment with a doctor» and «schedule an appointment with a physician». Be sure to include different options.