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Article · Rank tracking

How many keywords to track per client, and how to pick them

Track the terms you will explain and act on, not every term the site shows up for. A selection method, a worksheet, the free route, and a way to split a shared keyword limit across clients.

Google details checked on 29 October 2026; Semrush details as listed on 28 October 2026.

The short answer: there is no correct number. Size the list from the client's money pages: one main term per page, a few close variants, a handful of brand terms reported apart, and only the locations and devices the client's customers use. If you could not walk the client through it in a monthly call, it is too long.

Why a shorter list is easier to defend

Every keyword on a client's list is a small promise: if it moves, you will explain why. A list tied to pages that bring in leads is one you can explain. A list of hundreds turns the report into a scoreboard, and the client asks about the one term that dropped instead of the inquiries that came in.

Rankings are also only one signal. Google's Search Console help suggests watching impression and click trends rather than average position alone. Put the list next to the KPIs you agreed with the client, and settle it during onboarding. It becomes the "agreed keyword set" in the report outline.

A five-step selection method

  1. List the money pages

    Start from pages, not from a keyword tool. Write down the pages that produce leads, calls or sales: service pages, location pages, product categories. Then ask the client which services they most want more of, and which they would rather not sell more of right now. Only pages that survive that conversation get keywords.

  2. Give each page one main term and a few variants

    The main term is what a buyer would type to find that page. Add a few close variants, such as the service plus the city, or another common name for the service. Before you invent terms, filter the Search Console Performance report by that page and look at the queries it already appears for. If two variants would always move together, keep one.

  3. Separate branded from non-branded

    Keep a few brand terms, such as the business name and the name plus the city, as a health check, and report them in their own block. People who search the brand already know the client, so those terms say little about your work. Non-branded terms should make up most of the list.

  4. Choose location and device from the client's customers

    A business that serves one metro area needs positions for that city or ZIP code; a business that sells nationwide can use the country. For device, check how the site's search traffic splits between desktop, mobile and tablet in Search Console's Devices view. Decide before you set up a tracker: in Semrush, as listed on 28 October 2026, a Position Tracking campaign's original location and device cannot be changed after it is created.

  5. Cut to what you will act on

    For each term, ask: if this dropped noticeably next month, would I change anything? If not, take it off. Also cut terms the client cannot serve, such as a city they do not cover.

The keyword worksheet

Keep one row per keyword in a spreadsheet the client can see. These columns are enough. For a new post built around one of these terms, see the SEO content brief template.

KeywordTarget pageTypeLocationDeviceWhy we track it
emergency plumber springfield/emergency-plumbing/Non-branded, main termSpringfieldMobileThe service the client most wants more calls for
24 hour plumber springfield/emergency-plumbing/Non-branded, variantSpringfieldMobileAlready gets impressions in Search Console
water heater installation springfield/water-heaters/Non-branded, main termSpringfieldMobileHighest-value job type, per the client
[business name]Home pageBrandedSpringfieldMobileHealth check, reported separately
[business name] reviews/reviews/BrandedSpringfieldMobileHealth check, reported separately

Example only: a hypothetical plumbing business in a fictional Springfield. Replace every row with your own client's pages, terms and reasons.

Free tracking in Search Console vs a fixed daily rank tracker

Search Console shows how the site appeared in real searches. A rank tracker checks a fixed list on a schedule, for a location and device you choose.

QuestionSearch Console (free)Fixed daily tracker: Semrush Position Tracking
What "position" meansFor each search where the site appeared, its topmost position, averaged across those searchesThe position of each keyword you entered, tracked daily
Which termsReal queries the site appeared for. Rare queries are anonymized and left out of the table, which shows at most 1,000 rowsOnly the list you entered
LocationThe country the search came from; no city viewCountry, state or region, city, or ZIP code; one location per campaign on the entry SEO toolkit
DeviceDesktop, mobile and tablet, as a dimension you can filterDesktop, mobile or tablet; one device per campaign on the entry SEO toolkit
Brand splitBranded queries filter on eligible properties, or your own regex filterTags you add to keywords
CostFreePaid plan; the free account covers one site and 10 keywords

Search Console details from Google's help pages, checked on 29 October 2026. Semrush details as listed on 28 October 2026.

How to track your list for free

  1. Open the Performance report for search results and set a custom date range covering last calendar month.
  2. Add a query filter, choose Custom (regex), and paste your terms separated by vertical bars. Search Console uses RE2 syntax and partial, case-insensitive matching, so anchor with ^ and $ for exact queries. Example: ^(emergency plumber springfield|24 hour plumber springfield)$
  3. Add a country filter (the client's country; Search Console has no city filter) and a device filter that match the worksheet.
  4. On the Compare tab, choose a custom range and compare last calendar month with the month before (one comparison at a time).
  5. Copy clicks, impressions and average position for each term into the worksheet.

Three things to plan around. Data usually arrives two to three days late, so pull monthly numbers a few days into the new month. Filtered totals leave out anonymized queries, so do not present them as "all search traffic". And Search Console keeps 16 months of data, enough for a same-month-last-year comparison, so keep your worksheet as the long-term record. For access and property setup, see setting up Search Console for client reporting.

For the brand split, Search Console has a branded queries filter that classifies queries with an AI-assisted system. Google says it works only on top-level properties with enough queries and impressions, may misclassify some queries, and has no effect on ranking; in March 2026 Google said it was available to all eligible sites. If a client's property is not eligible, use a regex filter with the brand name and its common misspellings.

When the free route is enough

Stay with Search Console when all of these are true:

Add a fixed daily tracker when any of these is true:

How to budget a shared keyword limit across clients

As listed on 28 October 2026, Semrush's "SEO" plan allows five websites in monitoring tools at the same time and 500 keywords tracked daily in total, shared across all Position Tracking campaigns. A keyword counts again for every target you track it in, and multitargeting (more than one location or device in one campaign) is listed as not available on the Pro SEO Toolkit, which has the same five-site, 500-keyword limits; we read that as the "SEO" plan. The free account, per the pricing FAQ, covers one site and 10 keywords: enough to learn the tool on your own site, not to run a client.

So you manage two budgets: five monitoring slots and 500 keywords. A project takes a slot once you set up a monitoring tool in it. In our reading of the help pages, a second city or device for the same client means another project, another slot, and the same keywords counted again. With five clients, slots can run out before keywords do.

  1. Count campaigns before keywords

    One campaign per client, location and device. If the total is above five, decide which extras you will follow in Search Console instead.

  2. Allocate from the worksheets, not evenly

    An even split gives 100 terms per client, as the guide's cost section notes. A one-city service business may need far fewer, a store with many categories more. Total each client's worksheet and allocate that.

  3. Keep a reserve

    Hold back part of the allowance for pages launched mid-quarter and terms a client asks about. If the allowance is full, every new request starts with deleting something.

  4. Write the cap into the scope

    State in the proposal how many terms you track, for which location and device, and that changes happen at the quarterly review. "A few more keywords" then becomes a scope conversation, not a favor.

ClientMarketCampaigns (location, device)SlotsKeywords
Client AService business, one cityCity, mobile170
Client BOnline store, nationwideCountry, desktop1140
Client CService business, two citiesCity 1, mobile; City 2, mobile2120 (the same 60 terms in each city)
Client DB2B service, nationwideCountry, desktop180
Total5 of 5410 of 500

Example only: hypothetical clients and numbers. The 90 unused keywords are the reserve. A fifth client would need a slot this plan does not have: drop Client C's second campaign (on this plan that means deleting its project, which cannot be undone) and follow that city's terms in Search Console (queries, but no city-level positions), or look at a plan with more slots.

See Semrush plans and current prices Official site · not a paid link

For the Position Tracking setup itself, see step 3 of the walkthrough.

How to explain the list to the client

Send this after onboarding or with the first report. Edit the brackets.

Subject: The search terms we will track for [business name]

Hi [first name],

Here are the [number] search terms we will track each month, grouped by the page each one supports. They lead to the services you told us matter most: [service 1] and [service 2].

We check positions for [city or country], the area you serve, on [mobile or desktop], because your Search Console data shows most of your search visitors use that device.

Your business name is on the list as a health check. We report it separately, because those searches mostly come from people who already know you.

Rankings are one signal. In the monthly report we show them next to clicks from search and the calls or forms they produced. We review the list every quarter; if you want a term added, tell us.

[Your name]

For each month's email, see the monthly report email template. If a tracked term drops, read how to explain a ranking drop.

Quarterly review checklist

Sources

Google sources checked on 29 October 2026. Semrush details as listed on 28 October 2026.