Semrush Keyword Magic Tool: How to Find Worthy Keywords

Keyword research is not dead and essential whether you want to rank on Google or run ads on Google.

Among many keyword research tools out there, Semrush definitely ranks at the very top of the list because of multiple reasons.

Semrush is a lot of things. It does SEO, Content Marketing, Advertising research, Social media, and more. But, Keyword Research of Semrush is still a key item used by most users.

This tutorial will teach you how to use Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to find keywords in your SEO and PPC campaigns.

How to Use Keyword Magic Tool to Outrank Your Competitors

First, you need to have an active Semrush account. If you do not have a Semrush account, create your Semrush account for free over here.

Semrush has free and paid plans, and Semrush Keyword Magic is available for all users. Learn more about Semrush prices and limits over here.

Click on the Keyword Magic Tool menu link in your left-side menu.

Pick a seed keyword

Now you will see a screen similar to the one below. Type a keyword and select the Google Database. The Google United States is picked by default. Click on the ‘Search‘ button.

Here is the Semrush report for the ‘snake plant’ keyword in Keyword Magic Tool.

Adjust Match Modifiers

By default, Semrush’s Keyword Magic tool will return all the keywords possibly related to your niche.

Broad match: The default setting returns all related keywords in all their forms without any order.

Phrase Match: Return all related keywords you need without any verb variations or order.

Exact Match: Returns all keywords in the same form you need in the same order.

Related Keywords: Returns all the keywords that search engines determine are related to your seed keyword. Those are also known as semantically related (LSI) keywords too.

Using Filters to narrow keyword selection

Click on the ‘Questions‘ tab to find a list of question-based keywords that Semrush Keyword Magic Tool found. This is an excellent feature if you’re trying to generate new blog topic ideas.

Plus, you can add those in a FAQ section in your main article to get a ranking for Instant Answers and Frequently Asked Questions in Google.

Find less competitive keywords

Click on the ‘KD%‘ button and specify the keyword difficulty. Semrush’s KeywordMagicTool has grouped keyword difficulty into six groups.

Find Money Keywords

Not all keywords have the same intent. In your keyword strategy, you should focus on high-traffic keywords and money keywords (i.e., buyer-intent) even though they have some organic competition.

Click on the ‘Include‘ search modifier and enter words that trigger buying emotion. Terms such as best, buy, where, under, deal, discount, for sale, to buy, in stock, and get are considered as some of the buyer-intent words. Find more words from here.

If you type multiple words, make sure to select the ‘Any keywords‘ option instead of ‘All keywords.’ Click on the ‘Apply‘ button.

Exclude unnecessary keywords

When you are doing keyword research, especially for physical products, you need to remove any keyword that triggers Amazon, Walmart, or any local business entity.

To exclude any keyword which you do not need, use the ‘Exclude‘ search modifier and enter keywords. Use brackets ([]) to remove exact words.

Advanced filters

Advanced filters have several search modification facilities.

1. Word count
2. Competitive density
3. SERP Features
4. Results in SERP

For example, if you want to find long tail keywords (i.e.: at least five words long), enter number 5 to the ‘from’ field under ‘Word Count’ in advanced filters and click on the ‘Apply‘ button.

You can go one step further and find long tail keywords with certain SERP features. In our example, I selected ‘Featured Snippets.’

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool supports many SERP features. Instant Answer, Knowledge Panel, Carousel, Local Pack, Image Pack, FAQ, Sitelinks, Video, Featured Video, Shopping Ads (PLA Ads), and People Also Ask are some of them.

Check out keyword groups

Keywords are grouped in two ways.

1. By Number – How many keywords there are
2. By Volume – How much total search traffic is there

Each group has sub-groups that categorize keywords based on topic or intent.

Check keyword insights

Click on the down arrow icon on the right side of the keyword. And you will get a pop-out window right in your KeywordMagicTool dashboard.

1. Click the arrow icon of the desired keyword
2. Look for search volume distribution and global volume
3. Look for keyword details such as trend over time, CPC (Cost per Click), Keyword Difficulty, and SERP features
4. Questions asked related to the keyword or topic
5. SERPP analysis: Find the list of top 10 search results in Google and respective details such as keywords ranked, Page Authority Score (AS), and linking domains (i.e., page backlinks)

You will most likely notice a pattern in SERP analysis.

Although pages with higher authority scores and unique referring domains rank at the top, due to Google’s AI & NLP (Natural Language Processing) and RankBrain, quality content without a good backlink profile could rank at the top defeating authority sites.

Is your language selection right?

English is selected by default. But now, you can modify the language settings in your Semrush Keyword Magic tool to get keywords in the selected local language.

Export your keywords

Once you have identified a few keywords to target, you can select the check box next to each keyword and add them to your Keyword Manager in Semrush as a list.

Or export keywords as a spreadsheet.

Now do your magic

Whether you are a B2C or B2B company that uses content marketing as a driver of traffic, leads, and sales to your business, Semrush Keyword Magic Tool can be a lifesaver.

It dramatically removes barriers of having to cluster keywords based on groups that are based on the keyword relationship. Furthermore, Semrush Keyword Magic Tool now supports languages other than English, so you can find reliable keywords with accurate Keywords Difficulty ranking top on Google.

The next step would be getting an SEO content template to structure your content based on competitors. Once you got a content writing plan, start using Semrush SEO Writing Assistant to optimize content with better SEO, readability, and originality.

How to use Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to find low-cost PPC Keywords

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool is not just an SEO keyword research tool. In fact, it can find keywords for Google Ads campaigns too.

Metrics to look out for

In Semrush Keyword Magic Tool, you are given three metrics for PPC advertisers.

1. CPC – Cost per click. Which shows the average cost per click.
2. Competitive Density – The level of competition among advertisers bidding on a given keyword within their PPC campaigns. Competitive Density is shown on a scale from 0 to 1.00, with 1.00 being the most difficult to rank for.
3. SERP features – If you want to run Google Shopping Ads (PLA advertisements), SERP features search modifier would be useful.

While CPC is essential in PPC advertising, it does not tell the whole story. CPC would be higher because of many reasons. Increased competition and keyword conversion rate are two of the top reasons.

Competitive Density is critical in finding low-cost keywords yet has high potential in PPC keyword research. A low Competitive Density score indicates that the keyword is not yet found by other ad competitors or does not convert.

Using Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to Research PPC keywords

Not all keywords are worthy of running ads for. The best way to know which regular keywords are usually advertised by others is to find keywords with ads on Google.

In SERP features of Advanced filters, select these three: Adwords top, Adwords bottom, and Shopping ads.

Now you will see a list of keywords that have ads on Google.

Low-cost PPC keywords

Under the CPC filter, designate a range of costs of a click. (Remember, these are the keywords that people are already advertising on)

There is no practice that you should select keywords that others are advertising on. Semrush Keyword Magic Tool shows keywords people advertise on, not untapped keywords. For it, you have used a tool like Keyword Gap analysis for PPC. Learn more.

Wrapping up

Among many Semrush tools, its keyword research toolkit is one of the most used. Not just because it has got seven unique ways of doing keyword research with Semrush, but also extensive data and smooth integration with its other tools like On-Page SEO Checker and Content Audit.

Whether you are a blogger, content marketer, freelance writer, or PPC advertiser, Semrush Keyword Magic Tool can be resourceful in many ways.

So, how do you use Keyword Magic Tool in your business? Share your ideas below.