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Keyword Expansion is usually the first step in RankEarly research. You start with a topic idea or a list of seed keywords, and RankEarly finds related keywords people actually search for. Everything gets saved into your keyword library — which feeds into Topic Clustering for content planning and Primary Term for positioning research.

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Two ways to start

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Topic mode (default)

Describe what you want to target in your own words. This can be:
  • A content idea you’re considering
  • A product feature you want to promote
  • A use case for your product
  • Community discussions or user feedback
  • Anything that defines a subject you want to rank for
RankEarly reads your description and generates seed keywords to expand from. The more specific your description, the more focused your results. Example: “Email deliverability tools for cold outreach” produces tighter results than just “email tools.”

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Keywords mode

Already know which keywords you want to target? Paste them directly as a comma-separated list. RankEarly expands exactly what you provide — no AI interpretation step. This is useful when you’ve already done keyword research elsewhere, have competitor keywords to expand on, or prefer full control over the starting point. Example: Paste “email warmup, cold email software, deliverability testing” and RankEarly finds related keywords for each.

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Search effort levels

Choose how broad the search should be. Higher effort levels explore more angles and return more keywords. Medium is the default and works well for most topics. Go higher when mapping an entire market. Go lower when you want focused results around a specific term.

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Credit requirements

Cost has two parts:
  1. Search cost — varies by effort level
  2. Keyword cost — 1 credit per keyword returned
The exact total depends on how many keywords are found. You’ll see the cost breakdown before you start.

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How it works

Keyword expansion modal where you enter your idea and select search effort
1

Start with a topic or your own seeds

Describe what you want to target in Topic mode, or paste a comma-separated list of keywords in Keywords mode.
2

Choose your search effort

Pick an effort level based on how broad you want the discovery to be. Higher effort explores more angles and returns more keywords.
3

RankEarly finds related keywords

RankEarly finds related search terms, checks search volume and difficulty, and removes duplicates.
4

SERP data is collected

For every keyword returned, RankEarly captures a snapshot of the current Google search results — so you can see who’s ranking.
5

Everything saves to your library

Keywords and SERP snapshots are saved into your selected keyword library. Each run adds to the library — run multiple expansions for different topics and the library grows over time.

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What you get

  • A collection of related keywords with search volume, difficulty, and intent data
  • SERP snapshots showing who ranks for each keyword
  • Exportable keyword lists for spreadsheets or other tools

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Using with AI Agents

See AI Keyword Research for how to run keyword expansion and topic clustering using the keyword-research and serp-gap-analysis skills.

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Tips

In most workflows, this is the best first step. It populates your keyword library, which other research modes depend on.
Each run adds new keywords to your library. You can run Keyword Expansion multiple times for different topics within the same market — the library grows with each run.
Don’t default to the highest effort. If you’re researching a niche topic, Low or Medium is usually enough. Save High and Ultra High for when you’re mapping a broad category.