What is the Keyword Research tool?
Each day, there are billions of YouTube search queries. By understanding these search trends, you can use keyword research data to improve the visibility of your videos and reach a larger audience. The vidIQ Keyword Research tool is your secret weapon for discovering the most effective keywords to enhance your content's visibility and grow your channel.
How to get Started with Keyword Research
If you're using a computer: Once you're logged into your vidIQ dashboard,, you'll see a "Keyword" tab on the left bar of your screen or you can use this link directly: https://app.vidiq.com/keywords.
If you're on your phone: Open the vidIQ mobile app, and you'll see a "Keywords" section on the bar at the bottom of your screen.
Selecting a topic or Keyword
It's essential to have a precise topic or idea for your YouTube video so that you can focus and narrow down your keyword research. Exploring and researching one topic in depth allows you to target the right audience and find the specific words they will use to discover your video.
When creating a video, it's essential to clarify its purpose. Are you making a drone review, a vlog at the vidIQ headquarters, or a storytelling video of your last trip to Antarctica? Once you've established your video's purpose, conducting keyword research becomes much easier because you'll know where to start.
Please note that on the free/basic plan, only three results will be displayed for Top Keyword Opportunities, Rising Keywords, and Top Search Terms for Your Channel.
Top Keyword Opportunities
If it is still unclear which keywords to search, two features inside the Keywords tool below the search bar can help as inspiration for keywords; the first one is the Top Keyword Opportunities:
With this feature, the vidIQ algorithm identifies keywords that are opportunities for your channel based on channel data and/or the keywords you add using the Manage feature as presented here:
Top Search Terms for Your Channel
The "Top Search Terms for Your Channel" feature summarizes the main search terms, bringing viewers to your videos. Understanding this information helps you grasp the content that resonates with your audience. With this knowledge, you can create more content on the topics your viewers are most excited about.
You can also see how these terms have contributed to your views and watch time inside the Top Search Terms for Your Channel feature.
Rising Keywords
The Rising Keywords feature helps creators identify the Keywords currently trending on YouTube. These rising keywords can be used as inspiration for video content or keyword research.
Our algorithm identifies keywords that are jumping significantly in search volume on YouTube.
Inside Rising Keywords, there is an option to filter the keywords by Topic, Language, and Time frame. Here is a bit more information about each filter option:
Topic: There are two hundred plus topic filters, and to name a few, you can filter topics for Shorts, Playlists, Comedy, Indian music... and the list goes on. You can easily search/filter the Topics on the paid plans (not available on the free/basic plan) by using the "Filter Topic" feature:
Language: The language options can be filtered to four languages: English, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese:
Timeframe: The timeframe option can be filtered to this month, this week, and Today (paid plan only):
Understanding Keyword Scores
Once you know your video topic, you can create a list of keywords and search them individually or use the video's topic first and start from there. Inside the Keywords tab, input the keyword(s) where it says "Search keywords", like so:
After you type in a keyword, hit enter on your keyboard or return on IOS devices, and our system will trigger the research for that particular keyword.
At first glance, all these numbers, scores, and colors can be overwhelming, but rest assured that once you get the hang of it, it will be straightforward.
The first section, the one presented just below the searched keyword, is an overview of the score and the factors considered for the score calculation, which is the Overall Score:
The Overall score (or Keyword Score) is determined to help gauge how effective a keyword would be in your video optimization efforts and this is the score you will see next to a keyword generally. It is calculated based on:
The Competition: The vidIQ algorithm looks at the videos competing for that search term and the amount of competition in the search results for that keyword (it can also be a fractional number).
The Search Volume: vidIQ estimates the monthly searches on that keyword on YouTube (based on a 30-day rolling period).
Overall (Keyword) Score brackets:
Very low (0 - 19) (Red)
Low (20 - 39) (Orange)
Medium (40 - 59) (Yellow)
High (60 - 79) (Lime Green)
Very High (80 - 100) (Green)
Competition brackets: Displayed with number estimates (only in the vidIQ web app) and as High, Medium, and Low.
Search Volume Brackets: Displayed as number estimates (only in the vidIQ web app as on the mobile app it is represented with a number from 0 to 100) as High, Medium, and Low, and bear in mind that they change from month to month. We take the keyword with the highest search volume and then calculate the ranges from that (similar to the competition), so it is possible for a 100,000 search volume and a one million search volume to be in the same High bracket.
After reading this, one might wonder which keywords to use as topics for creating content or adding to a video title or description. Typically, it's best to focus on keywords with high search volume and low competition. In other words, look for keywords with a high overall score.
Overview of Each Section
Related Keywords
Related keywords help you discover other related keywords, acting as a content thesaurus to suggest similar keywords.
On the vidIQ web app, you can find them next to the overview of the keyword:
On the vidIQ mobile app, you can find them below the overview of the keyword:
Matching Keywords
Matching Keywords (or Matching Terms) are Keywords that contain your searched keyword or phrase in any order. Matching Terms help discover specific topics or niches within a particular keyword.
On the vidIQ web app, you can find the feature below the overview of the keyword (Please note, that Matching Keywords or the Matching Terms feature is only available on the vidIQ web app):
Questions
Keyword questions can inspire your next video. This feature takes the keyword you searched for and generates common questions people might ask on YouTube to find answers related to the topic or keyword(s).
On the vidIQ web app, you can find the feature below related keywords (Please note, that the Questions feature is only available on the vidIQ web app):
Top trending videos
Top Trending Videos gives creators insights into the latest popular videos based on the keyword that was researched. Top trending videos help stay updated with trending content, gain inspiration, and identify emerging trends.
On the vidIQ web app, you can find the feature at the bottom of the page below Matching keywords and Questions:
On the vidIQ mobile app, you can find the feature next to Related keywords:
Please note that on the free/basic plan, only three results will show up for Matching keywords, Related keywords, and Questions. However, on the vidIQ paid plans, there is no limitation.
FAQ of the Keyword Research tool
Can the Keywords be sorted by country?
No, the keyword search tool helps you understand the keyword universe surrounding a root keyword. It will display related terms, our vidIQ keyword score, search volume, and competition without limiting your search results based on country or language.
This will help you reach more of your audience searching for your content, even if they search in a different language. We encourage you to look at our Most Viewed tool (available inside the vidIQ extension), which allows you to sort popular videos by country. However, the Most Viewed tool country filtering is a feature only included in the vidIQ paid plans.How to save and copy Keywords?
To download them, you need to go next to the header of each feature inside the Keywords tool, and there is a button to export/download them in a CSV file (please note you can download the keywords only inside the vidIQ web app
To copy the keywords, you must first select the keywords you want to copy, and then a message will appear at the bottom of your screen to copy them.
Why is there no search volume, overall score, or competitor scores for some Related keywords?
It's very rare, but sometimes, this character will be displayed instead of the score "-" instead of search or competitors’ scores when viewing some of the keywords in the Related Keywords section.
This "-" character shows up because our system has not calculated the score previously, so we do not have a record of it to display. However, once you click on the keyword, the vidIQ algorithm will be triggered to research that particular keyword, in which case the scores will be calculated and displayed.
Why are the Top Trending videos not relevant to the keyword searched?
The top trending videos tool uses an algorithm to provide insights into the latest popular videos using the entered keywords. The feature aims to show you the most recent popular videos featuring those keywords, but sometimes, the algorithm might display irrelevant videos if the keyword is too specific or too broad.
Also, if the videos are irrelevant, the vidIQ algorithm did its best to show you the top trending videos using the provided keywords. The set of keywords searched has few or no recent viral videos; our algorithm shows the most relevant ones based on what is available.
Also, please remember that these videos are video suggestions and do not guarantee virality or high viewership. They are the starting point for your research and content creation.