Installing and using the Really Useful Keyword Tool - Google Sheets Add-On for SEOs by Authoritas

Authoritas is a comprehensive SEO software platform that supports professional SEO teams to produce consistent organic growth.
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We've built an add-on for Google Sheets which allows you to use our Keyword Research, Keyword rank tracking and SERPs API tools within Google Sheets, to help you easily research keywords and run keyword rank checks for your site and your competitors.

The "Really Useful Keyword Tool" add-on gives access to three core SEO tools provided by the Authoritas SERPs API:

• Keyword Ranking - This replicates the keyword ranking functionality found in the Authoritas SEO platform
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• Top 100 SERP View - This gives you the complete listing of all ranking URLs and universal search results for each keyword, as if you had made a request to the Authoritas SERPs API
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• Keyword Research - This gives you deep information about your keyword and related keywords and replicates some of the advanced keyword research tools and data in the SEO platform

You have the option to query all 3 tools at once or to just select the specific tools and output format you are interested in.

Use Cases for SEO Pros

• Perform one-off or regular scheduled keyword ranking tasks and check the rankings of multiple domains in one go

• Pull-in and analyse the top 100 competitors for any keyword in any major search engine worldwide

• Perform in-depth keyword research and get related keywords, questions people ask, universal SERP features and unique to Authoritas - the keyword or user intent for the keyword phrase

• Once the data is in Sheets you can easily visualise it in Google Data Studio and/or send it to Big Query

• If you are considering using the Authoritas SERPs API for your SEO project, then the Google Sheets add-on is a great way to test the API without having to get an engineer to do it for you

Cost

You'll be pleased to hear that you can use the add-on totally for free for up to 1,000 keyword requests per month (using standard priority). All we ask in return, is for a nice review on the Google Apps marketplace (should you think we deserve it) and perhaps helping us to spread the word with your friends and colleagues.
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Google Workspace Users - Credit Allowance
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If you are using Google Workspace and you install the add-on as individual users, then each user will get 1,000 free keyword requests. Standard priority requests costs 1 credit, but high priority requests cost 2 credits per keyword phrase and will consume your allowance more quickly.

If you are a Google Workspace admin and you install it as a 'Domain Install', then this will give all users access to this add-on, but the initial complementary credit allowance will be split across all users in your organisation.
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​Upgrading your credit allowance
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If you need to increase your credit allowance, please contact us via our website. We will can give you a customised quotation for the volume of monthly requests you need.

Pre-requisites

• You need to get an API key - it is free for your first 1,000 requests per month (assuming they are all standard priority)

• Simply complete the form here: https://www.authoritas.com/google-sheets-add-on-the-really-useful-keyword-tool/ and we will automatically send you your API key

How to install the SEO add-on for Google Sheets

• You then need to install the "Authoritas SEO - The Really Useful Keyword Tool" add-on for your Google account or Google Workspace domain

• If you are a Google Workspace domain administrator and wish to install this for your entire domain, then click ‘Domain install’.

Tutorial - Step-by-step Guide - How to Make a Request

The Sidebar

The sidebar contains five sections (four of which are visible when first opened) which are used to configure the requests you wish to make to the SERPs API. Each section will be expanded when clicked on, and we shall go through each of them in turn.

The add-on is split into 5 main sections:

Section 1: Adding a list of keywords

in this section you can add a list of keywords or phrases for which to make SERP requests. You can select any tab in any sheet, and can run requests from different tabs on the same sheet.

​Create a sheet or select an existing sheet - In the first step, create a sheet in which to put the keywords or phrases that you want to make SERP requests for. This can be any sheet, but the add-on will read the list of keywords from column A of the chosen sheet. Only one keyword should be entered per cell.

​Enter the sheet name - The Sheet’s name should be entered into the input box in order to identify which sheet to get keywords from. In a new sheet, this will be Sheet1, but if you have renamed your sheets then enter the new name here.

The border of the input field will turn red if the add-on is unable to find a sheet with the name entered. If this occurs, check that the sheet name entered matches exactly the sheet containing your list of keywords, as it is case sensitive. The keywords/phrases should be entered from cell A2 onwards as this gives leeway for a header column in row 1. Press 'Save' to check the list of words and display the number found.

Attempting to make API requests without a valid sheet will result in failed calls, as no phrase will be provided in the request.

Section 2: Select Services

SERPs API Service Selection

As mentioned at the beginning of this tutorial, the add-on supports three SEO tools provided by the Authoritas SERPs API. For each set of keywords, the services which you wish to use for the data analysis must be selected in the Step 2 input box.

​N/B: At least one service must be selected. If no services are selected then the API call will not be made, and the grey bar at the top where the text “Step 2: Select Services” is displayed will turn red until at least one service is checked.

Section 3: Customise Request

This is the section in which the parameters in the request to the SERPs API should be set. The values of certain parameters in some cases depend on the values of others (for example London isn’t an accepted value for the Town Selection if the Country is set to say, Indonesia).

The add-on will handle incompatible values so that only valid parameters will be available based on what values have already been entered.

The selections will be broken down below, but you can read the Authoritas SERPs API documentation for more detailed information on the request. The request object information can be found here, and the full list of supported search engines, regions, languages and towns is available on this page.

• Search Engine - The Search Engine that you wish to query. Required.

• Country - The country from where the search should be made. Required.

• Language - The language of the search. Required.

• Town - More fine-tuned location information of where the search should be made from. Optional, but can not be used if Latitude and Longitude are specified.

• Latitude - More fine-tuned location information of where the search should be made from. Optional, but Longitude must also be specified and Town must be not selected.

• Longitude - More fine-tuned location information of where the search should be made from. Optional, but Latitude must also be specified and Town must be not selected.

   

  The latitude and longitude inputs will only take valid values - this is a numerical value between -90 and +90 for latitude, and between -180 and +180 for longitude. Please be aware, that it is possible to input coordinates for a location outside of the country selected. The add-on will presume that the latitude and longitude values entered are within the borders of the country that has been chosen and so will make no check to see if it is valid. If it is not valid, the API call will be made anyway, but may fail.

• Device - The type of device that the search should be made from. Can be Mobile or Desktop. Required.

• Priority - This parameter lets the SERPs API know how urgent this request is made. High Priority requests will have results return faster than Standard requests. High Priority requests cost 2 API credits, Standard requests cost 1 credit. Required.

• Update Frequency - How often you would like the tasks to re-run. For one-off requests, select Ad-hoc. Daily requests will be made once per day, and Weekly requests will be made every 7 days. Required.
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Section 4: Track Domains

This section is only available if Keyword Rankings is selected in step 2, you can then enter multiple domains and/or sub-domains you wish to track in the SERP results.

The domain tracker will validate URLs that are entered into the domain tracker and do two things:

• Check if the URL redirects to another location. If it does, it will continually follow the redirects until a final endpoint is hit. It will then replace the initially entered URL with the final location.

• If the URL is valid, then the input box will turn green indicating such. If the URL is not valid, then the input box will turn red indicating that the URL does not return a 200 status code and should be checked before making the request (shown below).

If more than two domains are to be tracked for a given keyword, then additional domains can be added by pressing the + button. In a similar vein, unwanted domain fields can be removed with the - button next to them.

Press Save to save these domains. The add-on will store these domains so that they do not need to be re-entered if you have multiple sheets of requests to make. Bear in mind that these domains are cached for 30 minutes, and will need to be entered if this time elapses.

​N/B: We validate each domain you enter. Valid domains turn green, and invalid domains turn red. If you are happy you have typed the correct domain, then you may ignore any red boxes as they are probably caused by the site blocking our bots.

Section 5: Setting up email address and API key

Once an API key has been obtained by filling out the APi Request form, you can enter the API key provided to you in this section.
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This is the API key that the add-on will use to make the API requests. The email address should be the same as the one with which you signed up for the API key.

Enter your provided public key in the PUBLIC KEY field, private key in the PRIVATE KEY field, and salt in the SALT field. Add your email address in the field titled EMAIL, and press Save.

Links to the Authoritas Help page, and the API key request form are provided for easy access.
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User Consent:
 

When the add-on is installed and opened for the first time, in order to perform actions on your behalf a consent screen will appear, asking to give permission for the add-on to have certain levels of access to your account.

Performing your Request
 

With all the sections for your request filled out, you can now press the Run button. All fields are checked by the add-on before making the API requests, and if any required field has been missed, they will be highlighted in red to indicate they need to be provided.

On running the add-on in a Sheet for the first time, four new sheets will be created: Task Status, Keyword Rankings, Top 100 SERPs and Keyword Research.

The latter three of these sheets are used for organising the data in a manageable way, segregated by the services you requested. These will automatically be populated as the results come in - so no need to do anything after you've hit Run!

The Task Status sheet acts as a database of all the requests that you have made in the current sheet. For recurring requests, these settings can be directly modified in this sheet, and will be reflected the next time that task is run.

For example: Say you have a daily recurring request for the keyword authoritas, to be searched with the Google search engine from London, United Kingdom. These settings will be reflected in the task's row, in columns A, K and O respectively. If you would like to keep all settings, but instead wish to search from Holbeach, you can simply change the data in column O from London to Holbeach (Lincolnshire).

N/B: Even though these settings can be changed, it is important that the fields you enter are valid. You can see a list of available towns per country, as well as the other valid parameters in the Authoritas API documentation.

Manually Checking for Results

Results will come in and be automatically populated into the correct sheet as they become available. Sometimes, however, unexpected errors may occur either in the transport process, or in the Google Sheets ecosystem, which may cause delays or apparent failure in fetching results.
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The Check for Results button allows you to manually check all tasks that have been made to the SERPs API, but haven't made it to the sheet as of yet. This includes all keywords that have a Status of Pending, and all recurring requests where the Next Run Date has past.
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You may have to refresh your Google Sheet once or twice and wait a few minutes before the data loads (especially if you are querying thousands of keywords).

Deleting the app and your user data

Simply remove the add-on from Google Sheets in the normal way.
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We do not store any personal data, other than the details you provided when you requested the API key. If you would like us to delete your personal details please email us at the address below.

​Need Further Help?
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Please raise a ticket or contact support@authoritas.com with any suggestions or if you have any issues installing or running the add-on, or if you spot a bug.