Clusters, keywords and prompts

What a cluster is

A cluster is one Google keyword and up to 5 prompts about it, one for each angle: category, positioning, sector, outcome and comparison. The prompts we draft each ask for a recommendation the way a buyer would, so they show whether the engines name you.

Every day each prompt is asked on every engine your plan reads, and the keyword is checked on Google. How the daily check works says what that reads.

Your alwaystracked plan covers 10 clusters: 50 prompts and 10 keywords, checked daily. An extra tracking pack adds 5 more - see Billing questions. Clusters in use in Settings shows how many you are using.

The keyword check

Every cluster keyword has to pass Check keyword first. It must:

• be more than one word - a single word is too broad to place against
• not be your own brand or domain, which only finds people who already know you
• not read as a request for an explanation: a keyword that starts like a question, or asks for a guide, a definition or examples, is refused
• not be one you already track
• have measured Google searches a month in your market, and a commercial or transactional intent

When a keyword passes, the check shows its searches a month and its intent. When it does not, it says why, and you can choose Ask us to pick one instead. Checks have a daily limit for each client; past it, try again the next day or ask us to pick one.

Adding a cluster

1. On Clusters, choose Add a cluster.
2. Type a keyword and choose Check keyword.
3. If it passes, we draft 5 prompts from it, one per angle. Edit any of them.
4. Choose Start tracking this cluster.

The new cluster is asked from the next daily check. Until its first reading, its prompts can still be edited and its keyword changed.

When every cluster in your plan is in use, there is no room for another until you stop one or add a pack. Owners and editors add clusters; viewers cannot.

Editing and stopping

A prompt's text can be edited until its first reading. After that it is fixed, so its history stays true to what was asked: to ask something else, stop it and add a new one.

A cluster's keyword works the same way. Change keyword is there until the cluster's first reading; after that, stop the cluster and add a new one.

Stop is on every prompt and every cluster. A stop takes effect from the next daily check: today's readings stay in your figures, and until the next check the row has Undo. Stopping a cluster stops its keyword and all its prompts.

Stopping never deletes anything. A stopped prompt's history stays in your reports, and its place in the cluster is free at once for a new prompt. Once a stop has taken effect it cannot be undone; add the prompt again as a new one.

Every change - an added cluster, an edited prompt, a stop - starts at the next daily check.

Prompts that name your brand

A prompt that names your brand will nearly always get answers that name you, so it lifts your figures without measuring what a buyer asks. You can still track one if you choose; it carries a Names the brand chip so it stands out.

Ungrouped prompts

Some dashboards have prompts in no cluster, listed as ungrouped on Clusters. They are asked every day like the rest. Owners and editors can stop one, or pick a cluster with room and choose Move.