Level: Intermediate
Many keyword tool exports arrive as a single delimited string per row, and splitting that into proper columns is a necessary step before any real analysis.
The Excel Technique
Excel's Text to Columns feature (Data > Text to Columns) splits a column based on a delimiter like a comma or tab in a guided wizard. For more control or to build it into a repeatable formula-based process, functions like TEXTSPLIT (in newer Excel versions) or a combination of LEFT, RIGHT, and FIND handle the same task.
Example Scenario
A tool export arrives as a single column with "keyword|volume|competition" combined in each cell, separated by pipe characters. Text to Columns splits this into three proper, usable columns in a few clicks, ready for sorting and filtering.
Where This Fits in Your Keyword Research Process
This is one of the most routine data-prep tasks in keyword research, and it's worth doing correctly the first time, since a poorly split column causes cascading errors in every formula built on top of it afterward.
Next step: Use Split by Delimiter / Extract Column from SeoWolf's Notepad to split your pipe-delimited export and pull out just the specific column you need before it reaches Excel, arriving at a clean, single-purpose list rather than needing the full Text to Columns wizard for a quick one-column extraction.