Level: Intermediate
Tagging each keyword by where it falls in the buyer's journey — awareness, consideration, or decision — turns a flat list into an actionable content roadmap.
The Excel Technique
Add a "stage" column and either tag manually based on keyword phrasing patterns, or use a nested IF formula checking for common signal words: =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("buy",A2)),"Decision",IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("best",A2)),"Consideration","Awareness")). This gives a rough first-pass tag you can refine manually afterward.
Example Scenario
After tagging 700 keywords by journey stage, a pivot table reveals you have plenty of awareness-stage content planned but almost nothing addressing the decision stage — a clear gap in the funnel that the flat, untagged list hadn't made obvious.
Where This Fits in Your Keyword Research Process
This kind of tagging is far more useful once every keyword actually carries a consistent tag, which is a great use case for adding a structured prefix before the list even reaches Excel.
Next step: Use Add Prefix from SeoWolf's Notepad to add a journey-stage prefix to relevant segments of your keyword list based on your initial manual review, so the tags are already built into the list structure before you bring it into Excel for pivot table analysis.