AI Visibility: Keywords | Sona Help Center

Overview

The Keywords tab in AI Visibility is where search demand meets AI answers. It lists the keywords your brand cares about, groups them into topics, and shows both the traditional SEO signals for each one (volume, difficulty, CPC, ranking position) and how those keywords connect to the prompts Sona tracks in AI models. Use it to decide which terms are worth going after, which ones you are already winning, and which topics still need prompt coverage.

Getting to Keywords

Keywords is one of the tabs inside AI Visibility, which lives under Insights in the left sidebar. To open it:

In the left sidebar, click Insights. If the sidebar is collapsed to icons, click the toggle at the top of the sidebar to expand it, or hover over an icon to see its label.
Under Insights, click AI Visibility.
At the top of the page, click the Keywords tab.

Where keywords come from

You do not have to build the list from scratch. Keywords reach the tab three ways:

Your brand setup: terms Sona derives when you configure a brand for AI visibility tracking.
Connected SEO data: keywords pulled in from Semrush and Google Search Console.
Manual entry: keywords you add yourself, one at a time or by CSV upload.

If the tab shows No keywords yet, none of those sources have produced keywords for the selected brand. Click + Add Keyword(s) to start the list yourself.

The topics sidebar

The panel on the left groups your keywords by topic. All Topics sits at the top and shows every keyword for the brand; click any topic below it to narrow the table to that topic's keywords. The number beside each topic is how many keywords are currently assigned to it.

Hover a topic and click the ⋯ menu at the end of the row to Edit its settings or Delete it.

Note: topics are shared with the Prompts tab. Every topic generates prompts, so the topics you build here are the same ones Sona runs against AI models.

Adding a topic

Click + next to Add topics at the top of the sidebar to open the Add new Topic dialog. Fill in:

Topic: the subject you want to cover, such as SEO optimization. Write it as a category buyers would ask about, without mentioning your own brand.
Prompts per topic: how many prompts Sona should generate for the topic. The default is 10.
Language: the language the prompts should be written in. English is selected by default.

Click + Add to create the topic, or Cancel to discard it.

Tip: keep your own brand name out of the topic. Topics are meant to mirror the neutral questions buyers ask, so you can see whether AI brings you up unprompted. The dialog says as much at the top: create a topic without mentioning your own brand.

The keywords table

Each row is one keyword. The table scrolls sideways, and clicking any column header re-sorts the list. The columns are:

Keyword: the search term being tracked.
Topic: the topic the keyword is assigned to.
Linked Prompts: the tracked AI prompts connected to this keyword, tying search demand to the answers Sona monitors.
Funnel Stage: where the keyword sits in the buyer journey, so you can tell awareness terms from late-stage ones.
Opportunity: how much upside the keyword represents for your brand.
Demand Score: how much buyer demand sits behind the keyword.
Winnability: how realistic it is for your brand to win the keyword, given the competition already ranking for it.
Position: where your site currently ranks in search results for the keyword.
Previous Position: the prior ranking, so you can see movement at a glance.
Intent: the search intent behind the keyword: Commercial, Informational, Navigational, or Transactional.
Volume: estimated monthly search volume.
Difficulty: keyword difficulty, as a percentage. Higher means harder to rank for.
CPC: the average cost per click for the keyword in paid search, a useful proxy for commercial value.
URL: the page on your site that ranks for the keyword.
Competition: how contested the keyword is among advertisers.
Competitors Ranking: the competing brands that currently rank for the keyword.

Scroll the table right to reach the last of those columns:

Adding keywords

Click + Add Keyword(s) in the top-right to open the dialog. It has two tabs.

Add Keyword adds a single term:

Type the term in the Keyword box, for example best AI visibility platform.
Pick a Topic from the dropdown to link the keyword to.
Click + Add.

Bulk Upload adds many at once:

Drop a .CSV file into the upload area, or click Choose CSV File to browse for one.
Make sure the keywords sit in the first column of the file. An export from Google Search Console or any third-party SEO tool works.
If you are unsure of the format, click download example to grab a template first.

Filtering and scoping the data

The toolbar above the table narrows the list without changing what Sona tracks:

Brand selector: switch between the brands in your workspace. Keywords and topics are per brand.
Search keywords or topics: free-text search across the list.
Position: filter to Top 3, Top 10, Top 20, Top 50, or Top 100, or enter a custom From and To range and click Apply.
Volume: filter by 0 - 100, 101 - 1K, 1K - 10K, 10K - 100K, or 100K+, or set a custom range.
KD (keyword difficulty): filter by band: Very easy (0 - 14%), Easy (15 - 29%), Possible (30 - 49%), Difficult (50 - 69%), Hard (70 - 84%), or Very hard (85 - 100%). A custom range is available too.
Intent: filter to Commercial, Informational, Navigational, or Transactional keywords.

Each filter opens a dropdown of preset bands with a custom From and To range beneath, as the KD filter shows:

Note: the filter bar is shared across AI Visibility tabs. For a full breakdown of the shared controls, see the Insights: AI Visibility article, and for metric definitions see the AI Visibility metric glossary.

How to use the tab

Sort by Volume and scan for keywords with a weak or empty Position. Those are terms buyers are searching that you are not yet showing up for.
Filter KD to Very easy or Easy to surface the terms you can realistically win first.
Compare Position against Previous Position to spot pages that are slipping before the traffic loss shows up elsewhere.
Use Linked Prompts to check that your highest-value keywords actually have AI prompts behind them. A keyword with no linked prompts is demand you are not measuring in AI answers.

FAQs

Why does my Keywords tab say "No keywords yet"?

Nothing has populated the list for the selected brand yet. Keywords come from your brand setup, from Semrush and Google Search Console, or from keywords you add yourself. Check that you have the right brand selected in the brand dropdown, then click + Add Keyword(s) to seed the list manually.

What is the difference between a topic and a keyword?

A keyword is a single search term with its own SEO metrics. A topic is the theme that groups related keywords together, and every topic also generates the prompts Sona runs against AI models. Think of topics as the subject areas you want to own, and keywords as the individual terms that make up each one.

Why do my topics show a count of 0?

Topics and keywords are separate lists. A topic can exist with no keywords assigned to it, which is what a count of 0 means. The topic still generates prompts for the Prompts tab; it just has no search terms attached yet.

What format does the CSV need for bulk upload?

The keywords must be in the first column of the file. Beyond that, an export from Google Search Console or any third-party SEO tool works as-is. If you want a starting point, click download example in the Bulk Upload tab for a template.

Do keywords carry across brands?

No. Keywords and topics belong to the brand selected in the brand dropdown. Switching brands shows that brand's own list, so you will need to build or import keywords separately for each brand you track.

What happens when I delete a topic?

Deleting a topic removes that grouping from the sidebar. Because topics also drive prompt generation, remove one only when you no longer want to track that subject area. If you just need to rename it or change its settings, use Edit in the same ⋯ menu instead.