Do keyword research with your AI agent
Ask your agent for keywords with volume, difficulty and intent, then who ranks for the best one. A real run on our own market, with what it found.
Which MCP server keywords could we rank for?
At a glance
| Job | Keywords worth a page, and who ranks for them now |
|---|---|
| Tools | seo_search_keywords, seo_get_serp |
| Credits | 16 for the three calls in this run |
| Data | Google volume, difficulty, intent, CPC and trend, from DataForSEO |
| Run on | "mcp server" and "seo mcp", United States, 27 October 2026 |
The prompts
We asked our own agent, Claude Code connected to Manifold, on 27 October 2026:
Do keyword research for an MCP server that gives AI agents marketing data. Start broad with
"mcp server", then narrow to SEO. Give me volume, difficulty and intent for each keyword, and
tell me which ones we could rank for.Then, after reading the list:
Show me who ranks on Google for "seo mcp server" today, and what the AI overview says.The calls
| Step | Tool | Input | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | seo_search_keywords | "mcp server", 50 rows | 8 |
| 2 | seo_search_keywords | "seo mcp", up to 30 rows | 6 |
| 3 | seo_get_serp | "seo mcp server", with the AI overview | 2 |
The keyword search returns keywords that contain the seed, each with its monthly volume, difficulty from 0 to 100, intent, cost per click and a 12-month trend, so there is no second call for metrics. The SERP call returns the top 10 organic results, the features Google shows and, on request, the AI overview with its sources.
What came back
The broad seed has 4,455 keywords. The first 50 are mostly other products' servers: GitHub, AWS, Figma, Jira, Slack, Notion and dozens more, each a search for that product. Among the ones that are not:
| Keyword | Volume | KD | Intent |
|---|---|---|---|
| mcp server | 60,500 | 34 | navigational |
| what is an mcp server | 9,900 | 20 | informational |
| mcp server meaning | 5,400 | 22 | informational |
| mcp server means | 5,400 | 22 | informational |
| what is mcp server | 5,400 | 30 | informational |
| what is a mcp server | 2,400 | 16 | informational |
| awesome mcp server | 880 | 8 | navigational |
| best mcp server | 720 | 23 | commercial |
| mcp server list | 720 | 22 | informational |
| claude code mcp server | 720 | 3 | navigational |
The narrow seed returned only 9 keywords, all of them small:
| Keyword | Volume | KD | Intent |
|---|---|---|---|
| seo mcp | 90 | 6 | informational |
| data for seo mcp | 70 | 11 | commercial |
| mcp seo | 20 | 6 | commercial |
| seo mcp server | 20 | no data | navigational |
| best seo mcp | 10 | no data | commercial |
Google's first page for "seo mcp server" is mostly articles: Exploding Topics' guide at 1, a Reddit thread at 2, then seoClarity, Search Engine Land and two "best SEO MCP" lists, with two SEO MCP products, DataWise and BlogSEO, at 7 and 10. Ahrefs and SE Ranking bought the ads. The AI overview names five servers: a community Search Console server, DataForSEO, SE Ranking, OpenSEO and an open-source Ahrefs-data project. Manifold is in neither the top 10 nor the overview.
What the agent concluded
- The volume is in definitions, not in products. Four ways of asking what an MCP server is, at difficulty 16 to 22, add up to 23,100 searches a month: a glossary page can compete there.
- The SEO-specific keywords are tiny but expensive. "seo mcp" has 90 searches a month and a cost per click of $26.31. Few people search, and the ones who do are worth paying for.
- Page one is articles. Seven of the ten results are guides and roundups and one is a Reddit thread, so the route onto it runs through being listed in them as much as through a product page.
Run it on yours
Put your own product in the same prompts:
Do keyword research for {what you sell}. Start broad with "{the category}", then narrow to
"{your niche}". Give me volume, difficulty and intent, and show me who ranks for the best one.Then check where your own site ranks for a keyword with seo_get_position, or what a rival ranks for with seo_get_ranked_keywords.
