Discovery Keywords

Discovery Keywords let you give Skool up to 11 terms that describe your community. They help the current Discovery search understand when your group may be relevant, but they do not guarantee a particular position.

What it is

• You can add up to 11 keywords in your group's Discovery settings.
• These words describe the topics, audience, skills, or outcomes that genuinely fit your community.
• Keywords are part of findability, not a promise that your group will rank above another group.
• Your keyword list should agree with your community name, description, and About page.
• The feature is most useful when it helps the right person recognise that your group is for them.

How it works

• Discovery search compares a person's query with information Skool holds about communities.
• Your keyword list gives that system another clear description of your group.
• A good keyword can help your group enter the relevant set of results.
• Its position still depends on the wider Discovery system and the quality of the community.
• Skool has not published the weight given to keywords.
• Skool has not said that every keyword slot has equal weight.
• A keyword should match something a suitable member would naturally search for.
• Close variations can be useful when people describe the same need in different ways.
• Unrelated popular terms may bring the wrong people and weaken trust.
• Keyword And Category Optimization shows how to connect the list with your wider positioning.
• About Page And Discovery Card Packaging helps you carry the same language into the page a visitor reads.

Best practice

• Begin with the plain words your best-fit members use for their problem or goal.
• Include your niche only when it accurately describes what happens inside the group.
• Keep the strongest terms consistent with your About-page language.
• Use all relevant slots, but do not add weak terms just to reach 11.
• Review the list when your audience, offer, or curriculum changes.
• Compare search and Network-sourced joins before and after a meaningful change.
• Change one part of the listing at a time when you want a cleaner comparison.
• Watch whether new members stay and participate, not only whether more people join.
• Pair keyword work with a clear Discovery card.
• Keep a simple dated record of changes and observations.

Pitfalls

• Treating keywords as a shortcut around retention, activity, or community quality.
• Repeating the same word in several forms without helping the searcher.
• Using competitor names or popular topics that do not describe your community.
• Stuffing public copy until it becomes awkward or hard to trust.
• Changing keywords, category, name, and offer at the same time.
• Reading one rank movement as proof that a keyword caused it.
• Assuming a term has demand because it has little visible competition.
• Promising that a keyword will produce a particular rank.