The Scenario
You are a content strategist at a B2B tech company. Your head of content handed you 12 pillar keywords in an Excel workbook and asked for a full content cluster map by end of week. Related keywords, question-format queries, search volumes, difficulty scores, all organized so writers can pick up a cluster and start immediately.
A proper cluster map for 12 pillars, done manually, takes three days. You have two.
The bad version of this project:
- You type the first seed keyword into Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool
- You screenshot the related keywords and manually transcribe the relevant ones into the workbook
- You switch to the Questions filter and repeat
- Eight keywords in, your tabs are a mess and the column names do not match between Seeds
- You realize you formatted the SearchVolume column as text in three tabs so the sort does not work
- You deliver 8 of 12 pillars on Friday and call it a "first draft."
The fast version is one prompt that handles all 12.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI reads your seed keyword column and expands each one using Semrush's related keywords and phrase-questions APIs, writing every variation and question into structured tabs in the workbook.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
For each seed keyword in column A of the Seeds tab, fetch 20 related keywords from Semrush with search volume and keyword difficulty and write each as a new row on a sheet called RelatedKeywords, keeping a SeedKeyword column for grouping. Then for each seed keyword, pull the top 10 question-format queries from Semrush phrase questions and write them with their search volumes into a Questions tab grouped by seed keyword.
SheetXAI works through all 12 seeds and populates both tabs with labeled rows. You open the workbook to find 240 related keywords and 120 questions, all attributed to their pillar.
What You Get
Two new tabs, fully populated:
- RelatedKeywords tab — up to 20 rows per seed keyword, with columns for SeedKeyword, RelatedKeyword, SearchVolume, and KeywordDifficulty
- Questions tab — up to 10 rows per seed keyword, with columns for SeedKeyword, Question, and SearchVolume
Every row knows which pillar it came from. Filter by SeedKeyword, hand each cluster to a writer, and the structure for each content brief is already in place.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Seed keyword lists are rarely clean, and cluster maps often need reshaping before they are useful.
When the seed keywords have inconsistent formatting
Some pillars are single words, some are four-word phrases, some have trailing punctuation from copy-paste.
Normalize the seed keywords in column A of the Seeds tab: trim whitespace, lowercase, remove trailing punctuation. Then expand each into 20 related keywords and 10 questions, writing into the RelatedKeywords and Questions tabs.
When you want to flag cross-pillar keywords that appear under multiple seeds
"integration" shows up as a related keyword for five different pillars. You want to flag these without removing them.
After building the RelatedKeywords tab, scan for any RelatedKeyword that appears under more than one SeedKeyword. Write "Cross-Pillar" in a Tag column for those rows. Leave the rest blank.
When the team only wants question clusters for high-volume seeds
Not every pillar is worth a full question cluster. The editorial team only wants questions for seeds whose related keywords average above 500 search volume.
For each seed keyword in column A of the Seeds tab, first check if the average search volume of its related keywords is above 500. Only pull top 10 question-format queries for seeds that meet the threshold. For seeds that do not qualify, write "Low-Volume Seed — Skipped" in the Questions tab with the seed keyword noted.
When the full cluster needs scoring and sorting in one pass
You want related keywords, questions, difficulty scores, and a priority flag all in the same output, ready to hand off to writers.
For each seed keyword in column A of the Seeds tab, fetch 20 related keywords and 10 questions from Semrush with search volume and keyword difficulty. Write them into the RelatedKeywords and Questions tabs with a SeedKeyword column. In both tabs, add a Priority column: "High" if search volume is above 1,000 and keyword difficulty is below 45, "Medium" if search volume is 200–1,000, blank otherwise. Sort each tab by SeedKeyword then Priority descending.
The pattern: the expansion and the scoring happen together. You hand the workbook to writers already prioritized.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and put your pillar keywords in column A of any Excel workbook, then ask it to build the cluster map. The Semrush integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. For the next step, see how to audit competitor keyword gaps in Excel or the Semrush in Excel overview.