The Scenario
You are a content strategist at a B2B tech company. Your head of content handed you 12 pillar keywords in a Google Sheet and asked for a content cluster map ready by the end of the week. Not just the 12 keywords: the full topic architecture. Related keywords, question-format queries, search volumes, difficulty scores, the whole thing.
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 table
- You manually transcribe the ones that look relevant into a spreadsheet
- You switch to the Questions filter and do the same
- You move to keyword two and repeat
- Eight keywords in, you have a formatting mess and mismatched column names across tabs
- You deliver 8 of 12 pillars and call it a "first pass."
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.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
For each seed keyword in column A, 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 keyword in column A, pull the top 10 question-format queries from Semrush phrase questions and write them with search volumes into a Questions sheet grouped by seed keyword.
SheetXAI works through all 12 seeds, populates the RelatedKeywords and Questions tabs, and labels every row by seed. You open the sheet to find 240 related keywords and 120 questions, all attributed.
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. That one column is what makes the editorial calendar buildable. You filter by seed keyword, hand each cluster to a writer, and the content brief structure is already there.
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 are phrases with inconsistent formatting
Some pillars are single words, some are four-word phrases, some have trailing punctuation from the copy-paste.
Normalize the seed keywords in column A: trim whitespace, lowercase, remove trailing punctuation. Then expand each into 20 related keywords and 10 questions as above, writing into RelatedKeywords and Questions tabs.
When you want to de-duplicate related keywords that appear under multiple seeds
"integration" shows up as a related keyword for five different pillars. You want to flag those cross-pillar keywords without removing them.
After building the RelatedKeywords tab, scan for any RelatedKeyword that appears under more than one SeedKeyword. Write "Cross-Pillar" in a new column called Tag for those rows. Leave the rest blank.
When the editorial team only wants question clusters for high-volume seeds
Not every pillar is worth a full question cluster. The team only wants questions for seeds with average related keyword volume above 500.
For each seed keyword in column A, first check if the average search volume of its related keywords is above 500. Only if it is, pull the top 10 question-format queries from Semrush and write them into the Questions tab. For seeds that do not meet the threshold, skip the questions pull and write "Low-Volume Seed — Skipped" in the Questions tab with the seed keyword noted.
When the full cluster needs to be scored and sorted in one pass
You want related keywords, questions, difficulty scores, and a priority flag all in the same output.
For each seed keyword in column A, 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. Then in both tabs, add a Priority column: mark "High" if search volume is above 1,000 and keyword difficulty is below 45, mark "Medium" if search volume is 200–1,000, and leave the rest blank. Sort each tab by SeedKeyword then Priority descending.
The pattern: the expansion and the scoring happen in one pass. You hand the sheet to the writers already prioritized.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and put your pillar keywords in column A of any Google Sheet, then ask it to build the cluster map. The Semrush integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. For the next step in keyword research, see how to audit competitor keyword gaps or the Semrush in Google Sheets overview.