---
title: "Keywords and watchers"
description: "Set what BackTalk tracks: keyword phrases, spelling and handle variants, per-keyword exclude terms, and grouping keywords into watchers for a project or client."
source: https://backtalk.sh/docs/keywords
---
# Keywords and watchers

Keywords are what BackTalk searches for across every platform. You manage them on the **Keywords** page, reached from **Manage keywords** at the top of the inbox rail. Each keyword is one concept; the dials on it decide how tightly it matches.

## Add a keyword

Use the **Keyword** button and fill in:

- **Phrase** is the concept to watch, such as `paypal sdk`. This is the main thing matched.
- **Variants** are the other ways people write the same thing: spellings, package names, or handles like `paypal-js` or `@paypal/checkout`. Type one and press `,` or Enter to seal it into a pill. Variants widen coverage without counting as extra keywords, but each one runs as its own search on every platform, so on a metered key like Brave more variants means more queries. Each plan caps how many a keyword may carry (see [Plans](/docs/plans)).
- **Exclude terms** are comma-separated words that drop a mention when they appear, such as `hiring, job`. Use them to cut a specific false positive on this one keyword.
- **Match whole words only** is on by default and applies to the phrase and every variant: `expo` matches “expo” but not “export”. Turn it off when the phrase is meant to match inside longer words, for example a package prefix or a hashtag stem. Keywords set to partial matching show a `partial match` chip in the list.
- **Watcher** files the keyword into a group (see below). Leave it as **No watcher** to keep it ungrouped.

Press **Add keyword** and BackTalk immediately runs a first sweep, backfilling the last 7 days and showing how many matches it found.

### Suggest from a link

Instead of typing keywords by hand, open **Suggest keywords from a link**, paste your website, docs, or a GitHub repo URL, and BackTalk reads it once and proposes brand-shaped candidates. Add any of them with a single click.

## Pause, edit and remove

- **Pause** a keyword with its switch to stop it syncing without losing its signals, and flip it back on when you want it live again. On Solo the active and paused counts each have a budget, so the switch may ask you to make room first; Pro and Business have no keyword caps.
- **Edit** a keyword to change its phrase, variants, exclude terms, match mode or watcher. **Save** is forward-only and safe: it never touches mentions already collected, so tightening a keyword to whole words leaves the older, wider matches in the inbox.
- **Save and apply to history** saves the same changes and then re-checks the mentions this keyword already collected. Anything that no longer matches, including mentions a newly added exclude term now covers, moves to **Spam**, and BackTalk tells you how many before it moves anything. Starred, replied and ignored mentions are left alone, and nothing is deleted, so you can rescue any of them from the Spam tab. One caveat worth knowing: BackTalk stores only an excerpt of each post, never the full text, because several platforms' terms forbid keeping it. The re-check can therefore only read that excerpt, so a mention whose match sat deeper in the post can be moved to Spam by mistake. Those rows carry a `no longer matches` label so you can spot them.
- **Remove** a keyword with the trash icon. This deletes the keyword **and its signals**, so it asks you to confirm first.

## Watchers: group your keywords

A **watcher** is a free folder for grouping keywords by project or client. Create one with the **Watcher** button, name it (for example `Acme Corp`), and file keywords into it. Watchers show up as sections on the Keywords page and as a filter in the [inbox](/docs/inbox), so you can read one project's mentions at a time. You can have as many as you like.

Renaming a watcher is safe, and deleting one moves its keywords back to **No watcher** without touching any signals.

## Cut noise across every keyword

Per-keyword exclude terms handle a single false positive. To mute something everywhere at once (a noisy job board, or your own repository), use the two workspace-wide **[global ignore lists](/docs/global-ignore)** at the top of the Keywords page.