Resume keyword scanner
Paste a job description, add your resume, and see every important term from the ad marked found, found-as-variant or missing.
0 words (paste at least a paragraph)
2. Your resume
PDF, DOCX or TXT, up to 8 MB. Or drop it here.
AI must-have list
Frequency alone can’t tell a required certification from a word that happens to repeat. The AI reads the ad the way a recruiter would and sorts must-haves, nice-to-haves and likely knock-out questions.
Sent once to an AI model through Vercel AI Gateway to generate this answer. Not stored by ResumeATS.
Why exact wording matters
When recruiters search an applicant tracking system, they type terms: a tool, a certification, a job title. Some systems stem words and know common synonyms; some do not; and a recruiter’s Boolean search is as literal as they write it. You can’t know which you’re facing, so the safe move is to use the ad’s own wording at least once.
Toggle the switch to see the same resume line under a literal search and a lenient one.
Resume line
Managed paid social and SEO for product launches; built dashboards in Google Analytics; led a team of 4 marketers.
| Recruiter searches | Resume says | Match? |
|---|---|---|
| search engine optimization | SEO | No |
| dashboard | dashboards | No |
| team leadership | led a team | No |
| google analytics | Google Analytics | Yes |
Only the word-for-word term is found. Fix: write “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)” and match the ad’s singular/plural once.
Where to put resume keywords
- Skills section: a plain comma-separated list of tools and hard skills from the ad that you have.
- Experience bullets: the same skills in context, e.g. “Built weekly Tableau dashboards for 3 regional teams”.
- Headline or summary: the target job title as the ad writes it, if it describes you.
- Certifications: the full official name plus the acronym, e.g. “Project Management Professional (PMP)”.
Then check the whole resume, not only keywords, with the ATS resume checker. You can paste the same ad there to fold keyword coverage into your estimated score.
Questions people ask
How do I find keywords for my resume?
Start with the job ad. Terms that are repeated, listed under requirements, or are specific tools, certifications and job titles are the ones a recruiter is most likely to search for. Paste the ad above to see them ranked.
Should I copy the job description into my resume?
No. Mirror its wording for skills and experience you genuinely have, and prove them in your bullets. Pasting the ad in hidden or white text is easy to spot when a recruiter views the parsed text, and it doesn’t prove anything.
Do acronyms count as keywords?
Search is often literal, so write both forms once, e.g. “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”. Our variant toggle shows which terms only match if a system is lenient about acronyms and word forms.
What keyword match rate should I aim for?
There is no official threshold. As a working rule, try to cover most of the must-have skills and tools in the ad, and don’t add anything you couldn’t discuss in an interview.
Where should keywords go on a resume?
In a skills section for quick matching, and in your experience bullets where you show how you used them. A job title that matches the ad’s title also helps when it is accurate.