EnterraHost
The Keyword Explorer lists the terms a site is associated with, the volume each one carries, and the page pointing at it. The position column is the part people expect and the part most often empty, so it is worth explaining before reading the rest.
A dash is an answer, not a fault
A dash means no ranking was recorded for that keyword in the most recent analysis. On most sites that is the majority of the list, because a keyword can be worth targeting and still not be in the top hundred results.
That distinction matters. A keyword with a dash and a volume of 201,000 is a term the page was built for and does not yet rank for. A keyword with a position of 49 is one where the page appears on page five. Both are in the same list because both are real measurements, and only one of them has a number to show.
Where the volume comes from
Volume is a monthly search estimate for the country set on the site, which is why the location setting matters more here than anywhere else. A term with 201,000 searches in the United States can be a rounding error in a smaller market.
Treat it as a scale rather than a fact. It is an estimate from a third party, it moves month to month, and two tools will give two numbers for the same keyword. What it is good for is deciding which of forty terms deserves a page.
What the target badge means
A keyword marked target is one the product believes the page was written for, judged from the page's title and headings rather than from a settings screen. It is a hint about intent, not a promise that the page will rank for it.
An untargeted keyword with traffic is the interesting row. It usually means the page ranks for something it was not built for, which is either an opportunity to write the page it deserves or a sign the page is confused about its subject.
How the list fills up
Keywords appear after an SEO analysis rather than after a crawl, so a brand new site shows an empty screen until the first full run completes. Positions fill in on the same schedule, which is monthly, and the list is rebuilt from the most recent analysis rather than appended to.
Search Console adds a second view once a property is connected, with the queries that actually produced impressions. The two lists disagree by design. One is what the site targets, the other is what Google served it for, and the gap between them is the most useful thing on the screen.
The other tab
Opportunities lists terms with demand that the site has no presence for, or ranks too low to matter. It is where a content plan comes from, and it is the tab worth opening once the first list looks healthy.