It’s no secret. Keyword research is one of the pillars of a successful search engine strategy. They connect your website content with search queries and make it SEO 101.
Your goal is to maximize the chances of people finding your website. That means you need to fill your page copy with words and phrases that searchers are using.
But there is a problem. How do you know which keywords you should use? Some of them are obvious.
If you own a plumbing supplies website, it’s safe to assume that your content should include words like: [faucet], [ball valve]When [pipe fitting]But what about less obvious keywords?
And once you’ve identified the keywords you want to target, do you start stuffing them where they fit? Yes, but you run the risk of cannibalizing your own pages or competing for the same keywords and phrases.
Avoiding this and ensuring that you provide the best possible answer to your search intent requires planning.
Keyword mapping not only identifies keyword phrases, but also helps determine where they appear on your website.
This article explains how to map your keywords and implement strategies to ensure that your pages are considered relevant to search engines.
What is keyword mapping?
Keyword mapping is the process of assigning keywords to each page. Pages and keywords are also arranged into groups of keyword clusters to create a topical website structure.
Since Google ranks based on specific URLs, each URL must be optimized and ranked in relation to the target keyword.
Today’s target keyword clusters typically consist of a main keyword (focus keyword) that clearly describes the topic of the page, and a set of keyword variations and supporting keywords.
Why Keyword Mapping Matters
Keyword mapping has several advantages.
The first is to organize your content effectively. Not only does this help Google understand how relevant this URL is to your search query, it also makes it easier for content creators to write and readers to understand.
More than that, it helps you create and maintain an internal linking strategy.
Ideally, a page should link to another page depending on context. This helps search engine crawlers index your page, making it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for.
Keyword mapping also provides an effective way to measure your SEO efforts. Alerts you to SEO issues so you can respond faster.
Let’s look at an example. A software client of mine got one page in her one of the target pages in the 4th quarter. This article was published in August 2020.
Our main keyword is November, ranking #2 and starting to see an increase in organic traffic.
Screenshot by the author, January 2023
Screenshot by the author, January 2023What do you think: How many supporting keywords and variations are ranking?
In short, there can be hundreds of keywords that support your page ranking.
Screenshot by the author, January 2023The ranking order is displayed on the left side. The bottom is his 100th, and the top is the highest (1).
Each row is one page of the same website. The line is the transition of the ranking of the page.
In this chart, the ranking page is constantly switching. Google cannot determine which pages are the most relevant.
So pages keep going in and out of the index without sticking.
This hurts ranking changes and organic performance.
Don’t struggle to get it.
Work on keyword mapping to clearly tell Google which pages should rank for your target keywords.
Finally, keyword mapping is important. This is because Google is getting better at understanding search intent and the related subtopics needed to satisfy that search intent.
Page 1 of [time management tips] is full of long-form Wikipedia-like articles that cover all subtopics in one guide.
now you know why A plan should be adopted. how Keyword mapping.
A step-by-step guide to mapping keywords
Keyword mapping is easy once you understand the process, but it does take some time to research and implement.
1. Identify keywords
The first thing you should do is identify the main keywords you want to rank for on each page in your site. This should be the answer to your specific query.
This seed keyword, as it is often known, can be used to find a larger set of keywords.
Use a keyword research tool to identify all the words and phrases that map to your website using your focus keywords.
Don’t forget to check the keywords your competitors are using.
Prioritize your keywords based on your overall keyword strategy.
2. Group keywords
Once you’ve compiled your list of keywords, it’s time to start organizing.
Start by grouping words into buckets based on search intent. Your goal is to create groups of words that all answer the same question.
Choose one of these as your main keyword and use the rest as sub-keywords.
These buckets determine the structure of your site and help create a logical path for visitors and search engine spiders to follow.
Remember variations when grouping keywords.
For example, if you’re optimizing your page with the focus keyword: [project management software]you would want to include [software for project management].
This is a good time to start thinking about potential URLs for your pages.
Ideally, the URL should contain your primary keyword. While this has a small impact on search rankings, including keywords in your web address can help users understand what your page is about.
3. Map your keywords
Start building your keyword map. Start by outlining your site hierarchy in a logical way.
Then create a subdirectory containing the individual pages. Many people find it easiest to create and organize a spreadsheet with multiple columns.
Get your page’s key keywords and use them to create page titles, meta descriptions, header tags, and other elements.
List the second and third keywords in separate columns.
If you’re working on optimizing an existing site, we recommend including columns for existing titles, H1 tags, etc., and including recommended or updated versions next to them.
You can also add notes about body copy, word count, and images.
After completing this spreadsheet, double-check that each page is different from the others.
4. Optimize on-page content
While building your keyword map, you may run into issues that need to be addressed. This includes:
- Missing or irrelevant content.
- Technical issues that may affect rankings.
- Opportunity for internal linking.
- Multiple pages targeting the same query.
5. Continue building your keyword map
As with almost everything related to search engine optimization, there is no goal in keyword mapping.
You should revisit your maps regularly, at least once a year, if not once a month.
As your website grows, you will need to refer to this document to ensure that your content is not duplicated.
Changes in technology, industry, or target behavior can affect keyword relevance, so keep this in mind.
You may also discover new or better terms that need to be added.
How to avoid keyword cannibalization
It’s important to avoid keyword cannibalization and competing search traffic with your page.
So what if you have a lot of similar keywords or subtopics and you don’t know if they should be mapped to the same page or different pages?
A qualitative way (without tools) to figure this out is to look at page 1.
For example, if you are targeting the query [project management tools] I have a page with content focused on this keyword and another page covers [project management software]about one-third [tools for project managers]all of these pages are trying to steal traffic from other pages.
Go into incognito mode in your browser and compare search result pages for different keyword variations.
If you find the same or very similar search results, it means the keywords should be mapped to the same page.
If your search results look radically different and your competitors have distinctly different pages covering different keyword variations, it’s an indication that they should be mapped to different URLs.
You can also use SEO tools like Ahrefs to do this.
Ahrefs Keyword Explorer has a feature called “traffic share by page”.
Enter two similar target keywords into Keyword Explorer.
- [time management]
- [time management tips]
We can see that 8 of the first 10 search results target these two keywords on the same page.
Ahrefs screenshot, January 2023Let’s check the following:
- [time management hacks]
- [time management skills]
Ahrefs screenshot, January 2023You can see a page about [time management skills] Not prone to ranking [time management hacks].
This indicates that we need to create two pages for two topics.
Perhaps people looking for hacks and shortcuts have different needs and search intent than people trying to learn a skill.
in short: Satisfying search intent + good keyword mapping = target page with highest chance of ranking success.
Use keyword mapping for SEO
Regardless of which industry you run search engine optimization in, it’s a highly competitive field. That means you have to take advantage of every advantage to get your page to rank high in his SERPs.
Keyword mapping is a great way to do your best by keeping all your content organized.
This keeps pages from cannibalizing each other while making sure everyone on the team is on the same page.
Creating a keyword map takes a little time upfront, but it saves you a lot of headaches and backend work. It goes without saying that it also helps improve your overall search rankings.
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Featured Image: myboys.me/Shutterstock
