A good keyword map should include two primary elements: a list of all of your targeted keywords and a clear roadmap for internal linking.
Keyword Research
Whether you're starting a new website or working on SEO for an existing one, keyword research is an essential first step. Using tools like Google's Keyword Planner will allow you to access metrics including search volume and difficulty for each of the keywords that you want to target. This information can then be used to create a comprehensive list of pages that should be optimized for those particular keywords.
As you go through the list of keywords, it's important to prioritize those that are going to be the most effective and profitable to rank for. Some of the key areas to focus on include product/service descriptions, category pages, and the page title itself. These are all areas where a well-optimized page can help you achieve top ranking positions in the SERPs.
The next step is to create a document that will be the basis of your keyword mapping. This can be in the form of a spreadsheet or a word document (I prefer the latter since it allows team members to collaborate on the document). The first column will list your target keywords and the second column will be the pages where they should appear. For each page, you'll need to assign a primary keyword to that page as well as any other keyword groupings that should appear on the page. This will ensure that the page is well optimized for all of the key terms that are being targeted and also help avoid the risk of keyword cannibalization.
Keyword mapping can be a complex process, but once it's complete, it will give you a good idea of where all of your page content needs to be focusing its efforts. This is a fundamental step in creating a successful content strategy and it's something that you should revisit often to make sure that your pages are continuing to perform well in the search engine results. This is particularly true for websites that are in competitive industries such as mobile phone or travel where competitors can be fierce and the top positions can be difficult to secure.
Competitor Analysis
Using a keyword mapping strategy for on-page optimization, content creation and more can help you uncover opportunities your competitors are missing out on and improve your search engine rankings. For example, you may find that your competitor’s website is ranking well for a query that you haven’t optimized your page content to rank for yet. With the help of competitor analysis you can identify these keywords, determine their relevance and search intent, and create a page that is optimized for them.
Once you’ve done your keyword research and compiled a list of relevant terms, it’s time to start creating a keyword map. Start by dividing your keywords into general topic clusters or categories (it’s best to do this in KWFinder) and then grouping together keywords that answer the same question or fall under the same intent. You can then use this information to one-by-one optimize existing pages for those topics or create new page content.
During this process, it’s important to keep track of the search volume and difficulty for each keyword, so you can make informed decisions about what pages to target. Another advantage of this process is that it allows you to prevent keyword cannibalization, which occurs when your website publishes two or more pages targeting the same keywords. This can confuse search engines and hurt your organic performance.
Lastly, a keyword map can also be used to identify content gaps – valuable topics that your competitor is covering but you aren’t. With this information, you can develop a content plan to fill these gaps and outrank your competitors in SERPs. The key is to be flexible and always adapt your strategy based on the results of your ongoing SEO efforts. This is the only way to ensure that you are always working on the most effective SEO tactics possible for your business.
Keyword Grouping
Keyword grouping is a process of organizing keywords into related groups (clusters) based on common search intent or topics. The resulting groups help you create more targeted and relevant content that can improve your search engine rankings, click-through rates, and conversions. Keyword grouping is an essential step in both initial research and the keyword optimization stage of the SEO process.
The process of dividing keywords into groups can be done manually or using automated tools. Automated keyword clustering is often used in large-scale projects because it saves time and effort, while still providing accurate results compared to manual methods. However, it is important to keep in mind that automated tools can produce different results than human editors and may not always identify all the relevant relationships between keywords.
If you want to create a good keyword grouping, you should start by reducing your list of keywords to their most specific form. This is usually done by bringing them to lowercase and removing special characters with RegEx operations. Then, you can use a stemming function to reduce every word to its root form. Finally, you can apply a number of keyword grouping algorithms to your keyword list, including K-means clustering, DBSCAN, and Porter.
Once you’ve created your keyword groups, it’s important to test them out in the SERPs. This will help you see how your keywords are performing and identify any problems, such as keyword cannibalization.
In order to test your groups, you can use a free tool such as SE Ranking’s Keyword Grouper. This tool can help you identify the most relevant keywords for your campaign and will automatically remove irrelevant ones from your list. It also offers a tree view of all keyword groups and subgroups, which is a feature that hardly any other tool can offer.
Whether you’re an SEO specialist, PPC manager, or just a digital marketer, understanding the importance of keyword mapping and using the right tools is vital to your success. By integrating keyword mapping into your research, competitor analysis, and keyword grouping processes, you can ensure that your content is optimized for search engines and that your users can find the information they’re looking for.
Internal Linking
Internal linking is one of the most important aspects of website structure optimization. It helps search engines crawl and index your website better, boosts page rankings, and improves user experience. It also makes it easier for visitors to find the information they need.
It is important to remember that internal linking should be done in moderation. Too many links can negatively impact SEO performance. It is also important to make sure that the links you create are relevant and add value for your visitors. It is also a good idea to include keywords in your anchor text, but avoid over-optimization or keyword stuffing.
In addition to improving search engine optimization, internal linking can also help you organize your content into a more logical structure. This can be especially useful if your site has a large amount of content. In addition, internal linking can help you connect related pages in a way that will improve the overall user experience.
Internal links can be used to link your website’s pages together, or they can be included in blog posts or other pieces of content. They can also be used to promote other pages on your site and encourage users to explore more content. It is important to use internal links strategically to get the best results.
Creating a content strategy that uses content hubs, or topic clusters, is a great way to organize your internal linking. Topic clusters are groups of articles on your site that focus on a particular subject or theme. By creating these topic clusters, you can then build out a series of internal links that point to each of the articles in the cluster. This will help you rank for a wider variety of keywords and will help your users navigate through your site more easily.
In addition to optimizing the internal linking of your website, you should also update old content regularly. This will ensure that your website is always providing the most accurate and up-to-date information possible. In addition, it will also increase the likelihood that your content will appear in the top results for relevant searches.