• Keywords are the backbone of any SEO strategy. Keyword mapping gives a rhyme and reason to your targeted keywords.
• When mapping keywords, consider search volume, keyword difficulty, relevancy, and search intent.
• Formalize your keyword mapping efforts with a mapping document.

As SEO obsessives, we can’t even count how many times we’ve talked about keywords on this blog. But today we’re tackling a lesser-known category of keyword strategies: keyword mapping.

What is Keyword Mapping?

Keywords are the backbone of any SEO content strategy, but it takes more than picking them out to make them beneficial. There has to be a rhyme and reason behind your keywords, and you have to consider them for every page, not just your homepage.

To get fully optimized (and perform better), you have to create a strategy that helps your pages and content rank. This is known as keyword mapping. It’s a step that you may be unfamiliar with, but we’re going to explain why it’s so essential.

Read on to learn more. 

Keyword Mapping Explained

Keyword mapping is the process of planning out your keywords for each page. You identify keywords that will work and assign them to different pages on your website. Think of it as a framework that you can optimize your pages and site content around. 

The keywords you choose are supposed to mirror your site. In other words, you want to pick the right words for the right pages to make your site easier to find by potential customers. By doing this, you’ll make each part of your site more relevant and authoritative for your targeted keywords. 

Why It’s Important

It may seem like an optional step, but it should be one of the first things you do. A good keyword mapping strategy is required so you can avoid your pages competing for the same words. Not only that, it improves the relevancy of your site in search engines. 

When each webpage or piece of content is optimized, you have a better chance of getting the right exposure. This, of course, will lead to higher conversion rates and ROI. 

Keyword mapping isn’t just useful for planning a new site, but it will also help you improve an existing website. By doing this, you can identify what needs to be optimized. In turn, visitors will be directed to the right pages and the correct information. 

But these aren’t the only benefits. Strategizing your keywords has a lot to offer you, like:

• Making it easier to plan future content. 
• Creates a clear sense of direction for visitors. 
• Helps you develop a data-driven marketing strategy. 
• Directs customers to the page most relevant to their keyword.
• Links keywords that are closely related, giving your SEO a major boost

Failing to build a keyword mapping strategy can reduce the effectiveness of your on-page SEO. This means you could be losing out on potential customers because your targeted keywords aren’t helping you rank. 

Creating a Keyword Mapping Strategy

So how do you actually do keyword intent mapping? It’s not as hard as it sounds. All it takes is some research and organization. To make things easier for you, we’ve laid out each step you need to take to create your keyword map. 

Identify Your Keywords

The first step to a mapping strategy is doing keyword research, and it’s the most important too. This is where you identify which keywords you want to target. These should be keywords that potential customers use to find services like yours.

When you’re searching for the right keywords, you have to know what to look for. While it’s tempting to pick the first two or three keywords, this isn’t the best strategy. Dive deep, and look for and analyze the following information:

• Difficulty 

How competitive is the keyword you’re looking at? 

• Monthly search volumes 

How many prospective customers are searching for the keyword?

• Organic Clickthrough Rate (CTR)

How many organic clicks do these keywords receive? 

Conduct this research on multiple keywords to narrow it down to the ones you feel would perform the best. You should aim to target a combination of long-tail keywords and head terms. When you’re just starting out, try and gather the main 10-15 keywords you want to target.

But how do you find keywords anyway? There are plenty of keyword planning tools that will help you select the right ones, like Google’s Keyword Planner and Moz’s Keyword Research Tool. These applications also give you everything you need to know from an analytical point of view.

Check Relevancy

Once you’ve chosen keywords, you have to make sure they’re relevant to the webpage you’re assigning them to. You should group keywords and keep ones that are similar or synonyms of one another together. Ideally, you’ll want to give each group one page to target. Make sure you choose pages that are relevant to the keywords. 

In order to get keywords on the right pages, you have to understand the search intent of your audience. For instance, a local cleaning business may target a keyword like “deep cleaning,” but you don’t want to put that on just any page. Instead, you should link it to a page that focuses specifically on your deep cleaning services. 

Create a Mapping Document

You’ll need a place to put down all the information you’ve collected into an easy-to-navigate document. This is something you can refer back to and adjust if you decide to revisit your keyword strategy.

Use something like Excel or Google Sheets to build your map. There is no specific template to follow, and the columns you choose are up to you. But to make it as effective as possible, be sure to include the following sections:

• Keyword
• Landing page
• Organic CTR
• Search volume

These four categories are the most important for building a keyword map, but there are other sections relevant to SEO you can include to make it even more in-depth. Here are some examples:

• External links
• Page speed
• Page authority (PA)
• Search Engine Results Pages (SERP)

Get the Most Out of Your Keywords

Don’t miss the opportunity to get your entire site optimized by skipping over keyword mapping. This is an essential step that will pay off in the long run. With a solid strategy, you’ll have a foundation that will make your overall SEO strategy stronger, and it’s something anyone can do. 
If you need expert help with your SEO performance, get in touch today! We’re your partners in digital marketing, and we’re ready to help you.