Keyword mapping is the process of assigning target keywords to specific pages on your website based on user intent and relevance. By grouping similar keywords together, you can create a hierarchy of keywords and streamline your website’s structure.
In simpler words, it means placing the right keywords on the right pages to improve your website’s visibility on search engine result pages (SERP).
In this blog, we will discuss what keyword mapping is, how it works, and why it is important in SEO.
What are the benefits of keyword mapping?
Keyword mapping helps search engines understand the content and purpose of each page on your website, making it easier for them to crawl and index your site. By targeting specific keywords for each page, you can also attract more relevant traffic and potential customers to your site.
Keyword mapping has a multitude of benefits that can significantly enhance your site’s SEO performance and usability.
1. Organise Your Content Effectively
Keyword mapping aids in organising your content in a way that’s beneficial to both your users and search engines like Google.
By assigning specific keywords to particular pages on your site, you can optimize your content and site structure around these keywords. This approach is favored by search engines and can improve your site’s SEO ranking.
It provides a logical structure to your website, making it easier for users to navigate and for search engines to crawl and index your pages
2. Prevents duplicate content
Keyword mapping can help you spot instances where multiple pages are targeting the same keywords. This can lead to keyword cannibalisation, where your own pages compete with each other for rankings. By identifying these overlaps, you can adjust your content strategy to target unique keywords with each page.
⭐ Read my case study on the impact of fixing duplicate content and keyword cannibalization.
3. Identifies Content Gaps
When you map out your keywords, you can find relevant keywords that aren’t being targeted by any of your existing content. This indicates a gap in your content that could be filled by creating new content around these keywords.
4. Incorporates search intent
Keyword mapping allows you to incorporate search intent into your SEO strategy, aligning your content more closely with what users are actually looking for when they enter certain keywords.
By targeting specific search intents, you can attract more qualified traffic to your site and improve its overall performance.
5. Improve internal linking strategy
Keyword mapping can be particularly useful when implementing content silos. Content silos are a way to organise related content into groups and then link them to a central pillar page.
Keyword mapping helps ensure that the internal links within these silos use the right anchor text, reinforcing the topical authority of the pillar page.
By targeting specific keywords for each page, you can link to relevant pages within your site and create a more cohesive structure.
How does Keyword Mapping work?
Keyword mapping is a simple yet effective technique to improve your site’s structure and user-friendliness. Follow these steps while implementing keyword mapping on your website:
1. Conduct keyword research
The first step in keyword mapping is conducting thorough keyword research. Use keyword research tools to identify relevant keywords for your site that users are likely to search for. Consider factors like search volume, competition, and relevance to your business or topic.
2. Identify the user intent
Analyze the intent behind each keyword with a SERP analysis. Are users looking for information, wanting to make a purchase, or trying to navigate to a specific site? Understanding this intent can help you create content that better meets users’ needs.
Keywords can generally be classified into several intent categories, including:
- Informational: Users seek information or answers to questions.
- Commercial: Users are comparing products or services.
- Transactional: Users are ready to make a purchase or take a specific action.
- Navigational: Users are looking for a specific website or page.
3. Categorize your keywords
Group your seed keywords into thematic categories or topics. These categories should reflect the main areas of your business (such as products or services) or the core topics your content will cover.
For example, if you run an e-commerce website selling stationery, your categories might include “Paper Products,” “Desktop Organisers,” “Filing and Storage” and “Printing Accessories”
Here’s a simple guide to help you categorise your keywords:
- Branded vs Non-Branded Keywords: Separate your keywords into branded (keywords that include your brand name or variations of it) and non-branded (keywords that do not include your brand name).
- Product/Service Keywords: These are keywords directly related to the products or services you offer. They can be further categorised based on the specific product or service they relate to.
- Buyer Intent Keywords: These are keywords that users typically search when they are ready to make a purchase. They often include terms like “buy”, “price”, “deal”, “discount”, etc.
- Informational Keywords: These are keywords that users search when they are looking for information. They often start with “how to”, “what is”, “why”, etc.
- Geographical Keywords: If your business is location-specific, you should have a category for geographical keywords. These include the city, state, or country that your potential customers are located in.
- Long-Tail Keywords: These are longer and more specific keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they’re closer to making a purchase or when they’re using voice search.
- Competitor Keywords: These are keywords that your competitors are ranking for. They give you insight into the strategies of your competitors.
4. Assign Keywords to Pages
Next, assign each group of keywords to a specific page on your site. The content of each page should be optimized around its assigned keywords. Make sure each page targets unique keywords to avoid duplicate content issues.
5. Create or optimise content
Now it’s time to create or update your content. Incorporate your assigned keywords naturally into your content, ensuring it’s high-quality, relevant, and user-friendly. Don’t forget about meta tags, headers, and URLs too.
6. Review and Revise
Finally, review your keyword map regularly and revise it as necessary. SEO is an ongoing process, and keyword trends can change over time. Regularly reviewing your keyword map can help you stay on top of these changes and keep your content fresh and relevant.
Conclusion
Keyword mapping is a crucial aspect of SEO that can improve your website’s visibility and attract more organic traffic. It involves assigning relevant keywords to specific pages based on user intent and relevance.
By implementing keyword mapping on your website, you can improve its structure and create a better user experience. Thus it is recommended that SEO specialists must focus on keyword mapping while optimising their website to improve their website’s search rankings and attract more organic traffic.
