Keyword mapping. A practical guide for the curious

Deciding whether a keyword should be targeted by a separate page or bundled with other keywords is a common problem in SEO. Keyword mapping is a process that aims to solve this.

Keyword mapping is generally defined as assigning keywords to pages. But what you really need to solve the problem is allocation subjects on content types.

In this article, I will explain the benefits of this approach and, more importantly, I will show you the process. No templates required.

Fact 1. Google can see seemingly different keywords as the same topic.

For example, we rank for these keywords in the top 10 with a single page:

• “seo basics”
• “how to use seo”
• “beginner’s guide to SEO”
• “start with seo”
• “SEO knowledge”

Fact 2. Conversely, Google may see seemingly similar keywords as different topics.

For example, let’s compare “digital marketing” to “online marketing.” I would say those two keywords are pretty close. Google disagrees.

The above two facts are also reasons why keyword mapping by relying only on keywords is not the optimal way. You won’t know if you’re wasting your time targeting the same topic with different keywords or just “confounding” Google.

But why content types instead of pages or even URLs? Because before you decide which page will be used to target the keyword, you will the seek intent of the keyword. And a good starting point for that is to identify the dominant type of content on the first page of...