By: Lianna Haywood | SEO Lead

Stumbled across the term keyword mapping and wondering what it actually means?

We’ve broken down the details and popped it into an easy-to-follow guide to help inform your SEO strategy.

What is keyword mapping?

Keyword mapping is the process of grouping keywords and assigning them to relevant webpages.

A keyword map can be used to inform website structure and can also help with planning digital marketing strategies.

What can you use a keyword map for?

A detailed keyword map can help with your overall findability strategy, and there are various ways you can use the data, including:

Finding new story ideas your audience will love
Planning new onsite content
Optimising existing pages
Optimising anchor text for both internal linking and external link building activity
Identifying and avoiding issues of keyword cannibalisation and content duplication

What should a keyword map look like?

There are lots of different ways to format your keyword map, so to help you visualize how we do it (and because we think it’s a good ‘un), here’s our template:

Download template

We tend to use an editable excel file to create the table shown above, so that we can easily track and update accordingly, especially when it’s time to review our strategies.

What are the benefits of keyword mapping?

There are plenty of good reasons for creating a keyword map for your website. Some you might like to know about include:

It allows you to create a logical site structure based on search topics and themes
It can be used to strengthen the internal linking between pages, using optimised anchor text to support with relevancy signals to Google
It can support your digital PR campaigns
It can help to inform an SEO content plan for your website
It allows you to track your website’s performance by individual pages

4 steps to creating a keyword map for your website

Ready to get started? Here are four steps to help you begin.

Step one: conduct keyword research

The very first thing you need to do is create a list of keywords, consisting of what you’re already ranking for, as well as some new ones you want to target. You can use Google Search Console or a keyword research tool to look at what keywords your website is already ranking for and to generate new keyword ideas. Check out more tips in our keyword research guide.

Step two: categorise the keywords

The next step is to organise your list of keywords into a logical structure. If you’re creating a new website or adding new pages to an existing site, categorising keywords will help to make sure the pages sit in a rational structure that is efficient for Google to crawl and ensures a good user experience.

The other benefit to categorising your keywords is it makes it easier for you to identify what content types are required (you’ll have to wait for our next blog for more on this…).

There are several ways to best categories your keywords, including the following:

Based on the current or new site structure
Using topic clusters based on seed themes
By search intent; informational, transactional, navigational, and commercial. This will help you understand what content type is required and where it should sit on the website. For example, an informational keyword may require an article that should sit on a blog. Whereas a commercial keyword may require a service page that should sit within the main navigation.

Once you have the keywords organised by the relevant categories, you can then prioritise them by search volume and keyword difficulty scores.

Step three: Prepare new URLs

At this point, your keyword map will begin to take shape and you should be ready to start preparing a URL structure for each page.

This step is particularly important when creating a new website from scratch. URLs should reflect your site structure, include your target keywords, and most importantly should be clear and concise – not only for Google but also, your users.

Step four: Update the map regularly

Once you have your map finalised, you can use it as a reference for your ongoing findability strategy and planning.

But… you’ll want to make sure you review and update your map every 3-6 months (depending on how regularly you update your strategy).

We also recommend tracking your keyword rankings and adding monthly changes to your map – ensuring you keep a column for old ranking positions to monitor increases and declines.

Let’s have a final quick wrap up

Every SEO strategy should ideally start with a keyword map. The size of your keyword map will depend on how many webpages your website has, but the data you include will be the same no matter the size of your site.

Now you’re equipped with our handy tips, what’re you waiting for? Get started on your keyword map to elevate your digital marketing strategies.

Need more support? Get in contact today to find out how we can help improve your brand’s findability.

Keyword mapping: what is it and why is it important for findability success?