Using Keyword Mapping for Better SEO Results

Keyword mapping is the secret to satisfying search intent. 

Search intent is the reason that drives a user to perform a search on Google (or any other search engine). 

A keyword phrase is what the user types into the search bar to perform their search query. 

If your website answers their query best, the search engine will recognize you as the most relevant site and rank you higher in the SERPs, thus rewarding you with your desired search rankings and traffic. 

What Is Keyword Mapping

In essence, keyword mapping can be described as the process of allocating target keyword groups to each page on a website based on in-depth keyword research. 

Google ranks pages based on specific URLs. So, make sure each URL is optimized and relevant for the target keywords to help it rank. 

Typically, target keyword groups nowadays include the primary keyword (keyphrase or focus keyword) that clearly defines the particular page’s topic along with a set of supporting keywords and keyword variations. 

Why Is Keyword Mapping Important

This blog discusses things that have changed recently and the reason why keyword mapping matters for your SEO success. 

The hint is you have read it in the previous section: “along with a set of supporting keywords and keyword variations.”

Let’s say, for example, a blog post you published six months ago wins the #3 ranking position in the SERPs with the primary keyword. Now how many supporting keywords and keyword variations do you think are ranking? 

In a nutshell, there could be hundreds of them ranking for your page, we bet. 

Mapping Subtopics And Supporting Keywords

While this is a reason for celebration, this also explains why keyword mapping is so essential for your SEO success. 

Still didn’t get it? Let’s break it down further.

The blog in the above example is an informative post that covers the topic “Digital Marketing.” 

Besides the primary keyword, there are hundreds of keyword variations ranking for the same page. Now, these supporting keywords comprise of variations such as:

• What is (the topic)
• Define (the topic)
• Definition of (the topic)
• (the topic) goals
• Examples of (the topic)
• Principles of (the topic)
• (the topic) best strategy
• Best practices of (the topic)

And the list goes on and on. 

In a nutshell, this blog post covers every single question that a user who wants to learn more about it or is just new to the topic might have. 

Now would you’ve been enticed to cover these subtopics in a series of short articles rather than a long-form blog post?

If yes, then what do you think? Is there a possibility that you might have missed the search intent and a strong opportunity to acquire a higher ranking position?

Or even worse, would you have ended up causing keyword cannibalization where a set of your posts are competing against each other trying to rank for the same keywords and thus; as a result, no article ranks, or if it does, the ranking keeps shifting?

In keyword cannibalization, two or more articles target the same keywords and thus fight each other for ranking. Google or other search engines struggle to determine which post is the most relevant for the specific keyword and meets the search intent; therefore, none of them ranks, or the ranking continuously keeps on changing. 

Now, this negatively impacts your website’s organic performance and overall rankings. So stop playing hard to get with Google.

Spend time on improving your keyword mapping and clearly tell Google and other search engines about which page they should rank for a specific target keyword. 

Last but not least, Google is becoming smarter every day at grasping the search intent and the relevant subtopics that are required to satisfy that search intent. This makes keyword mapping even more important for better SEO results.

As a website owner, your aim should be to understand what type of content Google is counting on to serve to users on the basis of its understanding of the user’s search intent. 

Even though keyword mapping matters a big deal, mapping your target keywords alone isn’t enough for your SEO success. 

Go to the efforts of examining the first page of the SERPs to get a clear idea of the supporting keywords and subtopics that are needed to cover the particular topic completely and thus satisfy the search intent. 

Try to avoid fanning out the target keywords across too many web pages as you’ll end up producing articles that will eventually compete against each other for rankings. Instead, focus all your efforts on creating unique, long-form evergreen content that actually meets the search intent and provides the user with what they came searching for in the first place. 

How to Avoid Keyword Cannibalization

So now, let’s say you sit down to work on your keyword mapping, and you came up with a group of similar keywords and subtopics, but you aren’t sure whether you should map them to the same page or separate ones. What do you do now?

If you choose to go with the qualitative way (the one done without any tools), then you can work this out by reviewing the first page of the SERPs. 

Open your browser, enter incognito mode, type the different keyword variations into the search bar, hit the search icon, and compare the SERPs for each of them. 

If the results are exactly the same or pretty much the same, then you should map those keywords to the same page.

However, if you find completely different search results and see that your competitors have distinctly separate pages dedicated to the keyword variations, that means you need to map them to individual pages too. 

You can also choose a more convenient way by using an SEO tool. There are plenty of tools available in the market that will help you find out how your competitors are using those keywords within a few clicks only. 

In a nutshell: when the aim of satisfying the search intent meets keyword mapping, you get highly targeted pages with the best chances of getting higher rankings and increased organic traffic. 

Conclusion

We have done our part of explaining the importance of keyword mapping for gaining better SEO results; now it’s your turn to implement these useful tips and rock the SEO world. 

Open your SEO tool (whichever you are currently using) and enter your high-performing pages to see how many keywords they’re ranking for at present. Without a doubt, the numbers will be in the hundreds. 

Also, make it your habit to check for keyword cannibalization on your website often during content planning to ensure your keyword mapping is super firm. So go ahead and try these out to see the magic happening yourself!