Applying Keyword Research

Goal

Select keywords that best represent your content to reach the most relevant audience.

Keyword map: The process of assigning keywords to specific webpages based on keyword research
The purpose of a keyword map is to help us:
- Create focused pages around a keyword or group of keywords
- Determine the theme of the page
- Avoid using duplicate keywords
- Create a reference document for clients

How well does a page rank for its keywords?
- Examine keyword focus from the title tag and body content.
- Perform rank analysis on those keywords.
Is this an appropriate keyword to target?
- Does it have good search volume?
- How well does the page match user intent?
- Look at user engagement for the intended keyword via ranking and performance. If engagement is low but similar pages perform better, the keyword isn't drawing intended traffic.
- Run chosen keywords through a rank tracking tool (like Conductor). Your pages may already be ranking well, so you can improve those pages by improving content copy and providing additional resources to drive traffic.
- If the keyword you chose doesn't naturally fit your copy, it might not be the right option.
- Consider how well the keyword fits in the title and heading tags.
- Entice users with optimized meta descriptions to improve click-through rates.

Develop the landing page/homepage to be broad in scope, and target competitive phrases since most of the site's authority is in its landing pages/homepage.
Divide pages focused on specific and less competitive terms.
- Include info about that keyword, and use a variety of synonyms to increase topic relevance and capture search volume.
Prepare and present keyword research to clients (using a spreadsheet)
- Include the URL, primary keyword [volume, rank (date)], secondary keyword [volume, rank (date)], etc.
If the site doesn't have any pages that work with the keywords you've researched and chosen, you can:
- Change the copy on the page to match the keyword (most effective)
- Create an entirely new page that matches the keyword (effective, but remember that new pages have less authority)
Layout:
- Lay out existing or new pages with primary, secondary, and tertiary related keywords
  - Secondary and tertiary keywords are synonyms/related terms to your primary keywords and have lower search volume
- Add the date the ranking was checked to compare new and old rankings
- Include keyword search volume
- Add notes for specific recommendations

Identify a page you want to optimize.
Identify the best keywords for the page based on:
1. Relevance
2. Specificity
3. Location of the keyword in the funnel and how it aligns to that page's goals
4. Competitiveness
Create a keyword map in a spreadsheet.
1. Include:
  1. Page name
  2. URL
  3. Primary and secondary keywords
  4. Keyword volume
  5. Where the page is currently ranking for those keywords
  6. Date
Describe why you chose that page and how the content of the page might be better optimized to include this keyword.
1. Do you recommend increasing the content or recommending a different type of content?
2. Are there other resources that can be added to the page to make this more optimized?
3. How does this page compare to similar pages on competing sites?

Date: 8-10-22

Primary keyword: chardonnay

Secondary keyword: chardonnay taste

Tertiary keyword: what is chardonnay