Keyword Mapping: Definition, Benefits, and How to Do It

Lots of SEO practitioners do keyword research to optimize their websites. However, many of them forget or don't even understand how to do keyword mapping. In fact, it is considered a technique that can help you map each keyword, thus helping you brainstorm content.

So, what is keyword mapping? What is the importance of doing it to optimize your website? Here is the full explanation.

What is Keyword Mapping?

Keyword mapping is the process of mapping keywords with the aim of making the website more structured, starting from the main keywords and moving on to keyword variants. Simply put, you set which keywords will be used as main keywords and which keywords will be used as keyword variants.

Apart from being able to optimize your website, this mapping technique can also help you define what ideas you will implement in your content. This is because the mapping process is done properly and in an organized manner.

Even though it sounds simple, if you ignore this process, your website will look like it doesn't have a good structure. In addition, your website has a very small possibility of appearing on search engines.

Benefits of Keyword Mapping

After knowing what mapping is, now is the time to know what kind of benefits you can get. Here's a comprehensive explanation of it.

1. Setting Anchor Text

The first benefit is setting the anchor text. The mapping process can help you analyze which pages should link to each other. The way to do it must also be logical and relevant to the context.

You can use the keywords that have been prepared as a reference for creating internal links or anchor text based on the process that was done before.

2. Easier to Manage

Keyword mapping can make it easier for you to manage, detect, and report on the performance of your website. It helps you detect important topics that are expected to get good positions on the SERP.

With good keyword research skills that are relevant to the website, you are able to find out an overview of the performance of each query that has been previously analyzed.

3. Practical Content Planning

As previously explained, mapping can help you brainstorm content ideas.

With a clear website structure, you can figure out how to focus the content and avoid duplication and cannibalization of keywords on your website.

The mapping allows you to have a series of keywords that are organized and relevant to your website niche, so it will be easier for you to do content planning.

4. Build an Intuitive Site Structure

Creating a logical website structure is one of the most important aspects of website optimization. You must be able to let search engines know which pages are important and relevant to the main topic and subtopics of your website.

It is very important to understand that each main page must contain one topic, represented by one main keyword. Each page with specific keywords must have two of the following:

• Pillar content: The main page generally has one more general keyword, such as "fried noodles"
• Cluster content: Subpages that have more specific keywords and generally use long-tail keywords, such as "how to make delicious fried noodles"

The Importance of Keyword Mapping

Mapping keywords is a simple thing that is very important to do but is often ignored by SEO practitioners. Why? Because it can be used to assess the quality of your website's content and marketing strategy. Search engines like Google have the ability to explore websites in order to find the content needed by their users.

Not only that, the mapping can provide an overview of the content creation strategy for you. Therefore, it is considered a crucial activity, even though it looks trivial.

How to Do Keyword Mapping Properly

After knowing what the importance of keyword mapping is and what the benefits are, how do you do it? Here are some ways that you need to know:

1. Research One Keyword to Identify Another Keyword

The most basic step you can take during the mapping process is to look for one keyword to identify another set of keywords. For example, when you do research by entering one keyword using the Ahrefs tool, you will find many keywords that are similar to the one you have entered.

Don't forget to look for keywords that are relevant to your website niche. Prioritize keywords with high search volume because these keywords are searched for by users.

2. Group Several Similar Keywords

After entering one main keyword, you must group several similar keywords that are relevant to the main keyword. For example, when you research the keyword "tote bag," you can also pick up some matching keywords, such as "how to make a tote bag out of paper," "tote bag for school," or "cool tote bag for traveling".

With this, you will have the opportunity to meet greater demand. Because the more you find keyword variants, the greater the chance of getting lots of visitors to your website.

Apart from that, knowing how to do this mapping is also useful for clarifying the direction of content, website structure, and the niche of your website.

3. Make Potential URLs with Appropriate Keywords

The next step is to create a potential URL, based on the keywords that you have previously researched. When you have an organized set of keywords, it will help you visualize the structure of your website and the potential pages on your website.

Using URLs or slugs that are relevant to keywords can make it easier for you to define the website structure, as well as affect user comfort because URLs that match keywords tend to be more comfortable to read.

For example, when you use the word "what is SEO" as your main keyword, you can change it to a slug, such as "what-is-seo."

4. Update Keyword Map Regularly

Trend updates among users are always changing. This is one of the reasons why updating the keyword map regularly is important. Always keeping an eye on what is becoming a trend can help keep your website "up to date."

In this case, you also have to monitor competition in search engines so that your website's position won't be shifted just because it doesn't follow the trend that is currently being talked about. After updating the keyword map, don't forget to always monitor the performance of your website. 

Thus, an explanation of keyword mapping that you should know. Doing it properly can maintain the performance and position of your website in the SERP.

You can also use SEO services to improve the performance of your website in a practical, efficient, and affordable way for the long-term sustainability of your business.