There are several integral parts involved in drafting a brilliant SEO marketing strategy. Digital marketing is an umbrella term that encompasses various aspects, and one of them is SEO. For a positive SEO result, i.e., to rank high in search engine result pages, both on-page and off- page optimization is required. Off-page SEO is directly connected to on-page optimization as visitors often do publicity when satisfied with the on-page content. The quality and relevancy of content marketing determine the promotion received outside of the website through the visitors. For enhanced SEO content marketing, driving traffic to your website is very necessary. Offering good content is an essential requirement and attracting traffic to the website is important to showcase this content.
Keywords, an essential component of SEO content marketing, act as a magnet to attract traffic to the page. When keywords are matched properly with the user's search terms by identifying their search intent, they give remarkable results in content marketing. Keyword research tools help in keyword analysis, making it easier for digital marketing companies to choose or select relevant keywords. Keyword research enables the identification of the best-related keywords to be used in content marketing. There are several other factors also involved in the selection of the keywords from the numerous option of keywords provided by the keyword research tools. Keyword ranking, search volume, relevancy, the current popularity of the keywords, and many other factors are taken into consideration when selecting the keywords for content marketing.
If you are conducting keyword research for just a single blog page, then it is still an easy task to perform. The main complexity of keyword optimization is faced when keyword targeting has to be done for multiple pages of a single website. Different pages of a website are associated with distinct features, services, or content. Every single page of the website needs optimization to sustain or build or defend its identity in this unimaginably competitive online marketing platform.
What is keyword mapping?
Every single page of a website needs optimization, and to ensure that every page is optimized to its full extent in reference to keywords, keyword mapping is done. The keyword mapping process starts with keyword research, which is carried out on various keyword research tools. An adequate analysis is done to choose the best relevant keywords to be assigned to different pages of the website. The number of keywords for the whole website is comparatively very high from a single page. This is done to ensure that each page of the website has its own set of keywords complimented by a seed keyword. Assigning a set of keywords for each page boosts the overall SEO of the website. Each page serves a unique feature to the visitors, a page might be giving information to the user about the product, building brand awareness by describing the company, and another may be luring them to complete a transaction or give their contact details. Each and every page needs keyword optimization to convey the content marketing message and enrich its call-to-action which may be informational, navigational, or transactional.
The how and why of keyword mapping?
The importance of keywords is not hidden from the digital marketers that are indulged in several digital marketing services like PPC services, SEO services, email marketing, digital analytics, social media marketing, content marketing, and many more. Keywords play a very important role in placing your page or website high on the search engine result pages. Therefore keyword optimization for every page becomes a necessity, and understanding how and why keyword mapping is done becomes essential.
• Assigning a set of target keywords - Every page has its unique feature or message that it is entitled to provide to the visitors. Assigning a set of target keywords for each page of the website helps in giving an equal chance to the pages to rank high in search engines. Keyword research provides the insight to choose relevant keywords for each website page. Assigning target keywords becomes extremely advantageous in ranking multiple pages of the website and it also eradicates the overlapping of keywords on two different pages. This keyword strategy is extremely suitable when dealing with multiple pages of the website.
• Understanding the search intent - The delivery of the content to the users by acknowledging their search intent to formulate the relevant content boosts brand awareness and maximizes search engine optimization. By understanding the search intent of the users, the chances of outranking the competitor’s website increase. Also, analyzing competitors’ websites will give a handful of knowledge regarding the keywords that are letting them rank high, and decipher the search intent of the user, which may be informational, transactional, or navigational for the same kind of websites. It will help in optimized keyword mapping and in improving the content strategy, as the generation of content will be aligned to the search intent of the users and this will automatically enhance the user’s satisfaction.
• A seed keyword for every page - Seed keywords are generic keywords with high search volumes. These types of keywords are taken as a base for further keyword research that is highly relevant to the product or service being offered. For e.g. if you are in the business of selling mobile phones, then the seed keyword will be “mobile phone” and the other associated keywords will revolve around the seed keyword - buy mobile phone, best mobile phone discount, mobile phone discount offer, etc. A seed keyword with a set of keywords is the best way to do keyword mapping. It lands the visitors on the related page based on their search terms.
• In order of most to least important pages - For assigning the high-traffic keywords to the most important pages of the website, keyword analysis is essential. Keyword analysis shows the keyword ranking of different related keywords fitting the specific pages of a website. Therefore selection and targeting of keywords become easy. The most important keywords are assigned to the highly effective and impactful pages of the website that are the most responsible for overall website optimization, i.e., the home page, product page, contact us page, about us page, and content page. Some of the pages have more weightage in the eyes of the brand compared to other pages of their own website. Handling these pages thus becomes a delicate process as they are involved in most of the revenue-generating transactions.
• Makes navigation easy - Adequate and effective keyword mapping makes it easy for the users to navigate through the website. When the right set of keywords is assigned to the related page of the website then crawling and indexing becomes easy for the search engine crawlers which benefits the SEO content ranking in SERPs. For the users, it pleases their search intent and provides a sense of satisfaction to them. A satisfied user revisits and also provides free publicity to the website because of the fruitful experience, benefiting the off-page optimization. Giving users easy navigation is necessary to retain them because the objective of SEO marketing is not limited to a one-time visit of the target audience to the website.
• Important on-page optimization process - In the online marketing space, every digital marketing strategy holds its own promising value that benefits the promotion of the website and its products and keyword mapping is one of them. Thorough keyword research helps in creating the best keyword strategy to align the most relevant keywords to different pages of the website. The content on the different pages is matched with the most relevant set of keywords that best describe the feature of the page, it exhibits how highly optimized the website is. This fulfills one of the SEO criteria of on-page optimization through the use of proper keyword mapping, benefiting the overall SEO content marketing campaign. Also, if on-page optimization is adequate, then the chances of getting inbound links increases because users are finding your content useful and worthy of sharing, which on the other hand, enhances off-page optimization. Therefore, the value and reputation of the brand elevate.
• Search volume is not the only criterion - One of the important aspects of keyword mapping is not being fully dependent on search volume. Search volume shows the amount of traffic a keyword attracts but selecting a set of keywords for different website pages, only on the basis of search volume is not a suggested idea. Keyword mapping depends upon the other aspects of keyword selection too i.e. relevancy, call-to-action related to the designated page, and also search volume combined together. The set of keywords you are going to assign to a certain page should be relevant to the information offered by that page. Users' satisfaction is one of the most influencing criteria in ranking a page high on search engine result pages, and if the user's search intent gets fulfilled by landing on the most relevant page related to their search term, then SEO content marketing is a huge success.
• Using short-tail and long-tail keywords - Using short-tail and long-tail keywords for keyword mapping drives traffic and gives a good conversion percentage. Short-tail keywords are essential to drive maximum traffic to the website, more visitors uplift the brand image and create brand awareness, and in the long run, also provide a high rate of conversions. On the other hand, long-tail keywords are specifically targeting the audience that provides a better chance of conversions. While short-tail caters to the enormous competition, long-tail, on the other hand, targets the specific feature provided by the company. E.g., Your brand only sells men’s running shoes in New York. Therefore the short-tail keyword will be, “men’s shoes” and the long-tail will be, “men’s running shoes New York“.
For an effective keyword optimization strategy, both short and long-tail keywords need approximately equal weightage from the digital marketers to achieve the desired outcome for their SEO content strategy.
• Increases the users' time on the website - Directing the users to the pages related to their search intent simultaneously increases the time spent by them on the website. The satisfaction of receiving the relevant information is rewarding for both the users and for the brand. For a brand, it is extremely necessary to ensure that a suitable keyword mapping process has been carried out. This will increase the productivity of the time allocated by the users in harboring their search intent. Search engines consider the time spent by the internet surfers on a website as a ranking factor, and if the bounce rate is low, it improves the website's ranking. Keyword mapping thus helps in ranking multiple pages of the same website to rank high on search engines.
• Important in avoiding keyword cannibalization - Keyword cannibalization happens when two or more pages are tried to be optimized by the same keywords. It confuses the search engines in ranking the cannibalized pages as they overlap each other. Keyword cannibalization not only deteriorates the chance of the website ranking high in the search engine result pages but also affects the multiple website pages internally. Even if one of the cannibalized pages had a chance of ranking, it is now impacted by keyword cannibalization. Keyword mapping helps in eliminating this overlapping of pages that can severely ruin SEO content marketing.
Final thoughts
As discussed above, we have come to a conclusion that how keyword mapping can help in boosting SEO content marketing and in giving user satisfaction. The primary step in the internet search engines is executed through the use of keywords, this describes how much importance is attached to it. Overall optimization of the website needs extensive research on several aspects of search engine optimization and keyword mapping is one of them. It is absolutely important for every brand to boost their website optimization through keyword mapping as it will enhance the performance of all the important pages of the website. They conduct a thorough analysis on choosing the right set of relevant keywords to optimize all the essential pages of a website and provide it with a successful content marketing campaign. If you can’t figure out how to win this digital marketing strategy, you can always outsource a reputed digital marketing company.
References:
• Search for beginners: A guide to keyword research
• SEO for beginners: The ultimate guide to keyword cannibalization