How to build a keyword map

By having a keyword map, you can start to plan out topic and sub topics. You have a process to cut down procrastination and focus on getting content created.

Your able to see what post rank and don’t as well as which need work. Also having a map means you can easily hire writers as you know what they need to write, deadline and a rough word count.

Applying this idea to one of our website, we’ve gone from stabbing in the dark to having a concrete plan and have grown taffic from a couple of hundred to nearly 5,000 visitors per month and it keeps growing.

Open up excel and create a new document with 3 tabs.

First tab: IDEAS

• Try and collect as many ideas as possible. Don’t over think and try to add a few new pieces each day (creativity is a skill, so just keep trying!)
• Collect anything that could inspire you to create content (I have a phrases, URLs, quora questions etc.)

Second tab: DRAFT

• First settle on a keyword then gather some data. You can use ubersuggest for a rough idea of search volume and difficulty.
• I then like to sketch out my title, url and meta description.
• Next I like to estimate how long the piece will be and whether it will drive revenue or not (you need both!)
• Finally I have some tick boxes to make life easier including have a started a draft, found images, created a Pinterest pin etc.

Third tab: PUBLISHED

When I publish a post, I copy the row across and complete it so that I have the following:

• Title
• URL
• meta description
• Published date
• Category
• Keyword data (target keyword, search volume, difficulty score)
• Current ranking position
• Commercial score
• Word count