Keyword Research and Topic Mapping
Keyword data is cheap. Knowing which terms deserve a page, which belong together and which to ignore is the work. I turn raw search data into a topic map your content and development teams can build from.
Keyword research and topic mapping is the step between knowing you want organic traffic and knowing what to publish. I gather the terms people use when they search for what you offer and group them by the question behind each search. Then I assign every group to a page: one that exists, one that needs rewriting or one that does not exist yet. The result is a map of your site as search engines should see it, not a spreadsheet of volumes.
My roots are in SEM and paid search, where every term had a cost and a conversion attached to it. That habit stayed with me. I weigh each topic by the intent it signals and the business outcome it can support, not by volume alone. Later I oversaw on-page SEO and CMS publishing for subscription web communities at TN Marketing. At UnitedHealth Group I managed SEO and SEM programs and owned the website roadmap, prioritizing projects by impact and business objectives.
The map is only useful if people use it. I write it for the teams who will act on it. Content gets a brief per page with the primary term, supporting terms and the questions to answer. Developers get URL and internal linking changes written as requirements. Leadership gets a view of which topics are covered, which are contested and which are open. I review it with your team before anything is final so the priorities reflect what you can actually produce.
What keyword research includes
Keyword Universe
A deduplicated inventory of the terms your audience searches, pulled from Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Ads search term reports and your own site search, with volume, difficulty and current ranking URL recorded for each.
Intent Classification
Every term tagged by what the searcher wants: to learn, to compare, to find a specific brand or to buy, so each page is written for one job rather than several.
Topic Clusters
Terms grouped into topics by shared intent and shared search results, with a pillar term and supporting terms named for each cluster and the relationships between clusters drawn out.
Keyword-to-Page Map
A spreadsheet assigning each cluster to one URL, marking whether that page exists, needs rewriting, needs consolidating with another or must be created, with cannibalization between pages flagged.
Gap and Opportunity Report
The topics competitors rank for and you do not, the terms where you sit just off the first page, and the clusters with no page at all, ranked by fit to your goals.
Page Briefs
A short brief for each priority URL naming the primary term, supporting terms, the questions the page must answer, the intent to serve and the pages it should link to.
How I approach keyword research
Define the territory
We agree on the products, services and audiences the map should cover and the ones it should not, and I collect what you already know about how customers describe their problems.
Gather and clean the data
I pull terms from Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Ads and your analytics, remove duplicates and irrelevant matches, and record volume, difficulty and the URL currently ranking for each one.
Classify and cluster
I tag each term by intent, group terms that share meaning and search results into topics, and check the live results to confirm the grouping holds before anything is assigned.
Map, prioritize and hand off
Each cluster gets a URL and a status, the backlog is ranked by business fit and effort, and I walk your content and development leads through the map so the first briefs can start.
Where this comes from
My hands-on roots are in SEO and SEM, starting with early roles as an internet marketing specialist and then as an SEM and online media specialist. At TN Marketing I oversaw CMS publishing and on-page SEO for subscription web communities built on articles and instructional video tutorials. At UnitedHealth Group I managed SEO and SEM within a wider digital program and owned the website roadmap, which meant prioritizing what got built by impact and business objectives. Topic mapping is where the search work and the roadmap work meet.
See my experienceBrittany is a detailed, organized, well-rounded worker. She takes the word specific to a new level. She compiles research after research to make decisions that will best benefit clients.
Procurement and Strategic Sourcing
Worked on different teams
Frequently asked
How is keyword research different from an SEO audit?
Keyword research decides what the site should rank for, while an audit explains why it ranks where it does today. The topic map is a plan for pages and content. A technical audit covers crawling, indexing and templates. They work together, and many engagements start with one and move into the other.
Do you write the content once the map is done?
Not by default, though I can brief and manage writers or review drafts against the brief. The core deliverable is the map and the page briefs. Many teams already have writers and want them pointed at the right pages. If you need pages written, I scope that as content work alongside the research.
What data do you need access to?
Read access to your analytics, plus any existing keyword lists, rank tracking or paid search term reports. I use Semrush and Ahrefs for volume, difficulty and competitor data. If you have on-site search logs or notes from sales calls about how customers phrase their problems, those sharpen the map considerably.
How often should a topic map be updated?
Review it whenever the business changes what it sells or who it sells to, and refresh the data yearly at a minimum. The structure of the map should hold between reviews. I set it up as a living document your team owns, with the sources and rules documented so an update does not require starting over.
Related services
On-Page SEO and Content Optimization
Most sites already have the pages they need to rank. They are just not written for the searches they could win. I optimize existing pages element by element, so each one answers the intent behind the query and can compete for it.
Learn moreSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)
Organic search is the channel that keeps working after the campaign budget is spent. I build SEO programs that fit the way your business actually operates, then measure them against goals you care about.
Learn moreEditorial Planning and Calendars
An editorial calendar is a set of decisions about what to publish, for whom, when and why. I build the plan behind the calendar, so each piece has an owner, a deadline and a reason to exist.
Learn moreLet's find the terms worth a page
Send me your domain and a sentence about what the site needs to sell or explain. I will tell you what a topic map would cover, what it would take and whether you need one yet.