Keyword Research and Topical Mapping

Without keyword research, every page you create is a guess. Keyword research gives each page a clear purpose, a measurable target, and a defined position within your site's topical architecture.

Our keyword research goes beyond generating a list of terms with search volumes. We cluster keywords by intent, group them into topical hubs, and map them directly onto a site architecture that tells search engines exactly what your site is about and why it deserves to rank.

What Keyword Research Includes

Every keyword research project delivers three core outputs: a validated keyword list, an intent-classified cluster map, and a page-to-keyword mapping document that becomes the blueprint for your site's content architecture.

• Validated keyword list — 50-200 terms with UK search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC data, and SERP feature indicators (featured snippets, People Also Ask, local packs).
• Intent classification — every keyword tagged as informational, commercial, transactional, or navigational so that page content matches what searchers actually want.
• Competitor gap analysis — keywords your top 3-5 competitors rank for that you currently do not, prioritised by traffic potential and difficulty.
• SERP feature opportunities — terms where featured snippets, FAQ boxes, or knowledge panels are achievable with correctly structured content and schema markup.

How We Cluster Keywords

1. Step 1: Seed keyword extraction. We start with 5-10 seed keywords from your business description and competitor analysis, then expand them through Ahrefs keyword explorer to generate a raw list of 500-2,000 potential terms.
2. Step 2: Search volume and difficulty filtering. The raw list is filtered by UK search volume (minimum threshold depends on your niche) and keyword difficulty. We remove terms that are too competitive for a new site and those with negligible search demand.
3. Step 3: Intent classification. Every surviving keyword is classified by search intent: informational (looking for answers), commercial investigation (comparing options), transactional (ready to buy), or navigational (looking for a specific brand or page).
4. Step 4: Semantic clustering. Keywords are grouped into clusters where they share the same parent topic. Each cluster becomes a hub-and-spoke group with one pillar keyword and several supporting long-tail variations.
5. Step 5: Page-to-keyword mapping. Each cluster is mapped to a page on the site. The pillar keyword becomes the hub page target, and the supporting terms become spoke page targets. This produces the URL structure and content architecture for the entire site.

From Keywords to Pages

The final deliverable is a page-to-keyword mapping document that translates the keyword research into a concrete site plan. Each row specifies the target URL, primary keyword, secondary keywords, search intent, parent hub, and the internal links that page should carry.

This document becomes the content brief for every page on your site. Writers know exactly which term to target, which heading structure to follow, and which pages to link to. Every page has a single primary keyword. No two pages target the same term. Keyword cannibalisation is structurally impossible.

Frequently Asked Questions