🚀 Goal
Find high-value keywords that people search for in your niche, group them by intent, and create a keyword map that drives your entire SEO and content strategy.
🎯 Ideal Outcome
A comprehensive keyword spreadsheet with buckets organised by search intent, each bucket mapped to a specific page on your site — ready to guide 6–12 months of content creation.
🤔 Why This Matters
Keyword research is the foundation of SEO. Without it, you are creating content nobody is searching for. A strong keyword strategy tells you exactly what pages to build, what content to write, and in what order — giving you a competitive advantage over businesses and institutes that are guessing.
Reshma
SEO & GEO Manager, Unlearn Academy
“The biggest SEO mistake I see from Kerala businesses is skipping keyword research entirely and just writing content they think is good. I audited one local digital agency's blog — 24 articles, zero keyword research. Total organic traffic: 18 visits per month. We did a proper keyword map for their niche, identified 6 high-value, low-competition clusters, and built one page per cluster. Three months later, those 6 pages were generating 1,200 organic visits per month combined. The existing 24 articles were irrelevant. Six well-researched pages beat 24 random ones every time.”
⚠️ Before You Start
Access to Ahrefs, Semrush, or KWFinder (at minimum, a free trial)
A Google Sheet or Excel file set up to organise findings
A clear understanding of your target audience and what problems your business solves
Set aside dedicated time — this process is not difficult but it is time-consuming
Pro tip: Also check what keywords you already rank for: Google Search Console → Performance → Queries. These are real searches bringing you traffic — start here before expanding.
Note: If you search 'digital marketing course' and see results dominated by global platforms (Coursera, Udemy, IIDE) — the keyword is competitive. Try 'digital marketing course Trivandrum' or 'digital marketing course Kazhakootam' — much easier to rank for, much higher buyer intent.
Pro tip: If two keywords have the same intent and similar search results, they belong in the same bucket. If the Google results page looks completely different for two keywords, they need separate pages.
Note: These are estimates. Real results depend on your actual conversion rate, competition, and how well the page is optimised. Use this for prioritisation — not guaranteed revenue projections.
✅ Keyword research completion checklist
SOP Complete
You've completed all steps. Document your before/after results and add this to your portfolio as a case study.
Quick Reference
🧐 Where
Ahrefs (ahrefs.com), Semrush, or KWFinder for keyword data. Google Sheets for mapping and organisation.
🗓 When
Before building or redesigning a website. Before launching a new content marketing campaign. Refreshed at least once a year as search trends change.
👤 Who
SEO specialist, digital marketer, or content strategist. Can be delegated to a trained assistant once the process is understood.
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