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A step‑by‑step checklist covering brainstorming, competitor analysis, intent classification, long‑tail mining, clustering, tracking, and more. Copy, customise, and build your SEO foundation — 100% free.
Clearly articulate the broad subject area of your website. Write down 5-10 main topics that represent your business.
List the most obvious words and phrases a customer would use to find your products or services. Think like a user, not an SEO.
Review customer emails, support tickets, and sales calls to extract the exact phrases they use. This reveals highly relevant seeds.
Export existing queries that already drive impressions. These are proven seeds with real-world data.
Start typing your seeds into Google and record the suggestions. Use tools like Keyword Tool Dominator for bulk extraction.
Scan the table of contents, related terms, and external links for terminology you may have missed.
Browse Reddit, Quora, and niche forums. Note the exact questions people ask – these become powerful long-tail seeds.
Enter your broad topic and look at “Related queries” (top and rising). Export the CSV for further analysis.
Ask the AI to generate 50 keyword ideas around a topic, in a specific tone or for a particular audience.
Group related seeds (e.g., “buy”, “learn”, “compare”) to prepare for later intent classification.
Use Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Keyword Planner to get monthly search volumes. Focus on localised volumes if you serve a specific country.
Check the paid difficulty (CPC) and organic difficulty scores. Prioritise low-difficulty, high-volume keywords if you have a new site.
High CPC often indicates strong commercial intent. Include these keywords even if the volume is moderate.
Use Google Trends 12-month view to ensure the keyword is consistently searched, not just a one‑time fad.
Keywords with many SERP features (featured snippets, knowledge panels) often have lower organic CTR. Factor that in.
For each keyword, note if demand peaks during certain months or events. Plan content accordingly.
If you target multiple regions, pull separate volumes for the US, UK, etc. Choose the most relevant market.
Some keywords are predominantly searched on mobile. Adjust content format (shorter, more visual) based on device.
Multiply volume by estimated CTR for your target position (e.g., position 1 ≈ 30% CTR) to get actual traffic.
Keep columns: keyword, volume, difficulty, CPC, trend, intent, priority. This becomes your single source of truth.
Don’t just think of business rivals. Search your top seeds – the domains that rank are your real competition.
Use Ahrefs or Majestic to see who links to competing pages. Look for common link sources you could also earn.
Use the “Top Pages” report to find high-traffic competitor URLs. Reverse-engineer their content structure and keyword targeting.
Run a content gap analysis (Ahrefs/Semrush) to see keywords competitors don’t rank for but you could target.
Note whether competitors use long guides, videos, lists, or tools. See what Google rewards for the target keyword.
Spot patterns in how top-ranking pages craft their title tags. Use them as inspiration (not copy/paste).
Look at header structure, internal linking, schema markup, and image alt text on top competitor pages.
If competitors’ pages are slow but still rank, you have an opportunity to leapfrog with better performance.
Understand how they cluster related content. This can reveal silos you should build on your own site.
Monitor when they refresh high-ranking pages. Frequent updates signal to Google – you can learn from their schedule.
Label each keyword as Informational, Commercial, Transactional, or Navigational. This determines the content type you create.
For each high-priority keyword, search it and note what Google shows: blog posts, product pages, videos, or a mix.
Extract all “who, what, when, where, why, how” queries. These indicate informational intent and are perfect for blog posts.
Keywords with “buy”, “discount”, “for sale”, or “price” deserve product/category pages and strong CTAs.
Queries like “A vs B” indicate evaluation intent. Create comparison pages or tables to capture this traffic.
“What is X” wants a definition; “how to X” wants a tutorial. Match content format precisely to the intent.
Prompt an LLM with a list of keywords and ask it to categorise each by intent. Quick sanity check.
Create a matrix: Informational → Blog post, Commercial → List page, Transactional → Product page, etc.
If you rank for an informational term with a product page, you may need to create a dedicated blog post instead.
Add an “Intent” column to your keyword spreadsheet. Use it later for clustering and mapping.
Google suggests long-tails at the bottom of every results page. Record them for each seed.
Expand and capture all questions. They often reveal low-competition long-tails with clear informational intent.
Tools like AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked.com, or KeywordTool.io expand a seed into hundreds of long-tail variations.
Search your seed term on Quora. Look at “related questions” and actual user posts to extract natural language phrases.
Download a competitor’s sitemap.xml and extract URL slugs that contain long descriptive phrases. These are often long-tail keywords.
For ecommerce, product titles are rich with long-tail descriptors. Extract them for your own product categories.
Your industry’s spoken content contains natural long-tail queries. Use Otter.ai or similar tools to generate transcripts and keyword lists.
Support chats often contain the exact wording people use to describe problems – a goldmine for long-tail blog ideas.
Systematically append words like “for beginners”, “guide”, “best”, “cheap”, “near me” to your seed keywords.
Even if the tool shows 0 volume, check Google Trends or perform a quick Google search to see if there’s real interest.
Use tools like Keyword Cupid or manual grouping to combine related terms that can be targeted on one page.
Assign each cluster to a specific existing URL or a new page to be created. Never target the same keyword on multiple pages.
Define broad “pillar” pages and many supporting “cluster” articles that interlink, covering the entire topic.
Use a spreadsheet to see if two pages accidentally target overlapping clusters. Merge or de‑optimise one if necessary.
Combine volume, difficulty, and relevance into a single score. Tackle high-opportunity clusters first.
For each target page, list 1 primary keyword and 3-5 secondary variations that should appear naturally in the content.
Plan which cluster content goes live in week 1, week 2, etc. This turns your map into a real content calendar.
Before publishing, decide how cluster articles will link to the pillar page and each other. Draw a simple diagram.
Monitor the entire cluster’s organic traffic as a unit, not just single pages. A rising tide lifts all boats.
As you create new content and gain new keywords, refresh your keyword-to-URL mapping to stay organised.
List all seasonal events (Black Friday, Christmas, back-to-school) relevant to your niche. Brainstorm related keywords.
Use the “Trending Searches” and “Year in Search” reports to catch rising topics before they peak.
Hashtags and viral phrases often become search queries later. Use social listening to spot early signals.
For each seasonal keyword, pull 3-5 years of Google Trends data to confirm a reliable pattern (not a one-time spike).
Google needs time to index and rank. Publish seasonal content well before the surge to capture early traffic.
Monitor news and blogs for mentions of your trend terms; pivot your content quickly if something explodes.
Build a permanent URL (e.g., /gift-guide) that you update yearly, consolidating seasonal keywords and internal links.
Ahrefs and Semrush show 12-month trend lines. Avoid keywords that are declining unless you see a cyclical pattern.
For very short spikes (e.g., a viral challenge), publish a quick news-style post rather than a permanent pillar page.
If you have previous Christmas guides, update and republish them instead of starting from scratch. This preserves link equity.
Append city, state, or “near me” to your core keywords to create a local keyword list.
Ensure your business name, categories, and description include the primary local keywords you want to rank for.
Use Google Keyword Planner or Semrush to find the most popular “near me” searches in your industry.
Look at local competitors’ location pages and extract their target keywords from title tags and headings.
Every niche has insider terms. Use trade publications, forums, and professional glossaries to collect them.
Set your VPN or browser location and manually search. Record the localised Google suggest results.
Cross-tab your services/products with cities/regions. Each cell becomes a landing page if volume supports it.
In the UK, “solicitor” vs “lawyer” may have different search volumes. Account for regional word choice.
If your business is hyper-local, target neighbourhood names (“plumber in Brooklyn Heights”) for even less competition.
Use rank tracking tools with local intent to see if your business appears in the map pack for target keywords.
Add your finalised keyword list to a tracker like Ahrefs, Semrush, or SERPWatcher. Track on both desktop and mobile.
For each keyword, set a realistic target position and a timeframe. This helps you measure progress objectively.
Enable email or Slack alerts when a keyword moves up/down by more than 5 positions. React quickly to drops.
Track organic clicks alongside positions. A ranking improvement that brings no traffic may indicate the wrong intent match.
If a SERP suddenly gains a featured snippet, your CTR may drop even if position stays the same. Adjust your content to target that snippet.
Check for algorithm updates, competitor activity, or technical issues as soon as a significant drop appears.
Use rank tracking to measure the effect of changing a title tag. Be cautious – only test one element at a time.
Create a standardised dashboard (Google Looker Studio, Google Data Studio) that shows keyword trends at a glance.
Set up a script or Zapier integration to cross-reference rank tracker data with Google Search Console weekly.
Document every update you make to a page (content refresh, links added, etc.) next to its keyword ranking history.
Compare your domain against 3-5 competitors in Ahrefs/Semrush to find keywords they rank for that you don’t.
Look for SERPs where competitors have a low DR, indicating you can outrank them with better content and links.
Google’s “People also search for” box (below a SERP click) reveals additional related terms you may have missed.
If the SERP is dominated by videos, consider creating video content rather than a traditional article.
Scan your own site for pages that rank on page 2 or 3. A small refresh can push them into the top 10.
Some keywords show 0 volume in tools but actually drive clicks. Check Search Console or AdWords data if you have it.
If a feature you offer is underrepresented in search results, create a dedicated solution page to fill the gap.
Set a recurring calendar event to re‑run gap analyses and update your keyword map with fresh opportunities.
For every gap keyword, think: can I create a better, more comprehensive resource than what currently exists?
Tackle gaps where you can publish a page and rank within 3-6 months with minimal link building effort.
Use the search bar (Ctrl+K) to jump to any step. Click category tabs to explore the full process — from brainstorming to tracking.
Every item has a copy button. Paste into your project management tool, spreadsheet, or Notion to create your own personalised workflow.
Execute the steps in order, adapting them to your niche. Use the tracking section to measure success and iterate.
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