Skill
Keyword strategy and on-page
Keyword research usually produces a list. What a site actually needs is ownership: one query, one page responsible for it, and no two of your own URLs fighting over the same result. On a small site that is a spreadsheet exercise. On a catalogue with thousands of ranking terms it decides what gets built and in what order.
Two-time award winner for content strategy at Neil Patel Digital.
What this covers
Keyword work covers more than research, so here is the specific list and what each one fixes.
| Area | What goes wrong | What I do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword to URL mapping | Nobody can say which page is supposed to rank for your most valuable term | One owning URL per primary keyword, documented so the whole team works from it |
| Cannibalisation | Two of your own pages compete and both rank worse than either would alone | Query level overlap audit in Search Console, then consolidate, differentiate or redirect |
| Search intent | The page targets a term the results page answers in a different format | Read the SERP before writing, match the format that already ranks |
| Category architecture | Commercial terms land on the homepage instead of the category built for them | Move the target down the hierarchy with internal links and on-page signals |
| Opportunity sizing | Content investment follows opinion instead of demand | Size every category by keyword count and search volume, then sequence by revenue potential |
| On-page | Titles and headings written for the CMS rather than the query | Rewrite titles, H1s and body copy against the target term and its real variants |
| Content gaps | Competitors own terms you have no page for at all | Gap analysis against ranking competitors, mapped to specific new pages |
| Prompt-shaped queries | The keyword map covers “tactical pants” and misses “what tactical pants should I buy for hot weather”, which is what people now type into an AI box | Mine the long, question-shaped queries from Search Console and pair each with the page that should be the answer |
Signs you need this
The symptoms are usually visible in Search Console before anyone calls it a keyword problem.
- Two of your own URLs keep swapping positions for the same query.
- Your homepage ranks for commercial terms that belong on a category page.
- Nobody can tell you which single page is supposed to own your most valuable term.
- Content gets commissioned on topic rather than against a target keyword.
- Rankings are broad but shallow: page two across hundreds of terms, page one for very few.
- A new category or product line is launching with no plan for which terms it should own.
- Your top queries in Search Console are getting longer and more conversational, and your pages still answer them in the third paragraph.
A keyword map for one brand or one section, delivered as a workbook with a category map, a page priority view and a transparent removed duplicates tab. You can see exactly what I cut and why, rather than taking a cleaned list on trust.
How I work on it
- Pull the raw set. Search Console queries, Semrush positions, and what competitors rank for across the same catalogue.
- Assign ownership. One primary term per URL. Duplicates get surfaced in their own tab, never silently dropped.
- Fix the conflicts. Cannibalisation resolved by consolidation, differentiation or redirect, prioritised by the search volume at stake.
- Sequence by value. Categories ranked by the demand behind them, so content and internal linking follow revenue rather than enthusiasm.
Related projects
U-Line
Keyword architectureCannibalisation audit across overlapping product templates, then a new page set.
Read the project →Marvel Refrigeration
IndexationPre-migration audit that sorted every URL by evidence before a redirect map was written.
Read the project →Want to talk through a site?
Twenty minutes, screen shared, your Search Console open. You will leave with at least one thing worth fixing whether or not we end up working together.
Typical reply time: within one working day