Chapter 13: How Do We Place Keywords on the Site?

Last updated: November 1, 2026.

So far we’ve found keywords. We’ve looked at search volume. We’ve assessed the competition. We’ve gone through Google’s suggestions. Now we have hundreds of keywords.

So what do we do now?

I think one of the most common mistakes in SEO starts right here. Because many people think the job is done once they’ve found the keywords. In fact, the real work starts after this.

Is it right to create 10 different pages for the same keyword?

No. In fact, it can often do the opposite and cause harm.

For example, imagine we created four separate pages for very similar keywords like these:

• coffee machine
• coffee machines
• best coffee machine
• coffee machine recommendation

In this case, what we’re actually telling Google is:

“All four of these pages are about the same topic.”

And Google may struggle to decide which one it should show. We’ll go into this in more detail in Chapter 19.

But for now, the thing to keep in mind is this:

Not every keyword means a new page.

Keyword cannibalization

The situation above has a name. When more than one page on a site tries to answer the same search with the same intent, it’s called keyword cannibalization. The pages try to take each other’s place and none of them really stands out.

It’s usually noticed through these signs:

• More than one of your URLs getting impressions for the same query in Search Console
• Two pages constantly swapping places in the rankings
• Another one of your pages showing up for a search instead of the page you’re targeting

Having two of your pages appear for the same query isn’t always a problem. A category page and a guide can meet different needs in the same search. The problem is when two pages do the same job. The solution is often to merge the pages, redirect one to the other, or sharpen the focus of each page. I cover these in Chapter 19, where I talk about what to do with old content.

The easiest way, though, is to prevent it from the start. That’s one of the goals of the mapping work I describe in this chapter.

I build topics first

I prefer to evaluate keywords as topics rather than one by one. For example, say we have these keywords:

• coffee machine
• coffee machine recommendations
• best coffee machine
• coffee machine suggestions

I don’t think these should be four different articles. They may be different searches for the same topic. First I group them under one topic. Then I decide whether it really needs a new page.

I separate the ones that don’t belong to the same topic

Now let’s think about some other keywords:

• coffee machine cleaning
• coffee machine problems
• coffee machine filter

Here the user is now asking different questions. So these could be separate pieces of content.

So first I ask myself this question:

Would the person making these searches be happy on the same page?

If yes, one page. If not, a new page. For me, this is the most important decision.

The answer to this question depends largely on search intent. If the people searching two keywords want the same thing, one page is enough. I covered search intent in Chapter 4.

Before the map, I sort keywords into groups

When we have hundreds of keywords, it’s hard to ask this question for each one individually. So before moving on to mapping, I classify the keywords by intent. Adding a column to the keyword list and writing which group each keyword belongs to is enough:

Once the keywords are grouped, the page type starts to become clear on its own. Informational keywords usually go to a blog post or guide, comparison keywords to buying guides, and commercial and purchase keywords to category and product pages. Keywords in the same group that answer the same question usually end up as the main and supporting keywords of a single page.

These groups are based on the intent types in Chapter 4, just a bit more detailed. When filling in the Intent column in the map below, I link the informational group to Informational, the comparison group to Commercial, and the commercial and purchase groups to Transactional intent.

When I’m not sure which group a keyword belongs to, I search for it on Google. Are blog posts showing up on the first page, or category pages? The type of page Google considers right for that search also shows me where to put the keyword. If the first page shows largely the same results for two keywords, Google sees those two searches as the same need. In that case, one page is usually better than two separate pages.

An example

Say we sell kitchen products. We got these suggestions from Google:

• coffee machine
• coffee machine recommendations
• coffee machine cleaning
• espresso machine
• drip coffee maker

I might distribute them like this:

What we’re really doing here is distributing keywords across pages. In SEO we call this keyword mapping.

But I don’t think the term is what matters.

What matters is making clear what each page will cover.

A sample keyword map

Keeping this distribution in a table is called a keyword map. I open a row for each page in Excel or Google Sheets. Using the coffee machine example, a simple map might look like this:

I follow a few rules when using this table:

• Each page has a single main keyword. Supporting keywords are close searches with the same intent. The page answers them too.
• A keyword can be the main keyword of only one page. If the same keyword appears as the main keyword in two rows, cannibalization has started before the page is even written.
• I check the table before writing new content. If the topic already exists on a page, improving that page is usually better than creating a new one.

Depending on your needs, you can also add columns to the table like the current URL, the page’s status (live, to be written, to be updated) and priority. This map also becomes one of the most important documents we have when preparing the content brief. I cover content briefs in Chapter 22.

You shouldn’t prepare the map once and leave it. After the pages go live, looking at which page gets impressions for which query in Search Console shows how the map actually works in practice. If Google keeps showing another one of your pages for a keyword you assigned to a page, either the map or the pages need to be fixed. I cover Search Console in Chapter 29.

Where do the keywords go on the page?

The map now shows each page’s main keyword and supporting keywords. The next step is placing them on the page. My starting point is usually this:

• The main keyword appears naturally in the title, the main heading (H1) and the first part of the text.
• Supporting keywords and questions from the People also ask box often become subheadings (H2). For example, in a guide to the best coffee machine, “What should you look for when buying a coffee machine?” can be a subheading on its own.
• The URL is short and describes the main keyword, like /how-to-clean-a-coffee-machine/.

The goal here isn’t to repeat the keyword as many times as possible. Filling a page with keywords (keyword stuffing) is against Google’s spam policies. I explain how Google reads the title and what a page is about in Chapter 14, and heading tags in Chapter 16.

We start building topic clusters

After this comes another step. For example, we create dozens of pieces of content about coffee. After a while, Google starts to see this. This site publishes content on many topics such as:

• coffee machines
• espresso
• drip coffee
• coffee beans
• cleaning
• maintenance
• comparisons
• buying

So we’re no longer growing around a single keyword but around a topic. In SEO this is called topic clusters.

I think this is also one of the things Google has cared about most in recent years.

What connects the pages in a topic cluster is internal links. The main page or category links to the posts on subtopics. The posts link back to the main page and to each other. I cover internal linking in detail in Chapter 18.

You can also reflect the cluster in your URL structure. For example, by grouping espresso-related pages under the same folder, like /coffee-machines/espresso/. Google’s SEO Starter Guide also recommends grouping topically similar pages in directories. It says this can help Google learn how often different sections change. But it also adds that this mainly matters for sites with more than a few thousand URLs. So on a small site, you don’t need to force a folder structure. What really builds the cluster is internal links.

Topics competitors have that we don’t

When I place keywords, I don’t just look at my own list. I also examine competitors.

For example, a competitor has published content on 30 different topics about coffee machines. We just sell products. There may be an opportunity here.

In SEO we call this a content gap. In other words, topics competitors cover that we haven’t covered yet.

I mostly use this when building a new content plan. I explain how to find content gaps with SEO tools in Chapter 30.

When placing keywords, I think in this order

1. Can these keywords be answered on the same page?
2. Is a new page really necessary?
3. Which category should this topic sit under?
4. How will I set up the internal links?
5. Is there a topic competitors have that we don’t?

At the end of keyword research, we don’t just have an Excel file. Little by little, the site’s architecture starts to take shape.

I think this is one of the best moments in SEO. Because from that point on, we’re no longer collecting keywords.

We’re starting to plan a website.

Practice

• Add a group column to your keyword list: informational, comparison, commercial or purchase. Does your site have the page type each group needs?
• Open a table and list your site’s important pages row by row. What is the main keyword of each one?
• Does the same keyword appear as the main keyword of more than one page? If so, which of these pages deserves that keyword?
• In Search Console, open your 5 most important queries and look at the Pages tab. For each query, is the page you chose the one getting impressions?
• Check your new keywords one by one with the question “Would the person making this search be happy on an existing page?”
• Examine your strongest competitor’s blog or guide pages. Which three topics do they cover that you’ve never covered?

Previous: Chapter 12: How to Find Keyword Ideas on Google · Contents · Next: Chapter 14: How Does Google Understand What a Page Is About?

This chapter was first published in Turkish on X (September 11, 2026).