How to Create Your Website’s Keyword Blueprint

Creating Your Website's Keyword Blueprint

Your Keyword Blueprint is the backbone of your SEO strategy. Whether you’re adding a landing page, blog post, or product review, it should guide every piece of content you publish. Without a solid blueprint, optimizing your site becomes guesswork, and outranking your competitors can be a frustrating uphill battle. A well-defined Keyword Blueprint ensures your content is not only optimized but strategically positioned to overtake your competition in search engine rankings.

What is A Keyword Blueprint?

An SEO Keyword Blueprint is a comprehensive set of targeted keywords that direct your content creation and SEO efforts.
A well-structured blueprint is your guide, helping you create content that not only drives the right kind of traffic to your website but also gives you a competitive edge by helping your website rank higher than your competitors in search engine results.

Personally, I love creating keyword blueprints. There’s a lot of research and strategy involved, but the end result is extremely exciting stuff! Having (and using) your keyword blueprint will keep your content focused, ensuring that you’re consistently developing material that grows your organic audience—especially targeting visitors with strong buyer intent.

It can also keep your content creation organized, showing you where you’ve already used certain keyword phrases, and which short and long-tail keyword phrases you’ll be targeting next. (Content planning without a keyword blueprint is like playing darts with a blindfold on.)

In short, your Keyword Blueprint highlights the essential keywords that can boost your site’s visibility and search engine rankings.

Why Do I Need A Keyword Blueprint?

You might be thinking, “I already know what keywords people use when looking for my services. I’ve been in this industry for a decade!” But Search Engine Optimization goes deeper than just adding “whatever keywords you think will work” to your website content. In fact, that strategy can be somewhat disastrous.

It’s about using data-backed insights to optimize your content and rank higher than your competition; and with over 15 years in the SEO industry, I can tell you that flying blind without a solid keyword strategy will cost you time, money, and lost opportunities.

The Advantages of A Strong Keyword Blueprint

Outsmart Your Competition: You don’t want to waste effort targeting keywords you can’t rank for. Your blueprint shows you the competition for each keyword, helping you decide where you can overtake competitors on page one.
Capitalize on Trends: Keyword search volumes fluctuate over time. With a blueprint, you can tap into rising trends and position your content ahead of the curve.
Target High Buyer Intent: Not all keywords convert equally. Your blueprint helps you focus on keywords with high buyer intent, ensuring your content reaches users who are ready to take action.
Avoid Costly SEO Mistakes: Without a structured plan, there’s a tendency to reuse popular keywords across multiple pages, which causes your website to compete against itself rather than against your competitors. A well-organized keyword blueprint prevents keyword cannibalization, ensuring each page has its own unique focus, and works together with your other pages.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to create a Keyword Blueprint that gives your website a competitive advantage, driving higher-quality leads and maximizing your site’s potential for lead generation.

Fun fact: You should also use your Keyword Blueprint to optimize your Youtube Channel content, social media content (Pinterest, Facebook, Yelp) as well as your Google Business Profile!

How to Create A Keyword Blueprint

Keyword Research:

Creating a Keyword Blueprint starts with research. We’re not just looking for popular keywords with high monthly search volume. What we’re actually looking for are keywords with the right combination of three key elements that will maximize your SEO potential.

Key Elements of A Promising Keyword Phrase:

High Monthly Search Volume: Keywords with significant search traffic ensure you’re tapping into terms that your audience is actively searching for. The goal is to find keywords with enough volume to drive consistent, relevant traffic to your site.
Low Ranking Difficulty: To compete effectively, you need to target keywords with lower competition. These are the terms where your website can realistically rank higher, giving you an edge over competitors who may be dominating tougher keyword spaces.
High Buyer Intent: Finally, focus on keywords that indicate strong buyer intent. These are the search terms used by individuals who are further down the sales funnel and ready to make a purchase or take meaningful action. We’ll talk about this later in the article.

Once you’ve locked in on keywords that meet all three of these criteria, you’ll have a blueprint that drives both visibility and conversions, aligning perfectly with your broader SEO goals.

Tools for Keyword Research

For every task, there are professional tools that can streamline your workflow and help you achieve better results. Keyword research is no different. While you could open a Google tab and type in keywords you think might work for your industry, relying on autocomplete to give you a peek into what people are searching for, that approach leaves you without the critical data needed for a strong SEO strategy, such as:

Search Volume: How many people are actually searching for this keyword?
Competition: How difficult is it to rank for this keyword?
Ranking Potential: What’s the likelihood of outranking your competitors?

Since your keyword blueprint is ever-evolving, and you’ll continue refining it as your site grows, using professional keyword research tools is essential for maintaining an edge. Here are two powerful tools that can help you build and refine your keyword strategy:

SEMrush - Keyword Research Tool

SEMrush is one of the most comprehensive and popular SEO tools available, and for good reason. It provides everything you need for keyword research, along with a suite of additional tools for backlink analysis, site audits, and competitive analysis.

Key Features:

Keyword Overview: Instantly see search volume, keyword difficulty, and CPC for any keyword.
Keyword Magic Tool: Discover new keyword opportunities, grouped by topic, with filters to help you find low-competition, high-volume keywords.
Competitive Analysis: See what keywords your competitors are ranking for and how difficult it will be to outrank them.

SEMrush is ideal for building a long-term keyword blueprint, as it offers in-depth historical data and trend analysis, ensuring your strategy evolves with the changing market.

If you’re interested in using SEMrush for your keyword research, check it out by clicking on the image below or the link in this article. Please note that this is an affiliate link, and I may earn a commission if you subscribe to their plan. This, of course, is at no extra cost to you. Plus, with my affiliate link you’ll get to try out SEMrush for free!

Ahrefs - Keyword Research Tool

Ahrefs is another industry-leading SEO tool, known for its exceptional keyword research and backlink analysis capabilities. Like SEMrush, it provides insights that go far beyond just keyword suggestions, helping you develop a well-rounded keyword strategy.

Key Features:

Keyword Explorer: Ahrefs offers an extensive keyword database, showing search volume, difficulty, and click-through rates (CTR) for each keyword.
Content Gap: Discover keywords your competitors are ranking for that you are missing out on, helping you refine your keyword blueprint and expand your reach.
SERP Overview: Analyze the top 10 ranking pages for any keyword to understand your competition and ranking potential.

Ahrefs is perfect for SEO professionals who want a tool focused on competitive analysis and backlink strategies.

What Are High Buyer Intent Keywords?

High buyer intent keywords are search terms used by people who are close to making a purchasing decision. These users are typically at the bottom of the sales funnel and ready to take action—whether it’s buying a product, booking a service, or making direct contact with a business. These keywords often indicate a strong intent to purchase or hire, as opposed to more general search terms used for gathering information or exploring ideas.

When evaluating buyer intent in the concrete resurfacing industry, let’s look at the following keyword examples:

Concrete patio ideas: This is an example of a low buyer intent keyword. Users searching for “ideas” are likely in the early stages of planning or researching. They’re seeking inspiration rather than committing to a purchase or service.
Concrete repair: This search shows slightly higher buyer intent but remains somewhat broad. Users could be looking for DIY solutions or general information, so they may not yet be ready to hire a professional service. Alternatively, they may truly be looking for a “patch type” repair and may be miles away from the thought of an entire resurfacing project.
Concrete pool deck resurfacing company: This is a high buyer intent keyword. The user is specifically looking for a company to perform the service, indicating they’ve done their research and are ready to hire someone for the job.
Concrete resurfacing near me: This is another example of a high buyer intent keyword. The phrase “near me” shows that the user is actively looking for a local provider to complete the job, which strongly suggests they are ready to make a purchasing decision.

By focusing on high buyer intent keywords, you can capture users who are closer to making a purchasing decision, which leads to higher conversion rates and more qualified leads.

Organizing Your Keyword Blueprint

Google Sheets

Once you’ve gathered all your keyword data, it’s essential to organize it into a format that’s easy to use every time you create content. I recommend using Google Sheets to create a simple and accessible keyword spreadsheet. This allows you to organize your research and have it ready to go when developing blog posts, landing pages, or product descriptions.

Here’s how I structure my keyword blueprint spreadsheet using the following column headings:

Keyword: The target keyword or phrase you’re optimizing for.
Search Volume: Monthly search volume data to help prioritize high-traffic keywords.
Keyword Difficulty (KD): A measure of how hard it will be to rank for that keyword.
Buyer Intent: Notes on the keyword’s intent (e.g., high buyer intent, informational, etc.).
Ranking Potential: Your estimated likelihood of outranking competitors (based on authority, content quality, etc.).
Content Type: Whether the content will be a blog post, landing page, product page, etc.
Website Page Where Used: Document the specific page where this keyword has been used as the main keyword to ensure you don’t use it again elsewhere. This helps you avoid keyword cannibalization, where multiple pages on your site compete for the same keyword, diluting their effectiveness.

Using this structure ensures that all essential information is neatly displayed and easily accessible. You can filter or sort your columns to focus on specific keyword types or goals, and the Google Sheets format allows for real-time updates and sharing with your team.
And, by keeping track of the Website Page Where Used, you ensure each keyword has its own designated page, maximizing your site’s SEO potential without internal competition.

Alternate Method for Keyword Organization

Many advanced SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs offer built-in features to help organize and manage your keywords. These tools not only gather search volume, difficulty, and intent but also allow you to track keyword usage across your site.

Tracking Keywords in SEMrush: You can create specific keyword lists within SEMrush and link them to individual pages, ensuring no duplication across your site. This makes it easier to monitor rankings and avoid keyword overlap.
Managing Keywords in Ahrefs: Ahrefs allows you to track which pages rank for specific keywords and easily spot if multiple pages are competing for the same term. You can also export this data into Google Sheets for more customizable tracking.

Both methods help streamline your keyword blueprint and keep your SEO strategy organized. The Google Sheets approach offers flexibility and customization, while SEMrush or Ahrefs provides real-time tracking and easier updates.

Isn't This My Web Developer's Job?

While a Keyword Blueprint is essential to your SEO strategy, it’s important to recognize that not all digital marketing agencies develop these strategies with the same level of detail. Many agencies, as well as freelance web developers, overlook the foundational research needed to create a truly effective keyword blueprint, leaving clients with generic or poorly structured keyword lists. Unfortunately, I’ve seen this firsthand with clients who come to us after working with agencies that failed to properly map out keyword strategies.

A tell-tale symptom of this is when a potential client says, “We’re getting leads, but not the right kind of leads.”

At Vive Media Group, developing a comprehensive keyword blueprint is always the first step in our onboarding process. We believe it’s critical to identify the right mix of high-volume, low-competition, and high-intent keywords to position your business for long-term success. But not all companies take the same approach. That’s why it’s so valuable to understand how to build one yourself—ensuring that your SEO foundation is solid, whether you do it in-house or work with an agency.

Now that you understand the purpose of identifying your best keywords—and how to find them—you’ll be far better equipped to evaluate your digital marketing efforts. If you’re seeing a random, obscure list of keywords with little impact on generating quality leads, it’s a sign that your strategy might need adjustment. Having this knowledge allows you to make informed decisions about the effectiveness of your current marketing agency and recognize when they aren’t delivering the results you need.

If you’re interested in learning more about Vive Media Group‘s stellar services and how we can improve your search rankings in as little as 30 days, we’d be delighted to chat with you.