Step 1: Understand The Business
I never begin with tools. I begin with the offer, audience, location, margins, and sales process. Keywords only matter when they connect to business value.
Step 2: Map Intent
Every keyword is grouped into informational, commercial, transactional, or navigational intent. This prevents blog topics from competing with service pages.
Step 3: Prioritize Opportunity
I compare volume, difficulty, SERP type, current ranking, and conversion potential. The best keyword is not always the biggest keyword.
Step 4: Build The Page Plan
Each chosen keyword gets a page type, content angle, internal link plan, and measurement note.