Search for a keyword mapping example and you get cold brew coffee, laptop stands and a life coach. Invented sites with tidy tables, none of which ever had to survive a real results page. This one did. It's the keyword map I built for a point-of-sale distributor in Dallas, Texas, with the actual searches, what the person typing each one wants and the page it went to.
What is keyword mapping?
Keyword mapping is giving each group of related searches one page on your website, chosen by what the searcher wants. You collect the searches, sort them by intent, group the ones that return the same kind of result, and assign each group a page that answers it, or a page you still need to build. One group, one page.
- 01Collect the searches. What your customers type, in their words.
- 02Sort by intent. Is the person comparing, learning, looking for a login, or looking for someone nearby?
- 03Group by result. If two searches return the same kind of page, they share one.
- 04Give each group one page. Note the pages that don't exist yet.
That's the whole method. The value is in the decisions it forces, and those only show up on a real site.
The site behind this keyword map
Complete POS Solution is run by Dipendra Guragain, an authorized NRS distributor. NRS builds point-of-sale systems for independent stores. Dipendra sells and supports them for gas stations, convenience and grocery stores, liquor and smoke shops, restaurants and salons. I built the website at completepos.store: 38 pages in its sitemap, made of a home page, pricing, seven hardware pages, six pages for kinds of store, seven for software and services, nine guides, and the index, about, contact and privacy pages. The brief was simple. Every page should end in a phone call or a quote request. The full story is in the Complete POS Solution case study.
Step 1: collect the searches without a paid tool
I typed each seed term into Google and wrote down what the search box suggested: nrs pos, pos system for gas station, liquor store pos system, ebt pos, cash discount program, pos system dallas, and a few more. Then I read the results for the main terms to see what kind of page was winning. That was the whole research budget.
It has one cost, and I'd rather say so now than bury it. With no tool, I have no search volumes. Inside each group, the order is how often Google suggested a search. That ranks ideas. It says nothing about how many people type them. It's good enough to decide what to build first and not good enough to promise traffic.
Step 2: sort every search by what the person wants
Four kinds of intent showed up:
- 01Commercial. Comparing or choosing, as in “nrs pos system price” or “liquor store pos system”.
- 02Informational. Wanting an answer, as in “how to accept ebt” or “what is dual pricing”.
- 03Navigational. Wanting a specific site or login, as in “nrs pos login”.
- 04Local. Wanting someone nearby, as in “pos system dallas”. It gets its own bucket because Google answers it with a map and a different set of results.
The first thing I noticed: store owners aren't browsing. Seven of the twelve groups were commercial and one more was split between commercial and informational. They type a product, a kind of store and sometimes a city.
The keyword mapping example: all 12 groups
Here's the whole map. The example searches come from Google's autocomplete suggestions, and every page in the last column exists.
| Group | Example searches | Intent | Page it goes to |
|---|---|---|---|
| NRS price | nrs pos system price, nrs pos cost, nrs pos monthly fee | Commercial | Pricing page and a cost guide |
| NRS hardware | nrs cheetah pos, nrs puma pos, panther pos | Commercial | One page per product and a comparison guide |
| Setup and support | nrs pos setup, nrs pos login, nrs pay login | Navigational | FAQs on the NRS POS and NRS PAY pages |
| Gas stations | pos system for gas station, nrs petro pos, emv at the pump | Commercial | Gas station page, NRS Petro page and two guides, on gas station POS and EMV at the pump |
| Convenience and grocery | convenience store pos system, pos system with scale | Commercial | Convenience and grocery page |
| EBT and SNAP | ebt pos system, how to accept ebt | Informational | EBT guide and an NRS PAY FAQ |
| Tobacco and vape | smoke shop pos system, tobacco scan data program | Commercial and informational | Industry page and scan data guide |
| Liquor | liquor store pos system, liquor store pos price | Commercial | Liquor page and guide |
| Restaurants | pos system for small restaurant, deli pos, cafe pos | Commercial | Restaurants and cafes page |
| Salons | salon pos system, nail salon pos, barbershop pos | Commercial | Salons page |
| Card fees | cash discount program legal, what is dual pricing, nrs pay rates | Informational | Two guides, on Texas rules and plans, plus the NRS PAY page |
| Local | pos system dallas, nrs pos dallas, pos distributor texas | Local | Home, About, Contact and the Google profile |
Four decisions the map forced
Support searches don't get pages. “nrs pos login” and “nrs pay login” come from people who already own the product and want the manufacturer. A distributor page for those would be thin, and it would attract the wrong visitor. They became FAQs on the NRS POS and NRS PAY pages instead, where a store owner who lands by accident still finds a person to call.
Price gets two pages because it has two intents. Someone ready to compare wants the pricing page. Someone still learning wants “How much does an NRS POS system cost in 2026?” The two sit close together, close enough to compete for the same searches. Whether Google treats them as one intent or two is something Search Console can show a few weeks after launch, search by search.
Card-fee questions go to the blog. Cash discount, surcharge, dual pricing and EBT are people trying to understand a rule before they choose anything. Three guides cover them, and the industry pages link to the ones that fit, so the questions feed the pages that sell.
Industry searches are roundup territory. When I read the results for searches like “liquor store pos system”, they were lists of “best POS” options, not pages from distributors. A distributor page can still win there, but only with something a roundup can't offer: a city, a price, one specific feature such as ID scanning. So each industry page leads with its own detail instead of a generic “best POS for…” pitch.
What a keyword map can't tell you
Volumes, for a start, as above. It also can't tell you whether Google agrees with your intent labels. A label is your guess, and the test is the results page. If the top results for a group are all list articles, a product page won't rank however good it is. I checked the main search in each group before committing a page to it, and the roundup finding above came from that check.
And a map is a plan, not a result. Here's the result so far. The site went live at the end of October 2026. A week later, a site: search showed 19 of its 38 pages in Google. That tells me the pages can be found. It doesn't tell me they rank, and I'm not claiming rankings, traffic or leads. The numbers worth checking a month or two in are impressions and clicks per page in Search Console, and which of the twelve groups show up at all.
How to build a keyword map for your own site in an afternoon
- 01Write down 5 to 10 seed terms a customer would type, in their words, not yours.
- 02Type each into Google and copy the autocomplete suggestions into a sheet.
- 03Label every line with its intent: commercial, informational, navigational or local.
- 04Search the main term in each group and note what kind of page wins: product pages, list articles, forums or maps.
- 05Give each group one address, existing or planned. If two groups want the same page, check whether they really want the same thing.
- 06Write each page's title so it starts with the group's main search.
Then build in the order of what you can win, not what sounds biggest.
Questions about keyword mapping
What is a keyword map?
A keyword map is a table that gives each group of related searches one page on your website, chosen by what the searcher wants. It shows which page answers which search, and which pages you still need to build.
How many keywords should one page target?
Think in groups, not single keywords. One page can serve a main search plus its close variations, as long as they return the same kind of result. If two searches return different kinds of pages, they need different pages. A fixed number would be invented, so I won't give one.
Do I need a paid keyword tool to do keyword mapping?
No. Google's autocomplete suggestions and the results page are enough to build the map, as this example shows. A paid tool adds search volumes and difficulty scores, which help you choose the order. Without one, you rank ideas by how often Google suggests them and check the results by hand.
What happens if two pages target the same keyword?
They can compete with each other, which is called keyword cannibalization. Google may pick the weaker page, or swap between the two. Check in Search Console which page shows for the search, then merge the pages or change one so it answers a different intent.
How is keyword mapping different from keyword research?
Keyword research finds what people search for. Keyword mapping decides where each search lives on your site. Research gives you the list, and the map gives every line on it an owner.
Want a keyword map for your website?
Send me your website, or tell me you don't have one, plus the three questions customers ask you most. I'll send back a short note on which pages I'd build first.
Free first look · no obligation · I don't promise rankings or leads, ever.
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