Research & Strategy
Build an evidence-based plan that aligns business goals with searcher demand. Convert raw market and keyword signals into intent-led clusters, a content roadmap, and prioritized bets with measurable outcomes.
Key Terms & Acronyms
Quick reference for terminology used throughout this guide
Core Skills & Outcomes
What you'll learn and what you'll deliver
Core Skills
Market & Audience Discovery
Build ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles), identify JTBD (Jobs To Be Done), and mine VoC (Voice of Customer) data from sales calls, reviews, and support tickets.
Keyword Research & Clustering
Discover keywords, classify search intent (informational, commercial, transactional), and group them into semantic clusters with one primary keyword per URL.
SERP & Intent Analysis
Inventory SERP (Search Engine Results Page) features like PAA (People Also Ask), featured snippets, and result types to understand what Google rewards.
Topical Authority Planning
Design hub-and-spoke content architecture where hubs are definitive guides and spokes are supporting pages covering sub-topics and related queries.
Competitor Intelligence
Analyze SERP competitors (often different from business competitors) to identify E-E-A-T signals, content gaps, and differentiation opportunities.
Prioritization & Forecasting
Use ICE scoring (Impact × Confidence ÷ Effort) to prioritize opportunities and estimate traffic potential with directional forecasting.
Key Deliverables
Audience Dossier
3-5 ICP one-pagers with buying stages, language bank of customer phrases, and top objections that need addressing in content.
Keyword Universe
Deduped, clustered keyword list with intent labels (informational, commercial, transactional) and one primary keyword per planned URL.
SERP Playbook
Per-cluster documentation of result types, feature targets (snippets, PAA boxes), and content format recommendations.
Topical Map
Visual hub-spoke diagram showing content relationships, internal linking plan, and coverage definition for each hub.
6-12 Week Roadmap
Prioritized content calendar with ICE scores, owners, milestones, and draft/publish dates for each piece.
7-Step Research Workflow
The complete process from market discovery to content briefs
Discover Market & Audience
Build ICPs, identify JTBD, extract customer language
Harvest & Cluster Keywords
Expand seed terms, classify intent, group semantically
Model SERPs & Intent
Inventory result types, features, content patterns
Design Topical Map
Create hub-spoke architecture with linking plan
Analyze Competitors
Identify SERP winners, find differentiation angles
Size & Prioritize
Apply ICE scoring, forecast traffic, build roadmap
Brief & Schedule
Create detailed content briefs, assign owners, set dates