How to Structure a Website for SEO: Keyword Mapping That Most Agencies Get Wrong

Here is a conversation we have with new clients almost every month.

“Our agency did SEO on the website.” We open the site. Every page has the same five keywords stuffed into the footer. The homepage, the services page and the about page all target “best web design Philippines.” There is one services page for eight services. The blog posts link nowhere.

That is not SEO. That is decoration. Real SEO starts before the website is designed, with a keyword map and a site structure. This guide shows you how professionals do it, step by step, so you can check your own site or brief your developer properly.

Short answer: A professional SEO website is built from a keyword map. Each search intent gets exactly one page. That page’s URL, title, H1, headings and internal links are all decided from the map before design starts. Keywords are not added to a finished site; they decide what the site is.

Why “adding keywords” to a finished site does not work

Most agencies, and almost every AI website builder, follow this order:

1. Design a homepage and a few standard pages.
2. Write generic copy.
3. Install an SEO plugin and fill in a “focus keyword” per page.

The problem is step 1. If the site only has one “Services” page, no amount of keyword filling will make it rank for eight different services. Google ranks pages, not websites, and it matches each page to one main intent. The structure caps your rankings before a single keyword is written.

Step 1: Collect every search your customers make

Start with your services and locations, then expand.

• Services: every service you sell, in the words customers use, not internal jargon. Customers search “aircon cleaning,” not “HVAC preventive maintenance.”
• Locations: your city, nearby cities and provinces you serve.
• Modifiers: price, cost, near me, best, emergency, for small business.
• Questions: how much, how long, what is, is it worth it.

Pull ideas from Google autocomplete, the “People also ask” box, your competitors’ menus, your sales calls and a keyword tool. Write everything down in a spreadsheet before judging any of it.

Step 2: Group keywords by search intent

This is the step most agencies skip, and it is the most important one.

Look at each keyword and ask: would the same page satisfy this person? Google the keyword and look at the top results. If the same kinds of pages rank for two keywords, they belong together. If the results look different, they need separate pages.

Keyword	Intent	Same page?
roof repair batangas city	Hire a local repair service	Page A
roof leak repair batangas	Hire a local repair service	Page A
roof replacement batangas	Hire for a full replacement	Page B
how much is roof replacement philippines	Research cost	Article C
signs your roof needs replacing	Learn, early stage	Article D

Five keywords, four pages. That is what a keyword map looks like in practice.

Step 3: Assign one main keyword to one page

Now build the map. Each row is one page:

Page	URL	Main keyword	Supporting keywords	Page type
Roof repair	/services/roof-repair/	roof repair batangas city	roof leak repair, emergency roof repair	Service
Roof replacement	/services/roof-replacement/	roof replacement batangas	new roof installation	Service
Cost guide	/blog/roof-replacement-cost-philippines/	roof replacement cost philippines	price per sqm, budget	Article

Rule: if two rows have the same main keyword or the same intent, you have planned cannibalization. Merge them now, not after launch.

Step 4: Turn the map into a site structure

The map tells you which pages exist. The structure tells you how they relate. The goal is a shallow, logical hierarchy where every important page is within about three clicks of the homepage.

• Homepage: your main brand and broadest service keyword.
• Category hubs: one page per service group, such as “Roofing services” or “SEO services.”
• Service pages: one page per service, each a child of its hub.
• Location pages: only where you genuinely serve the area and can say something specific about it.
• Articles: answer questions and link up to the relevant service page.

Our own site follows this pattern. Our web development hub links down to custom web development, which links down to Astro website development. Each level targets a narrower keyword than the one above it.

Step 5: Write URLs that mirror the structure

Good URLs are short, readable and match the hierarchy:

• Good: /services/roof-repair/
• Good: /services/seo/local-seo/
• Weak: /page-id=482
• Weak: /best-roof-repair-services-in-batangas-city-philippines-2026/

Decide URLs from the map before launch. Changing them later means 301 redirects and a temporary dip in rankings, which is why our technical SEO team builds a full redirect map before any redesign goes live.

Step 6: Place the keyword where it counts

This is the part people think of as “SEO.” It only works because steps 1 to 5 put the right keyword on the right page. On each page, place the main keyword naturally in:

1. Title tag (about 50 to 60 characters), near the start.
2. H1, the one main heading on the page. Only one H1 per page.
3. URL slug.
4. First 100 words, as part of a direct answer to the search.
5. One or two H2s, phrased the way people ask questions.
6. Meta description, written to earn the click.
7. Image alt text, only where it honestly describes the image.

Then cover the supporting keywords and questions in the body and the FAQ. Do not repeat the exact phrase in every paragraph. Modern search engines understand synonyms and topics; repetition reads as spam to people and machines.

Step 7: Plan internal links from the map

Internal links tell Google which pages matter and how they relate. Plan them, do not leave them to chance:

• Every service page links up to its hub and across to one or two related services.
• Every article links to the one service page it supports, with descriptive anchor text such as “roof repair in Batangas City,” not “click here.”
• Hubs link down to every child page.
• No important page is an orphan with zero internal links pointing to it.

Step 8: Add structured data that matches each page

Schema markup helps search engines and AI tools understand your pages. Match the type to the page:

Page type	Schema
Homepage	Organization or LocalBusiness, WebSite
Service page	Service, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage if it has FAQs
Article	BlogPosting or Article, BreadcrumbList
Contact page	LocalBusiness with address, phone and hours

Schema is not a ranking shortcut. It is a way to state facts clearly, which is exactly what AI answer engines look for.

The mistakes we find most often

1. One “Services” page for everything. Split it into one page per service.
2. Same keyword on the homepage and a service page. Give the homepage the broad term and the service page the specific one.
3. City pages that only swap the city name. Keep only locations you can write about specifically, or skip them.
4. Blog posts with no link to a service page. Every article should support a money page.
5. Multiple H1s, or an H1 that says “Welcome.” One descriptive H1 per page.
6. Keywords stuffed in the footer or hidden text. Remove them. They add risk and no value.
7. URLs changed at launch with no redirects. Map every old URL to its new home with a 301.

A simple checklist before your next website build

• Keyword list collected from customers, competitors and tools
• Keywords grouped by intent, one group per page
• Keyword map with URL, main keyword and page type for every page
• Sitemap with every important page within three clicks
• Title, H1 and meta description written per page from the map
• Internal link plan with descriptive anchors
• Schema type chosen per template
• Redirect map for every old URL (redesigns only)

The bottom line

The difference between an agency that “does SEO” and one that understands it is not the plugin. It is the order of work. Structure first, then design, then content, then build. Get that order right and every page has a clear job and a real chance to rank.

Building with AI? Read AI website builders and SEO: the real pros and cons, then follow our step-by-step guide to an AI-assisted website with professional SEO. If you want the map done for you, our SEO services team can build it before your designer starts.