Assigning target search topics and intents to appropriate pages across a website.
Keyword mapping assigns search topics and intentions to suitable pages on a website. It turns research into an editorial and architectural plan: which existing page should answer a need, which page needs improvement and where a genuinely new resource is justified. It is not a requirement to create one URL for every phrase.
A useful map includes more than a keyword and a destination. It can record the audience, page purpose, related wording, scope boundaries and whether the page already exists. Those notes help a writer distinguish a service page from a guide, comparison or product category that happens to use similar language.
The map should evolve with the site. A service can change, a page can be consolidated or new evidence can reveal that two planned topics share the same need. Keeping the record current reduces conflicting assignments and helps editors avoid publishing near-duplicates because an old spreadsheet no longer reflects the actual inventory.
Takeaway: Map needs to appropriate pages before drafting. Use the plan to clarify scope and reuse useful existing content, not to justify an ever-growing list of similar URLs.
Example
A commercial laundry supplier separates equipment purchasing, installation requirements and maintenance troubleshooting in its map. Each has a different reader task. Minor wording variations about buying the same machine stay with the purchasing resource rather than becoming several competing pages.
What to check
Check the live inventory before marking a topic as missing. Record the canonical destination and the reason for keeping related topics separate. Review the map when pages move or merge, and avoid assigning unrelated queries to a page simply to make every spreadsheet row look covered.
For more detail, see Google SEO Starter Guide.