Chapter 7 — Exercises

Work these in order; they climb from recall to judgment. Items marked † have worked solutions in the answers appendix (odd-numbered items are worked there too). No answers appear in this file — struggle first. Use only free tools where a tool is called for (Google search in an incognito window, Google Suggest, People Also Ask, Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and Google Search Console).

Group A — Recall and definitions

7.1 † Define keyword and seed keyword in one sentence each, and explain how a "keyword" relates to Chapter 3's "query."

7.2 List the four core keyword metrics from §7.4. For each, write one phrase for what it tells you and one phrase for what it hides.

7.3 In your own words, state the two questions keyword research really answers, and explain why "list the words that describe my business" fails at both.

7.4 Write the opportunity formula from §7.7 and define its two factors. Why is it a product (value × winnability) rather than a sum?

Group B — Applied reasoning

7.5 † For each pair, say which is the head term and which is long-tail, and predict which a brand-new site should target first: (a) "thermostat" vs. "nest thermostat won't connect to wifi"; (b) "plumber" vs. "kitchen sink draining slowly"; (c) "solar panels" vs. "are solar panels worth it in cloudy climates."

7.6 A tool reports two volumes for the same keyword — 1,300 in one tool, 3,400 in another. Explain how both can be "right," and what you should conclude about the precision of any single volume number.

7.7 † "Furnace repair" has a modest average monthly volume. Why is that average potentially misleading for planning, and what free tool would you check before deciding when to publish a furnace-repair page?

7.8 A keyword has a high CPC but low search volume. Another has a low CPC but high volume. What does each pattern suggest about the searchers, and how would that shape which page you build first?

Group C — Diagnose why this page isn't ranking

7.9 † A page targets "water heater" (volume ~90,000, difficulty 82). It is well written and indexed but sits on page 6 after a year. Diagnose the problem in winnability terms, and state a better keyword strategy — without "add more keywords."

7.10 In Search Console, a page shows 2,000 impressions, 9 clicks, and average position 14 for a valuable query. Give two distinct explanations for the low clicks, and say which is a keyword/intent problem and which is a title/meta problem.

7.11 † A new blog built one thin page for each of "water heater cost," "cost of water heater," "how much water heater," and "water heater price" — and none of them ranks. Name the specific problem this created and the §7.6 fix.

Group D — Audit your own site (free tools)

7.12 Open Google Search Console for your own (or a client's) site. Sort the Performance report by impressions and filter to average position 8–20. Write down your top five striking-distance keywords and one sentence on why each is a near-term opportunity.

7.13 Pick one seed keyword for your business. In an incognito window, harvest Google Suggest across the alphabet plus "how," "why," "best," and "near me," and record every "People also ask" question. List the ten most useful phrasings you found that you would not have written on your own.

7.14 Take one keyword you care about and open its SERP by eye. Classify its winnability (weak incumbents vs. national brands vs. a local pack) and write one sentence on what kind of fight it is.

Group E — Research these keywords (intent-first)

7.15 † For a bakery that ships nationwide, take the seed "sourdough" and produce eight real candidate keywords spanning at least three of the four intents. Label each with its likely intent and a rough value/winnability guess (high/med/low), and name the two you would pursue first.

7.16 † Take Rivertown's service "drain cleaning." Expand it into six candidate keywords (mix informational, commercial, and transactional/local), then map them into topics — say which keywords should share one page and which need their own.

7.17 Use the "same-SERP test" from §7.6 on two keywords of your choice that look similar. Report whether the results overlap and therefore whether they should be one page or two.

Group F — Improve a list / mapping / rewrite

7.18 † Here is a raw keyword pile for a furnace topic: "furnace won't turn on," "furnace not working," "furnace stopped working," "furnace repair cost," "how much furnace repair," "furnace repair near me." Group these into topics and map each group to a page (one primary intent per page). Note which one is a local-pack fight.

7.19 A colleague's keyword list is sorted purely by descending search volume. Explain what is wrong with prioritizing that way, and rewrite the top of the list conceptually using opportunity = value × winnability.

7.20 A page is mapped to five keywords that turn out to carry two different intents (three informational, two transactional). What should you do, and why is "cram all five onto one page" usually the wrong answer?

Group G — Read the report / SERP

7.21 You open Search Console and see: "how to relight furnace pilot light" — 900 impressions, 30 clicks, avg position 9; "water heater replacement cost" — 1,400 impressions, 11 clicks, avg position 12. Write the full six-field Read-the-Report interpretation (query/page, what's there, what it shows, what it doesn't, the move, the lesson).

7.22 † You read two SERPs. For keyword X, page one is Home Depot, Lowe's, a manufacturer, and two national publishers. For keyword Y, page one is two forum threads, a Q&A site, and two small local blogs. Interpret each for winnability and state which you would target and why — and what caveat you must keep about even the winnable one.

Group H — Spot the myth

7.23 "Keyword difficulty is an objective score from Google." Explain everything wrong with this sentence, and describe the more reliable way to judge how hard a keyword is.

7.24 † "You can't do real keyword research without a paid tool like Ahrefs." Rebut this, naming what the free toolkit covers and what (specifically) a paid tool adds.

Group I — Ethics and risk judgment

7.25 A marketer proposes finding the 500 highest-volume keywords in the home-services niche and mass-producing a thin page for each, regardless of intent or whether the business can serve them. Evaluate this against intent (Chapter 3), winnability (this chapter), and quality/Helpful-Content risk (Chapter 6). What is the honest alternative?

7.26 A tool labels a keyword "transactional, high value, low difficulty." How much should you trust the label, and what two free checks would you run before committing effort based on it?

Group J — Rivertown Strategy-File extension

7.27 Extend Figure 7.3. Pick two Rivertown keywords not already scored (for example, "why is my AC blowing warm air" and "electrical panel upgrade Westbrook"), and score each by value and winnability, placing it in a matrix quadrant with a one-line move.

7.28 † For Rivertown's five cities, explain why "furnace repair [city]" is a long-tail, high-value, winnable opportunity while "furnace repair" (no city) is not — and name the two later chapters that decide how those city pages get built without becoming doorway spam.

7.29 Rivertown's owner wants to target "hvac" because it has the biggest volume of any term in the business. Write the two-sentence explanation you would give her for why that is the wrong first move, and what you would target instead.

7.30 Reflection: describe a keyword you (or a business you know) once chased mainly because its volume was big. In hindsight, what did its winnability or value look like, and what would the opportunity matrix have told you to do instead?