Steal My SEO Keyword Research Spreadsheet

Want top-quality SEO content written to attract more customers? Schedule a call with me to discuss how my team and I at TrioSEO can help make it a reality.

Hey, there!

If there’s one thing people tell me they struggle the most with in SEO, it’s keyword research.

Relate?

That’s because keyword research is hard…

But not impossible.

See, those who get stuck with it are approaching it the wrong way.

Like anything in SEO, you need a system that’s scalable and repeatable to do it right.

Here’s mine:

My Step-by-Step Keyword Research Framework

This is how I pick keywords that actually rank and plan months of SEO content.

Let me show you how it works.

1/ Keyword

This is the target term you want to go after with content.

Make sure:

• There’s one keyword per URL.

• You’re not stuffing keywords.

• There’s clear search intent.

2/ Volume

This refers to the monthly search volume on Google.

• Aim for 30+ searches per month.

• Lower volume is fine, as long as intent is strong.

• Stay away from vanity keywords—too broad, unrealistically high KD, or aspirational/brand-level.

3/ Keyword Difficulty (KD)

This is where a lot of people get tripped up.

Always aim for a realistic KD based on your domain rating (DR). So if your DR is 20, don’t chase KD 60 keywords.

Small wins stack up—focus on what you can realistically achieve.

4/ Hub

The hub-and-spoke strategy is how you build topical authority.

The “hub” is the main category or broad topic related to the main keyword, essentially becoming the authority anchor that Google easily understands.

Example:

• Hub: “SEO”

5/ Spoke

The “spoke” is the sub-category of the “hub” related to the keyword.

So while the hub is high-level, each spoke gets down to the nitty-gritty. It ensures depth of coverage and highlights your expertise.

Example:

• Hub: “SEO”

• Spoke: "keyword research tools”

Together, the hub and spokes connect content intentionally, making your site a useful resource, not just a collection of random pages.

6/ Funnel

Every keyword has a specific search intent. The funnel tells you what it is.

It’s either:

• Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU): Education and awareness

• Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU): Consideration and comparison

• Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU): Decision

Each piece of content you create has to match where the searcher is mentally for it to click.

7/ Format

This tells you how best to present your content.

Don’t take a guess. Examine the SERPs and see what content types are ranking.

If service pages are ranking, build one. If blogs are at the top, write a blog post.

8/ Group

Now, we’re turning strategy into execution.

The “Group” is the month when you want to tackle a specific keyword.

This is why I never wonder what to write next.

My calendar is always planned out months in advance.

SEO Rewards Organized, Intentional Execution

SEO success is all about consistent wins that compound over time.

Even if you’re a beginner, you can have great results if you follow a simple, scalable system that ensures steady execution long-term.

Go Deeper: Use SEO to Generate Leads

If this keyword research system clicked for you, here’s your next step:

Turn traffic into qualified leads.

Download our free Lead Generation Playbook to learn the step-by-step process our clients at TrioSEO use to generate 150+ organic leads per month from Google and ChatGPT.

Here’s to SEO wins,

Connor

Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

1. My SEO Course: “The SEO System” teaches the exact daily, weekly, and monthly SEO processes I’ve used to scale multiple companies to 6, 7, & 8 figures in sales. Available for pre-sale now!

2. TrioSEO: Hire me & my team to create SEO content for your business. We’ll create a comprehensive SEO plan, execute, & keep you updated so your business gains more traffic, leads, & sales. Get a Free SEO Audit.

3. Promote yourself to 100,000+ SEOs, marketers, & entrepreneurs by sponsoring this newsletter and my social channels. (Booked out 1 month). Email me for info.

Connor Gillivan has been building six, seven, and eight-figure businesses for the past 10 years with SEO. It’s my personal mission to create a community and services that help you grow your business by finding more people who would benefit from what you. When I started out, I wanted to make the community an inclusive, welcoming table where everyone can come to get help using high-end SEO strategies to take their businesses to the next level. After several years, and over 3000 combined followers across Facebook and LinkedIn, I will always aim to get better at what I do every single day. In addition, my primary focus is on my relationship with you. This way every time you interact with me, you end up getting ideas that take your project to the next level. I particularly appreciate when my following provides feedback via testimonials, reviews, and comments left on my site or social media accounts. Because with that feedback, I can use it to make your next experience even better than the last. Since I put so much effort into my relationship with you, I hope that any investment in me is exactly the way you hoped it would be. Because by choosing to utilize my services, it’s my promise that I will provide an experience that you will love over and over again. Now, as much as I care about making the world a better and more efficient place for businesses like yours, I also care about your privacy. I’m committed to the right to your privacy and strive to provide a safe and secure user experience. My Privacy Policy, to which you can find a link at the bottom of my website homepage, explains how I collect, store and use personal information, provided by you on my website. It also explains important information that ensures I won’t abuse the information that you provide to me in good faith. By accessing and using my website, you can trust that what you want to be kept private, will be kept private. If at any time you would like to read the Privacy Policy and get a better understanding of your rights and liabilities under the law, feel free to visit my site, find the privacy policy in the footer, and read it. If there is something you are concerned about or wish to get more clarity on, please let me know by replying to this email. The Privacy Policy also informs you of how to notify me to stop using your personal information. If you wish to view my official policies, please visit my official website.

When you visit my website you may provide me with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website. For example, you may need to provide the following information: your name, website URL information, email address, and home and business phone number.

In addition to providing the foregoing information, if you choose to correspond further with me through email, I may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone. It also explains important information that ensures we won’t abuse the information that you provide to us in good faith. By accessing and using my website, you can trust that what you want to be kept private, will be kept private. If at any time, if you would like, you can read my Privacy Policy and get a better understanding of your rights and liabilities under the law. Feel free to visit the site, find the Privacy Policy in the footer and read it. If there is something you are concerned about or wish to get more clarity on, please let me know by contacting me by replying to this email. The Privacy Policy also informs you of how to notify me to stop using your personal information. If you wish to view my official policies, please visit my website.