# Keyword research & clustering Human Guide

## What This Is For
Research, expand, and cluster keywords for content strategy. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for competitive research: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Keyword research & clustering agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for keyword research & clustering.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Keyword research & clustering guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Niche/Industry** — What space are you in?
- **Target Audience** — Who are you writing for?
- **Business Goal** — Traffic, leads, sales, authority?
- **Existing Content** — Do you have a site/blog already?
- Identify primary keyword — high-traffic, high-intent topic in your niche
- Brainstorm 3 sub-topics — related themes that support the primary
- Generate 3 pieces per sub-topic — specific articles addressing aspects of each
- Type `[keyword]` + a–z variations
- "how to [keyword]", "best [keyword] for", "[keyword] vs"
- Capture People Also Ask questions from SERP
- What is {keyword} / How to {keyword} / Why {keyword} / When to {keyword}
- {keyword} vs {competitor} / {keyword} alternatives / best {keyword} / {keyword} comparison

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Workspace Context, Operating Contract, Required Input, The 6 Circles Method, Content Types for Supporting Pieces, Seed Generation (50–100 Keywords), Google Autocomplete & PAA, Community Mining, Reddit Mining Protocol, Keyword Expansion Techniques.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- | **Format Match** | Does format match intent? | Results don't match searcher need |

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Keyword research & clustering human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the manojbajaj95/claude-gtm-plugin skill entry for `keyword-research-and-clustering`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Keyword Research & Clustering

## Workspace Context

Read bootstrap context before asking questions: `strategy/brand.md` for brand, audience, offer, channels, tools, constraints, and metrics; `about/me.md` for personal voice; `content/ideas.md` and `content/calendar.md` for content planning. Use legacy product-marketing context files only as fallback. Save generated drafts to `content/<platform>/drafts/YYYY-MM-DD_short-topic-slug.md`, and route durable learnings back to `strategy/brand.md`, `about/me.md`, or `content/ideas.md`.

## Operating Contract

This skill is self-contained for its frontmatter scope: use its local instructions, references, scripts, and assets as the playbook; ask only for missing task-specific inputs; hand off to adjacent skills instead of expanding scope; and return an actionable artifact, decision, plan, draft, or diagnostic.


Research keywords, expand them systematically, cluster by topic and intent, and prioritize for content strategy — all without expensive tools.

---

## Required Input

Ask the user for:
1. **Niche/Industry** — What space are you in?
2. **Target Audience** — Who are you writing for?
3. **Business Goal** — Traffic, leads, sales, authority?
4. **Existing Content** — Do you have a site/blog already?

---

## The 6 Circles Method

Generate 13 content ideas from a single seed keyword using nested topic clusters.

```
                    ┌─────────────────────┐
                    │   PRIMARY KEYWORD   │  ← 1 pillar topic
                    │   (Largest Circle)  │
                    └─────────────────────┘
                              │
            ┌─────────────────┼─────────────────┐
            ▼                 ▼                 ▼
     ┌───────────┐     ┌───────────┐     ┌───────────┐
     │ Sub-topic │     │ Sub-topic │     │ Sub-topic │  ← 3 supporting themes
     │     A     │     │     B     │     │     C     │
     └───────────┘     └───────────┘     └───────────┘
            │                 │                 │
      ┌─────┼─────┐     ┌─────┼─────┐     ┌─────┼─────┐
      ▼     ▼     ▼     ▼     ▼     ▼     ▼     ▼     ▼
     [1]   [2]   [3]   [4]   [5]   [6]   [7]   [8]   [9]  ← 9 content pieces
```

**Process:**
1. Identify primary keyword — high-traffic, high-intent topic in your niche
2. Brainstorm 3 sub-topics — related themes that support the primary
3. Generate 3 pieces per sub-topic — specific articles addressing aspects of each

### Content Types for Supporting Pieces

| Type | Example |
|------|---------|
| How-to Guide | "How to [achieve outcome] with [method]" |
| Comparison | "[Option A] vs [Option B]: Which is better for [use case]" |
| List Post | "[Number] [adjective] ways to [achieve result]" |
| Case Study | "How [persona] achieved [result] using [approach]" |
| Trend Analysis | "[Topic] trends in [year]: What's changing" |
| Beginner Guide | "[Topic] for beginners: Everything you need to know" |
| Tool Review | "Best [category] tools for [audience/use case]" |
| Problem-Solution | "Why [problem happens] and how to fix it" |

---

## Seed Generation (50–100 Keywords)

### Google Autocomplete & PAA
- Type `[keyword]` + a–z variations
- "how to [keyword]", "best [keyword] for", "[keyword] vs"
- Capture People Also Ask questions from SERP

### Community Mining

| Source | What to Extract |
|--------|-----------------|
| **Reddit** | Pain points, questions, terminology |
| **Quora** | Question patterns, answer gaps |