Build a topical map with Claude: the prompts from the lesson frameworkseo.com/learn/claude-for-seo/build-a-topical-map-with-claude Sent word for word on 13 November 2026 to Claude Sonnet 5.5 in a fresh conversation (no files, no custom instructions, web search off). The salon is made up. Swap its facts, pages and export for yours. Read every reply and check every row before you send the next prompt. Prompt 0 (a separate conversation: the one-line request, shown in the lesson as what not to do) Make me a topical map for my dog grooming salon's website. We're in Portland, Oregon. Include the monthly search volume for each keyword. Prompt 1: the facts and the pages I want to build a topical map for my dog grooming salon's website. Your job is to help me sort, group, name and question things. I make the final calls, and I'll check every row myself. About the business: - One salon in Portland, Oregon. One address. - We make money from booked grooms. We don't sell products. - Six services: full groom, bath and brush, nail trims, de-shedding, dematting, puppy grooming. The pages the site has now: - / (home page: a list of services and a phone number) - /prices (a price list) - /about (two paragraphs about the owner) - /contact (address, hours, a form) - /blog/summer-shave (an old post about shaving dogs in summer) - /blog/new-tub (a news post about our new bathtub) First step only: write three short sentences. 1) Why the site exists and how it makes money. 2) The one thing the site is about. 3) The main thing visitors come to the site to do. Then ask me up to five questions you need answered before we plan any pages. Don't plan pages yet. Prompt 2: your answers, the keyword export and the sort Answers: 1. Online booking, or by phone. 2. Only Portland, from the one salon. No pages for other cities or neighborhoods. 3. Full grooms are most of our work. We'd like more puppy grooms. 4. Dogs only, all sizes. No cats. Puppies once they've had their shots. 5. Rewrite the summer-shave post. Drop the new-tub post. The price list is right and stays public. I'm keeping your first two sentences. Change the third to: "Visitors come to book a dog groom in Portland." Here's my keyword export: 42 searches I collected myself, with US monthly searches from Google Keyword Planner, pulled on 12 November 2026. A blank means the tool had no number. search,us_monthly_searches dog grooming portland,880 dog groomer portland,880 dog grooming portland oregon,880 puppy grooming portland, dog nail trim portland,70 dog grooming cost portland, full dog grooming,50 dog bath and brush,30 puppy first groom,210 puppy first grooming,210 dog nail trimming,14800 dog deshedding treatment,480 dematting dog,260 how often should a dog be groomed,480 how often to groom a goldendoodle,170 goldendoodle grooming,2400 goldendoodle haircut styles,12100 teddy bear cut,4400 should you shave a double coated dog,40 can you shave a husky,720 shih tzu haircut styles,12100 poodle haircut styles,14800 how to trim dog nails,22200 how to cut black dog nails,8100 dog nail bleeding,2400 how often to bathe a dog,5400 how to brush a matted dog,20 how to get mats out of dog hair,1000 how to deshed a dog,880 how much does dog grooming cost,1600 dog grooming prices,3600 how long does dog grooming take,590 how much to tip dog groomer,3600 what to expect at puppy first grooming, when should a puppy get groomed first time, how to choose a dog groomer,10 dog anxiety at groomer, how to groom a dog at home,720 dog grooming kit,6600 doodle grooming,1300 dog grooming near me,450000 dog grooming,201000 Sort every search into one of three groups: A) Pages that sell: one per service I offer, plus the price page and the about page. B) Guides: pages that answer a question and feed one page from group A. Name the page each guide feeds. C) Doesn't belong, with a one-line reason. Use only my searches and my numbers. If you think a page is missing, add it at the end under "Suggested, no data". Give me one table. Prompt 3: corrections after checking against Google Three changes. I checked these against Google myself. 1. Rows 1 to 4 go on the home page, which becomes the main page: "Dog grooming in Portland". Take "dog grooming near me" off the map. Google answers that search with map listings, and the 450,000 is a national number. 2. My rule for guides: a guide belongs if the person reading it is likely to need one of my services, even if they plan to try it at home first. Re-sort group C with that rule. Also: when I search "dog nail trimming" from Portland, a Portland groomer's page comes first. 3. Your doodle guide (rows 18 to 22) and breed-styles guide (rows 23 and 24) mix searches that Google treats as different. Every pair in those rows shares 0 or 1 results on Google's first page. My rule: 3 or more shared results is a strong sign they belong on one page; fewer is only a hint, so flag those pairs for a second look instead of deciding. A search with too little demand to stand alone becomes a section on the closest page. Re-split rows 18 to 24. Show me only the rows that changed. Prompt 4: the full page or section test Two of those splits are wrong, and that's my fault: my rule was missing questions. Use these four, in order, for every search: 1. Does it feed a page that sells? If not, it's off the map. 2. Is it another wording of a search already on the map? Then it goes on that page. 3. Does Google's first page show one settled meaning? If not, it becomes a section on the page where the right meaning lives. 4. Does it have enough demand? If not, it becomes a section on the closest page. Does it share 3 or more first-page results with that page? That is a strong sign it belongs there; fewer is only a hint, so flag those pairs for a second look instead of deciding. Four yeses: it gets its own page, and any flagged pair is noted. Facts for you: Google's first page for "teddy bear cut" mixes dog cuts and cat cuts. "How to brush a matted dog" and "how to get mats out of dog hair" share 1 result. Re-run rows 18 to 24 and 35 to 41 with the four questions. Show only the rows that changed, and say which question decided each one. Prompt 5: links and publishing order One more fix. Row 21, "doodle grooming", is another wording of "goldendoodle grooming". They share no results, but the same owners search both, and a goldendoodle is the doodle most people mean. Put it on row 19's page. I checked rows 35 to 41 myself: every pair shares 0 results, so your calls stand. Now the links and the order. Rules: - The main page links to every page that sells. - Each page that sells links to the guides that feed it, back to the main page, and to the price page. - Each guide links to the page it feeds and to one other guide that helps the same reader. - The words on a link are the name of the page it points to, the same words every time. - Pages that sell go live first: the main page, then Full groom, then the rest. Then the guides, weakest Google results first. - A guide never goes live before the page it feeds. Give me the whole map as one table in publishing order: order number, page name, type, main search, US monthly searches, the page it feeds, and the pages it links to. Prompt 6: ask Claude to question the map Before I accept this map: question it. List the rows you're least sure of, why, and exactly what I should look at on Google or in my own business to settle each one. Don't change the map. Prompt 7: final calls, your counts and a reason per link Good questions. I checked them. Here are my calls: - Cost guide and Prices share 0 first-page results: keep both. Full groom and the main page share 0: keep both. - "dog nail trimming" and "dog nail trim portland" share 0, but both are people looking for a nail trim in Portland. Keep both on Nail trims. - Shih tzu and poodle haircut styles: not yet. We have no photos of our own of those cuts. Put them in a "Later" list. - How to choose a dog groomer: 10 searches is too few. Make it a section on About, and rename About to "Meet the groomers". - Goldendoodle haircut styles is a photo gallery of our own cuts. Google's first page is pins and photo lists. - How to trim dog nails is a guide built around our own video. Google's first page is mostly videos. - I was wrong about /blog/new-tub. Move its one useful line to Bath and brush and redirect the old address there. For the guide order, here's how many forum and social posts (Reddit, Facebook, Quora, Instagram) I counted on Google's first page for each main search. More posts means weaker results, so those go first. Break ties by searches a month. - how much to tip dog groomer: 5 of 9 - can you shave a husky: 5 of 7 - dog anxiety at groomer: 5 of 8 - how long does dog grooming take: 4 of 8 - how often should a dog be groomed: 4 of 8 - how to get mats out of dog hair: 3 of 6 - how to deshed a dog: 3 of 7 - how to groom a dog at home: 3 of 8 - puppy first groom: 3 of 7 - how to cut black dog nails: 2 of 6 - dog nail bleeding: 2 of 7 - how much does dog grooming cost: 2 of 8 - goldendoodle grooming: 1 of 7 - how to trim dog nails: 0 of 8 - goldendoodle haircut styles: 0 of 9 - how often to bathe a dog: 0 of 9 Last thing: for every link from one guide to another, give the reason in one line. If you can't give a real reason, drop the link. Give me the final table in publishing order, then the Later list.