Find the language, trigger events, and decision-stage searches most closely connected to revenue or qualified leads. Work through the four lessons, apply each exercise to a real, approved, personal, or sandbox site, and retain the result in your continuing portfolio.
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Lesson 2.1Not started
Customer Problems Before Keywords
Jobs to Be Done, trigger events, desired outcomes, alternatives, and buyer language.
Assignment note: The Trigger Technique — SparkToro; core presentation may be assigned separately from Q&A.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
Jobs to Be Done, trigger events, desired outcomes, alternatives, and buyer language.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Extract ten phrases from interviews, sales calls, reviews, support tickets, forums, or a supplied dataset. Label each as pain, trigger, outcome, objection, or alternative.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Why should keyword research not begin only with product terminology?
Compare with guidance
Internal vocabulary may not match how buyers describe the job or problem.
2. Which is stronger evidence: one brainstormed phrase or a repeated phrase across independent customer sources?
Compare with guidance
Repeated independent customer language.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Create a purchase-intent ladder from unaware to ready-to-buy. Add five real query patterns at each of the final three stages.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Which usually has stronger purchase intent: “what is payroll software” or “payroll software pricing for 10 employees”?
Compare with guidance
The pricing query.
2. Why can low-volume keywords outperform high-volume keywords commercially?
Compare with guidance
It can indicate a narrower need, stronger product fit, and proximity to a decision.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Lesson 2.3Not started
Keyword Discovery Without Invented Demand
Seeds, modifiers, competitor gaps, first-party data, traffic potential, and limitations of tool volumes.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
Seeds, modifiers, competitor gaps, first-party data, traffic potential, and limitations of tool volumes.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Build a 50-query inventory from at least four sources. Record source, geography, intent, page type, business fit, and whether volume is measured, estimated, or unavailable.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Why should keyword-tool volume be treated as an estimate?
Compare with guidance
Providers model incomplete datasets and definitions, locations, and time windows differ.
2. Name three non-tool keyword sources.
Compare with guidance
Search Console, customer calls, site search, reviews, support tickets, SERPs, communities, and sales notes.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Lesson 2.4Not started
Scoring Commercial Opportunities
Business fit, conversion proximity, demand, SERP fit, authority, effort, and expected value.
Assignment note: Revisit How to Build a SaaS SEO Strategy and translate the method for the learner’s business model.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
Business fit, conversion proximity, demand, SERP fit, authority, effort, and expected value.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Score 20 clusters from 1–5 on business fit, purchase intent, evidence of demand, feasibility, and implementation effort. Document assumptions instead of inventing precision.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Why should a score not hide uncertainty?
Compare with guidance
Inputs may be subjective or incomplete; confidence must remain visible.
2. What should happen to a high-volume query with poor offer fit?
Compare with guidance
Deprioritize it unless it serves a defensible audience or strategic purpose.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Unit 2 exam
Apply it without pretending the browser is your professor.
Status: Not attempted
Knowledge prompts
Define trigger event; identify five purchase-intent modifiers; explain why volume is not value; distinguish business fit from ranking feasibility.
Practical assignment
Submit 30 sourced queries, a purchase-intent classification, a scoring model, and a defended top five.