What is the most important thing in SEO? Understanding that everything stems from user behavior.
In short: what other search queries might people be looking for where you cannot satisfy their intent?
For example, let’s take job hunting. Your competitors’ most popular search queries are job openings and recruitment agencies in specific cities.
Who searches for them? People looking for jobs.
But the main intent on your page is different: getting/learning about SMM job opportunities (for example). Not the job listings themselves!
What do people search for according to this intent?
Average salary for the specialty, types of SMM jobs, how to get an SMM job, courses and books to learn more, requirements for landing an SMM job, etc. Job X vs. Job Y, alternatives to Job X… all of this can be relevant in a topical map for this topic.
That is why I wouldn’t choose a list of job postings as the main intent, because many keywords won’t match it. Otherwise, you’ll build a page around the wrong concept and then wonder why there’s no traffic.
And it’s all due to a lack of understanding of human needs and what people actually require.
(My loose translation of a comment in a Facebook group on topical maps by Koray Tuğberk—it felt very spot-on…)