Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Keyword Research
Log in to post

Category: Keyword Research

Learn about keyword research best practices and how to improve your keyword strategy.

  • Harmario


    Hi everybody! I was reading a huge pdf about keywords, long tails and too many things and my brain is now like a blender. What is the diference between long tails and keywords? Thanks to everybody! Have a nice day!

    | Harmario
    0
  • EurekaSolutions


    Hi, Some of our ranked keywords and URLs are not related. e.g. the served URL is not optimised for the specific keyword, any ideas? Thank you Daniela

    | EurekaSolutions
    0
  • VQDesign


    I feel like I have ask relevant keywords as I'm going to get but I still have low qual. score and high bounce rate. Any suggestions?

    | VQDesign
    0
  • Leo_Woodhead


    Hi guys, I'm pretty new to all this so please bare with me if I sound like a total noob. I've been tasked with doing keyword research for our new website to work out what we want to rank for. We are a b2b outsource provider of telecommunication services, contact centres etc. I'm looking for advice on how best to start the keyword research, what I should be looking for etc. At the moment I'm using a list of keywords provided by the sales team, running these through uber suggest for other variations and then putting them through Google's keyword planner. Once I've done that I'm looking at ones with higher volumes of searches with low competition. Is there anything that I'm missing? I'm trying to cross reference this with intent, looking for searches linked to people wanting help, a provider, to buy etc. Thanks in advance for any help guys, I really appreciate it. Leo

    | Leo_Woodhead
    0
  • Ron10


    are the related searches at the bottom of google highly searched keyword phrases and hence good to optimize other pages for on your website? Ron

    | Ron10
    0
  • sodafizz


    Hi All Was hoping to delete a large number of keywords we are tracking in SEOMoz. Is it possible to delete keywords we are tracking in bulk? Similar to adding keywords cheers IB

    | sodafizz
    0
  • u_rauf92


    Hi everyone Extremely love this community, learning a lot day by day! I am currently in the process of writing a blog post and say for example I am targetting the keyword 'apple' and 'apples'. My current word count of the article is 850 words and I have used 'Apple' 15 times and 'Apples' 26 times. 1 .Is my Keyword density too high and will Google look at this as keyword stuffing? 2. Do I have to target each Singular and Plural keyword individually? Or will targetting 'Apple' will also automatically target 'Apples' for me and vice versa? Thanks in advance!

    | u_rauf92
    2
  • kitoks


    I have a Q&A project having content of many different topics.
    My question: writing several articles on the same topic will up my rank? For example I work on keyword "Rhassoul clay". So if I write 5 topics about rhassoul clay (400 words) will it be a plus for my webpage or not? Or it is better to write one article with 400 x 5 = 2000 words instead of splitting it into 5 articles?

    | kitoks
    0
  • u_rauf92


    Hi everyone This question has been running through my mind since a few days now. Does Google recognise 'and' / '&' as the same? Say for example my website url is: appleandorange.com and my keyword for my company is Apple & Orange. If i Focus on Apple & Orange for on-page SEO will google also recognise apple and orange ? Or will I have to on-page SEO seperately for Apple and orange? So for instance if I keep focusing on Apple & Orange will my website appleandorange.com appear on google? Thanks in advance

    | u_rauf92
    0
  • Canexel


    Hi! We're a spanish construction company and we've been positioning our home with the keyword "wooden homes". We also have a specific landing page positioned with that same keyword. Right now we are getting out of a penguin and panda penalization and we're doing well. As part of a rebranding strategy we are thinking of changing our homepage keyword to "luxury homes". We are still going to hace the "wooden houses" landing page but this keyword is just going to be present in its own landing. The new keyword has much more volume of search than the one we have right now. Is there a strategy you can recomend us for this rebranding? Thanks

    | Canexel
    0
  • HeatherBakerTopLine


    We secured an article on national newspaper site for a client which now ranks number one for its own branded search term. Since we secured the article (over two years ago) the client has changed the direction of its business so the article is now no longer relevant and is actually causing a lot of trouble for the client. When people search for their business the article is telling readers one thing when their business actually does something else. How can we stop this article ranking so highly?

    | HeatherBakerTopLine
    2
  • DiamondDave


    Hi everyone, looking for a bit of advice... A number of my client's websites have been ranking well for a group of keywords for some time and now through further keyword research I wish to broaden out the number of keywords the site targets using landing pages eg, a printer company ranks well for 'flyer printing' but also wants to rank for 'nightclub flyers'. My questions are:
    1. How many monthly searches for a specific keyword would warrant a dedicated landing page?
    2. Any tips / advice on using landing pages for the purpose of broadening out the no. of targeted keywords?
    3. What would be the 'key' features of such a landing page ie, relevant image, text content, CTA. Thanks in advance 🙂

    | DiamondDave
    0
  • sparefoot


    Currently my company is working on trying to find the total search volume (read: search potential) for our industry, but aren't sure how best to go about it. Obviously GWT data and Keyword Planner data came to mind, but those are not all encompassing (at least we don't think they are) -- GWT only has data for terms you rank for and the Keyword Planner only gives you volume if you already know the queries. Is there some quick and easy way to go about finding this that we haven't thought of? One thing to note is that our business is nationwide, meaning that all our terms will have a geo-identifier associated with them for each location i.e. [city] + search term -- this just makes things even more complicated. Any advice on to approach would be much appreciated!

    | sparefoot
    0
  • trumpfinc


    Hi everyone. I wanted to make a post in hopes of getting some opinions on my next course of action when it comes to SEO. I have worked for my current company for 3 years and raised their keyword ranking from 39% to 55% (according to MOZ's keyword tracker). I did this mostly through improving on-page SEO for each keyword.  I think the on-page SEO is as good as it can get? Just so you guys know there are 101 keywords they want to rank for nationally. We currently rank for 56. My current company has really starting to ask me more about the percentage we are at and they of course want it to grow (or show consistent growth) as time passes. Since May 2014 it seems to have fluctuated each week from 50% to 58%. Some other info: We are well known in our industry We post on social media almost every day We are at event trade shows We are a global company We have tons of ads in industry magazines etc. We have industry news sites write about us and link to us We are consistent with press releases (a few a month) With that being said, where should I go from here to get those number to grow? As I mentioned, my company is starting to look at these numbers more.

    | trumpfinc
    0
  • clayknight


    I'm trying to figure out what to use for my title text. It's for a structural steel fabrication company. Adwords has the average monthly searches for "structural steel" and "steel fabrication" identical at 5,400. It has "structural steel fabrication" at 390 which I get that since its longer and a little more specific will have less searches. My question is if I make the title "structural steel fabrication" does google just see it as 1 big keyword or will it rank for "structural steel" and/or "steel fabrication"? What would any of you go with here? All 3 keyword strings make sense for the person seeing the title. Thanks for any advice you can give, Clay

    | clayknight
    0
  • Evan34


    For example, I would like to optimize a title tag with two keyword phrases: industrial supply and electrical supply. Instead of creating the title tag Industrial Supply and Electrical Supply, which sounds unnatural, would I get the same SEO benefit using Industrial and Electrical Supply?

    | Evan34
    0
  • LaythDajani


    Hi, What are the best tools and techniques to do a comprehensive keyword research on all the relevant search engines? There are times when there are no stats available on the  Google keyword planner tool, in that case what do you suggest? Thanks

    | LaythDajani
    0
  • Mike_E


    I have a client who already ranks very well for the keyword "odor removal service" (#3 average rank). I'd like to use this as my primary keyword phrase, but the search volume is not very high (avg. monthly search of 90). A similar keyword phrase like "odor eliminator" has a search vol. of 4400 and the same competitiveness. Even its long-tail derivatives like "natural odor eliminator" still have a much higher volume (360) and would be a more accurate description of the service. In cases like this where you are already ranking well for a relevant keyword (but are still not generating much traffic), is it worth losing that keyword ranking in the hopes of ranking better for a keyword with higher volumes. Just to be clear, I'm not referring to a secondary keyword, but to the main keyword phrase around which we'll be building primary and secondary related keywords. Thanks for any feedback.

    | Mike_E
    0
  • JeremyMonster


    My client was handed a spreadsheet with Specific Keyword Data listing Competition (High/Medium/Low) and US Monthly Searches and wanted a similar spreadsheet generated for their industry keywords.  Does anyone know how I can generate this data within Moz?

    | JeremyMonster
    0
  • TampaBayTimes


    I'm hoping for a tool that would extract keyword possibilities from an article, run them through a keyword popularity tool such as Google AdWords Keyword Planner and present ranked results (including number of monthly searches) to the writer. That would enable the writer to choose relevant popular keywords (especially phrases) in the web headline, page title and text. Does anyone know of such a tool? I'm considering having one built in-house if nothing already exists. How it might work Ideally, this might be a browser add-on. The user would highlight the story or blog text, and click on the browser add-on button to start the tool. Using something like viewer.opencalais, the text would plug into a keyword extraction tool and automatically run the results. In the next step the extracted terms would automatically plug into the Google AdWords Keyword Planner and run the results for “Keyword Ideas.” I think this can be done via the AdWords API: https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/reference/v201402/TrafficEstimatorService?hl=fr The user would then be presented with a series of ranked keyword possibilities based on relevance and popularity. Why it’s useful This would make it far more efficient for busy journalists (or anyone) to write effective web headlines.

    | TampaBayTimes
    0
  • MTalhaImtiaz


    Hello everyone, I have a client in a country that is not listed in Google. Effectively there is no adwords data available... how do I perform keyword research for such a country. Any suggestions will be really helpful. Regards,

    | MTalhaImtiaz
    0
  • TammyWood


    Silly question about Local ranking monitors. If I have a local client in Pheonix, AZ and I want to track rankings for keywords. Is it best to monitor city+keyword or just keyword? I have ran tests with multiple clients and locations, and cannot ascertain the difference- as far as rankings go. I appreciate all input.

    | TammyWood
    1
  • Mike_E


    In this article by Cyrus Shepard, we are reminded of the relationship between keywords on a page and how each secondary keyword should support the (single) main keyword phrase. What is the best practice for a website that deals in two major market sectors instead of one. Often (like in this article) SEO examples focus on a well-defined topic (like "White House" or "used cars"). But what about a case in which, for example, the company is involved in both pest control and odor removal. For the home page, would you try to still focus on a **single **keyword phrase (and close variants and synonyms) that would be general enough to encompass both? Or in this case would it work to apply this method to two main keywords on a single page? Although this article (and others) would suggest the first, it often feels that in cases like this where there are two or more topics that are not closely related it's hard to find a single keyword phrase that would generate significant traffic with the right intent. Would you still try to focus on a single keyword phrase for the homepage that encompasses both topics (like 'environment restoration') vs two phrases (for example 'pest control' and 'odor removal') knowing that the home page will probably not rank heigh against competitors, and focus on the single keywords 'pest control' and 'odor removal' on the secondary pages?

    | Mike_E
    0
  • newbert


    Hello, Does the URL structural sequence matter to SEO optimisation? For example, users are likely to enter the search term: "Business Analysis Training Courses". Though, in my experience urls typically have a reversed structure: "www.site.com/training/courses/business-analysis". My question is, would the sequence "www.site.com/business-analysis/training/courses" have any improved value? Thanks.

    | newbert
    0
  • brianmadden


    Hi, I work for a lighting retailer and in the past few weeks, our ranking in Google for the term 'lights' has decreased so much that I can no longer find it in the first 20 pages on Google. We did receive a manual action but the penalty has since been revoked. However, this seems to be a keyword specific problem as we are ranking #5 for 'cheap lights' - which is obviously more relevant and specific anyway. The only reason I'm asking is because the company director is asking why it has decreased so much, and I've tried to explain the keyword is too short and generic to bring in good traffic to the site, but he still wants a reason why that keyword in particular has dropped so much. It is interesting to note that one of our competitors, had a significant drop like ours. However, they seem to be climbing back up the rankings now. I was just wondering if anyone had any insight into this issue? Thanks, Brian

    | brianmadden
    0
  • eyeflow


    Moz's Keyword Difficulty tool is great. Minus one thing... it does't take the domain itself into it's equation. Of course it doesn't take a lot of other things into consideration too like relevancy of domain but lets at least start with adding domain authority to the equation. I've come up with simple math that allows you to take the domain authority of the target URL into consideration. The Equation KD = Moz Keyword Difficulty
    DA = Domain Authority
    DS = Domain Specific Keyword Difficulty (KD/DA)*KD = DS Equation Applied URL: atari.com
    Keyword: classic video games
    KD: 69
    DA: 77
    DS: 62 (69/77)*69=62 You will end up with numbers larger than 100, but it makes sense. If your domain authority is 10 and you're trying to compete with a difficulty of 90 then you should be scared to compete for that term and the number should reflect that. Thoughts? Other ideas?

    | eyeflow
    2
  • Leonie-Kramer


    Hi. I made 3 different keywordlists. based on the following rules: list 1: top 50 of best ranking keywords of this campaign list 2: Top 50 keywords with highest volume in adwords and related to the website list 3: Top 50 last month used keywords by our clients from GWT Now i want to make one top 50 list keywords i want to track and optimize the landingpages for it. What is the best way to choose from these three  lists. There are a lot of overlaps (especialy in list 1 and 3.)  so those keywords have preference. But how about keywords with high volume and high difficulty, related to the website, and low ranking? i leave the conversion out of it for now, first goal is to get much traffic as possible.

    | Leonie-Kramer
    0
  • carlystemmer


    We recently found a handful of keywords we would like our homepage to rank for (for example - customer experience). On our homepage we have articles (4-5 posted daily) that feature the keywords we are targeting (one being customer experience). How do the keywords we are using in our daily articles that are posted to the homepage affect the overall keyword ranking for the homepage? In other words do the keywords used in the articles (title, first 2-3 paragraphs, meta description, etc.) all roll up/build up to the homepage's keywords or how does that work?

    | carlystemmer
    0
  • mblsolutions


    Hello I am doing some keyword research support for a client. The keywords that we are looking at Keyword A is 880 LMS and Keyword B is 2900 LMS through Google Adwords. When we look at Google Trends Keyword A is showing much high traffic than keyword B. Does anyone know why this is? Many thanks

    | mblsolutions
    0
  • Manifestation


    Since 2007 the best keywords for a good rank in seo have changed. In some cases we have changed urls to maintain a good ranking. That was 2 years ago ... and now we see we need to upgrade the keyword phrase we use and are thinking about changing the urls once again to keep our ranking. It seems absurd to have a redirect for your redirected page. Are there different ways to approach updating your keyword phrases without the 301 redirect? For example, it has been 2 years since we did a 301 redirect on a group of our pages. Are we better off having the original url deleted (which has been up since '07) or is it better to redirect the original page and the redirected page to the newest page? We already incorporate the updated keyword phrase changes into our titles, images and body copy to reflect the changes. Thanks

    | Manifestation
    0
  • swagseo


    I have a page i'm trying to rank for certain keywords around "emergency vet clinic" the page is domain.com/emergency-vet-care but my home page is the one that is ranking better and better. How can I get the other page to rank for e.g. "emergency vet care" , "emergency animal care" and the main page to rank for just regular vet care? My on page looks pretty good. I've also taken out most references to emergency care on the main home page except for the one link to it. Thanks

    | swagseo
    0
  • BiskEd


    I'm trying to rank for brand-name related keywords for a website. Most of the titles on the site include the page topic followed by the brand-name separated by bars or dashes (ex: title= widget | My Brand). Is this creating cannibalization for the brand-related terms? I was wondering if it was better to leave the brand out of the title all together except on a dedicated page.  However, due to the nature of the business I work for there are multiple recognized iterations of the name including acronyms and long-form and short-form versions and creating content for each targeted iteration seems superfluous.

    | BiskEd
    1
  • Leithmarketing


    Our company now does not display the meta title for company specific searches for certain stores, but not all of them (yet).  Is this something new and are there any potential SEO ramifications or benefits?

    | Leithmarketing
    0
  • juun


    Hi i managing a site that has 3 main services its a hotel, a restaurant and a brewery. It has the word brewery in the name and URL and has for years primarily pushed the brewery side and that is doing well its has a good DA and lots of links point back to its home page. Now the problem is it doesn't rank very well for the term hotel or restaurant, theres only 2 referring domains links pointing to its hotel page. All its hotel citations point to the homepage (which is mainly optimised for the keyword brewery) should i update the citations to point to the hotel page which has been optimised for the search term hotel? or should I leave those and just create new citation pointing to the hotel page. Should i right a few blog posts about the businesses hotel and link them to the hotels page? and then I also then do the same for restaurant? I hope i've explained myself well and would appreciate the advice

    | juun
    0
  • templatemonster


    If on the page (blog post) there is a lot of images and they all have the same alt attribute - is it keyword stuffing?

    | templatemonster
    0
  • Kingalan1


    Greetings MOZ community!! My real estate web site contains about 500 pages with perhaps 70 pages targeting low volume, somewhat valuable but not very competitive keywords. Three to four URLs target very competitive terms. The following  terms are among the most valuable: New York City office space,
    New York office space,
    Manhattan office space,
    NYC office space Such variants as: Office space in New York City,
    Office space in New York,
    Office space in Manhattan,
    Office space in NYC
    ETCETERA convert really well How would I match different terms to different URLs? For example I have just re-written the following two critical URLs: www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (home page)
    http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-space/office-space (product page) Would it make sense to use "Manhattan office space" and variants on the home page while excluding "New York City office space" variants? At the same time I would use "New York City office space" variants on the "office-space" product page while excluding all mention of "Manhattan office space". Is this logical and does it conform to SEO best practices? For the "NYC office space" terms I would add them to http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings. This URL has almost no text but a strong potential to rent because of a high number of incoming internal links. Is this approach sensible? In general what measures should I take to prevent URLs from competing for the same keywords? Also, is there a software package or tools that I can use to come up with keyword variants? As a non SEO professional, can I create my own keyword matrix or is this really in the realm of a professional SEO consultant? Thanks, Alan

    | Kingalan1
    0
  • Sika22


    I have a product page and our home page ranked for the same keyword. On August 6th the product page was ranked #14 then plummeted to #60.  On August 13th our home page was in the #2 spot (line just appears out of nowhere) and it is now in the #1 spot. I also see the same pages appearing for some keywords ranked in multiple positions then plummeting and one coming back up.  I'm having a hard time understanding how the Keyword tool in Moz is reporting exactly.  Thanks! To add to this: From Oct 8th to the 15th we jumped up from #60 to #16 for one keyword and then by Oct. 22nd are back down to #60.  I have a huge spike on the 15th.  Wondering if that had anything to do with any algorithm updates?

    | Sika22
    0
  • Rj-Media


    Hi - we have a few old pages on our site which were created for SEO purposes a long time ago. They are pretty poor pages and we are rewriting them. However some are no longer relevant. We score "F" on those pages and I imagine google won't like them. Should we delete the page and redirect nicely to the home page, or leave the page there, but remove it from our site? What is best practice for removing old content? Many thanks

    | Rj-Media
    0
  • reidsteven75


    I understand Google's local search automatically searches keywords with the location you are searching from.   For example if I'm searching from Calgary and query "best shoe repair", Google knows I'm searching from Calgary and presents Calgary based results. I'm using Google's new Keyword Planner tool which allows for city based search results, meaning I don't have to include "Calgary" in the keywords I submit. The question I have is should I be attaching "Calgary" to my keywords for on-page optimization, and why or why not? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    | reidsteven75
    0
  • sararufo


    Hi there! What are your thoughts on optimizing pages for keywords that have no search volume (using the Keyword Planner)? I'm not sure it should be done, since optimizing for keywords that no one searches for is kind of useless, right? Or should I do it hoping that sometime in the future the keyword will have a surge on searches? Thanks!

    | sararufo
    0
  • vitaliykolos


    The other day I used Rank Tracker form SEO PowerSuite and SEO small tools ranking checker http://smallseotools.com/keyword-position/ to check a keyword ranking. Both said that my clients keyword is not in top 50, but when I used Rank Tracker from Moz.com it showed that my client's keyword ranks #30 ! What's the tool that works for you all the time and is 100% reliable?

    | vitaliykolos
    1
  • G2W


    Hi All, I was wondering if anyone had an excel formula that they use to manage large amounts of data in spreadsheet exports from the Google Adwords Keyword Tool? Specifically, I am interested in something that establishes a solid corollary between a given keywords competition score and the amount of local/global monthly searches. Any suggested ideas or methods are very welcome. Thanks!

    | G2W
    0
  • StoryScout


    Hi, I am wondering if there is any special way to seek out long tail search queries? For example, when I search in Adwords or Ubersuggest for a particular group of keywords, I only ever seem to get 1 to 3 keywords. I am looking for the longer search terms like actual questions i.e. "Where is the best yoga studio in Doncaster?" Currently I rely on not hitting in Google in enter but I figure that there must be a better way? Thanks guys!

    | StoryScout
    0
  • Kroeriks


    Hello I've spent some much information about how to get the best keywords for my SEO niche page. However, since the recent google changes, different opinions I fond it hard to use something accurate. Also the fact hat may keywords has so many variables, it makes it even tougher and more complex for a new beginner like me. Could anyone please guide me in the right way please? Lets say I would like rankings for Electronic Cigarettes in Norway. It can be written in so many different way, ecig. e-cig. elcig, e cigarette etc etc. (norwegian version ofc) I have for the most part used google keyword planner,  but I am really unsure of what boxes to tick and not. I have deleted my wordpress installation and starting from scratch. But I want to make sure I get it 100% right this time before I start.

    | Kroeriks
    0
  • ChristianRubio


    Hello everyone, New member and first time asking a question!  Having a disagreement about keyword stuffing on a home page. The client has 14 mentions of their brand all IN CAPS.  So it's sentences like ... BRAND was established in 1968 and has become one of the biggest leaders in the donut industry.  In fact, BRAND has created a strong BRAND community ... etc.  [the lead paragraph is three sentences and four mentions of BRAND] A design agency that is also in the picture says that this is fine because the word appears naturally in the sentence.  Can you either 1) tell me I'm wrong and explain why or 2) give me some ammo to give to my client to support my argument. Thanks! Lisa

    | ChristianRubio
    1
  • fryguy


    I haven't done too much work with optimizing the site yet, but I was curious as to why the site doesn't even show up in any of the google results when searching on the exact URL.  What could cause this behavior?

    | fryguy
    1
  • MasonBaker


    Any keyword research tool or any method to research for amazon?

    | MasonBaker
    0
  • simonsw


    Hi all Does anyone have any advice on how to conduct a successful gaps and opps audit for your SEO strategy in light of "not provided"? I've been a big fan of Laura Lippay's content audit in finding Gaps and Opps: http://moz.com/blog/finding-gaps-and-opportunities-step-3-of-the-8step-seo-strategy However I'm keen to understand alternatives to run a successful audit in finding opportunities Any advice would be much appreciated! Simon

    | simonsw
    0
  • MasonBaker


    Any study material or any thing to choose best products for amazon?

    | MasonBaker
    0
  • Velvetmonkey


    Hello everyone, It's my first time asking a question here, so I hope I follow the rules. Let me know if my question is not properly asked, formatted etc. Question: What's the min # of words we should have on topic page (related links)? Also, let me know if you have any additional advice with regards to topic pages strategy. Thanks!
    Sophie

    | Velvetmonkey
    0

Got a burning SEO question?

Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


Start my free trial


Browse Questions

Explore more categories

  • Moz Tools

    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

  • SEO Tactics

    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

  • Community

    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

  • Support

    Connect on product support and feature requests.

Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.