Choosing a company name to rank for with main keyword in it?
-
First question is in regard to the relevance of the main keyword in the company name when used in anchor texts for linkbuilding and also on the website on page seo title tags etc..
We used to call our selves "Isle Surfboards" but now call ourselves "Isle Surf & SUP" , sup is an acronym for "stand up paddle boards" as our core biz in now paddleboards
If we are trying to target the main keyword of "paddle boards" should we reconsider and call ourselves on the web " Isle Surfboards & Paddle Boards" or "Isle Surf & Paddle" or does it even matter?
Then when we link build should we be building links with our new name "Isle Surf & SUP" or just as "Isle Paddle Boards" or does it even matter?
Any help out there? bottom line is we want to rank better for the phrase "paddle boards" & "stand up paddle boards" as those are the top keywords.
And in closing since both above are the 2 most popular keywords and are very similar "stand up paddle boards" has "paddle boards" in the phrase should all my on page related seo target "stand up paddle boards" phrase since that would have both phrases or "paddle boards" or a combo of both?
-
It really doesn't matter. Anchor text as a ranking factor is on it's way out as far as we can tell. I would call yourself whatever works best. If it makes sense to call your business Isle Paddle Boards, cool. But if you sell more than that, you might do something more broad.
When you link, just make sure you're describing the page and why people might want to visit it. If the story is about paddle boards, you might link to your paddle boards page with "check out [Isle Paddle Boards]" with what is in the brackets as the anchor text. Make sense?
Don't worry so much on what exact phrase to focus on. Does you page pertain to just stand up paddle boards? Or all paddle boards? Or are those the same thing? If they are the same (and I don't think so), then use the longer term.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Recent redirect leading to keyword ranking drop
Hey all! Someone I work with recently redirected one of their site pages via Squarespace. They used Squarespace-provided code to make a 301 redirect. Following this, the primary keywords for the page that was redirect to have dropped pretty significantly. Any Squarespace pros out there who can help me figure out what's going on?
Technical SEO | | kelseyworsham0 -
My company bought another company. How long do I keep the purchased company's site live?
How long do I wait before redirecting the purchased company's webpages to the equivalent pages on our site? Do I need to keep some sort of announcement about the merger live on their website for a while first?
Technical SEO | | movingbusinessestothecloud0 -
Does server location affect rankings?
Hey guys, I'm just wondering whether you can help me out here. We're considering moving our servers to a new country but are a little hesitant to what - if any - SEO impact it would have on our clients' sites. For instance, if all of our clients are UK-based but their server isn't, would that affect their rank in Google UK? Or is it simply just a case of whether moving a server would affect the site speed or not?
Technical SEO | | Webrevolve0 -
Website not ranking for noncompetitive terms
Hi, We've took over a website last July and no matter what we do we just can't get it ranking in Google, even for noncompetitive terms. here is the website in question: http://www.alignandsmile.co.uk Ideally the client would like to rank for Canary Wharf but that location is competitive, the site doesn't even rank for 'Dentist New Providence Wharf E14' despite it being included in the title tag on the home page and in the content throughout the website. Directories with Align and Smile's business information do rank however. I opened a case with google through Webmaster tools and they 'reviewed your site and found no manual actions by the webspam team that might affect your site's ranking in Google.' So I'm a bit stuck. The site ranks top for the keyphrase in Bing and Yahoo...we are really struggling with Google! Any help would be much appreciated. many thanks Marcus
Technical SEO | | dentaldesign0 -
Blog Ranking NOT home page main website?!
Hi, Our Blog (http://blog.thailand-investigation.com) is ranking for some of our major keywords but not our home page (http://www.thailand-investigation.com)!? Our blog is WordPress and our main website is HTML. It seems like the search engines consider that they are 2 separate websites!? When I check the incoming links to our website, I get also the blog links!!!??? Is it normal? Do I have to build a relation of some kind or write some code saying that it is our Blog... I don't know! I'm not a SEO specialist or even a webmaster. I'm a small business owner and take care on my website. I created by myself but never learned! So, please help! Thanks
Technical SEO | | MichelMauquoi0 -
Whats happened to my rankings
Hey everyone, I hope someone might be able to help me figure out what has gone wrong here. I have a website which was slowly growing in rankings. The domain used was a .net However, It is a UK based business so I shifted this to a .co.uk domain and then followed googles advice in webmaster tools for moving address. ie, copy site, verify in GWMT and then 301 the old site. Now the .net had 71 indexed pages out of 73. But after 2 months .co.uk only has 41 out of 73 indexed. At the end of last week I did change the theme on my website although the content / urls have all remained the same. I have gone to check my rankings this morning and the site has totally bombed. Even the own brand name does not ranking in top 10 pages. I have not done an major link building at all yet for the site and any links that are there are all high quality from industry related authority sites. Looking at GWMT the latest links all look ok, nothing spammy but one thing I did notice is that it shows the .net domain providing 193 links via 301and also individually a great deal of the links that point to .net but have shown in .co.uk What I would like to know if have I actually done something wrong? Should I just kill the 301 (i am loathed to do this as a few of the links to this took me a long time to get), after spending a great deal of money developing my site and just starting to see some nice progress in the natural rankings and google has gone and pulled the carpet from under me. I would understand if I was doing something wrong but I have made strenuous efforts to ensure the linking on this site is whiter that white. Oh, I have had no warnings in my messages at all. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Technical SEO | | easyrider20 -
Single Keyword Penalty?
Hi guys, I recently taken over SEO for strikebowling.com.au and I'm stumped to what has happened with the keyword 'Bowling' for the home page. Historically they have been ranking 5-6 for the year and they do come up in the local results. Start of September, bang they drop out of the top 100 for Bowling. No other words seem to be effected. However the keyword 'Bowling Alley' did improve around the same time for an internal page. What could have happened? A single keyword penalty? No messages in Webmaster tools No dodgy link building Look forward to some theories. Regards, Corey
Technical SEO | | LoudClear0 -
Should I not Change the URL of Ranking Pages
My site currently ranks #1 or #2 for 2 separate pages on web design & SEO for my geographic location. The URLs are currently mysite.com/services/web-design/ and mysite.com/services/seo/ I'm redesigning my site and I'm taking out the "Services" page as I'm focusing on web design and SEO and lumping everything else into my "Internet Marketing" page. Because my pages for web design and SEO rank so well, should I keep the URL structure even though I don't have a "Services" page or should I just remove services and 301 redirect so I have mysite.com/web-design/ and mysite.com/seo/. I know doing a 301 redirect could hurt me in the short term but I'm wondering if I should just bite the bullet now and change it in favor of a better URL structure. What do you think?
Technical SEO | | JaredDetroit0