Ranking for Competitive Keywords vs. Less Competitive Keyword Variations
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I'm curious about situations where a website ranks very well for query variations, but doesn't rank for the query itself (or the reverse of that). For Redfin (where I work), here is the situation with regard to keyword rankings on Google (searched today from USA, incognito)...
- real estate search - #4
- real estate online - #4
- real estate site - #5
- find real estate - #9
- get real estate - #16
- real estate - #163
It stands to reason that a site ranking well for a competitive query should also rank well for less competitive query variations - especially query variations that are non-limiting and do not demand a custom landing page (for example, I would consider 'board games' to dramatically limit the query 'games' and be best targeted with a targeted page...not so with 'real estate site' and 'real estate').
So, my question is, what are some theories regarding situations like this? Why do some sites rank so well for competitive queries but not for non-limiting query variations? Why aren't the sites that are crushing us for 'real estate' also crushing us for 'real estate' variations (to be clear...the top sites are crushing us for both)?
Is it anchor text? Is it social signals? Is it offline signals, co-occurrence, or citations? What about internal linking and site structure? I realize it's likely a mix of all this, but I'm hoping we can drum up some new ideas here.
FYI, on Bing we also rank very well for 'real estate' variations, but leap up to 31st for 'real estate'.
Thoughts?
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I think the reason is back link anchor text and I don't think it has to do with social signals. Exact match anchor text can still be a very strong ranking factor. Take note of the pages in the results--you may see that home pages are showing up for the "real estate"searches but interior pages are showing up for the "real estate variations" searches.
Your logic is off a bit. Just because a page shows up for the higher-tier keyword, doesn't mean it will more easily show up for the lower tier keyword.
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