Long tail keywords / Close variations of keywords / Duplicate Content
-
In a classified site, people usually search for the same item with different keywords which are often very close to each other and point to same set of results: e.g.
honda civic for sale
used honda civic for sale
civic for sale
used civic for sale
used civicAll the above keywords should actually lead to same results i.e honda civic for sale. Our competitor is creating a page for each one of these
www.sitename.com/q/honda-civic-for-sale/
www.sitename.com/q/used-honda-civic-for-sale/
... and so onBasically they create a page for each high traffic keyword they encounter where as we have very structure search.
How to compete with that ? They are ranking on all these long tail keywords because of separate landing pages though most of the pages are duplicate of each other. 98% same content (all are showing honda civics)
Should we go that route OR optimize our single page focusing on keyword with highest traffic and hope google will rank us for the related keywords as well ?
-
Muhammad,
If a page targeting multiple keywords has enough authority it may certainly rank for them--especially if they are as closely related as the ones on your list. In the example you give, I would optimize a single page focused on "used honda civic for sale" (and maybe include your city name) and work on building its authority. With a little time and effort, that page should be able to rank for all of those variations.
-
Its quite hard to answer the question until you provide us both URL.Domain authority,Current internal links structure of both site and many other factors are necessary to answer this question why they are ranking well and how you guys reach there.
If they are creating doorway pages just to manipulate rank.Go ahead report it to Google.If you are going to report make sure you do not show up who you are.
If you legally want to beat him.Check out his link profile and his tactics carefully. Analyze and prepare action plans accordingly.
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
-
Keyword comparison and importance
hello, how can i compare two keywords? let's say i have i those two keywords: a) πτυχιακες εργασιες β) πτυχιακές εργασίες how can i see in what way most people are searching?
Competitive Research | | anavasis0 -
Find competitors based on keywords
Are there any tools where I can enter say 5 keywords and it will look at the top 10 sites for each of those keywords then return which sites show up the most.
Competitive Research | | eyeflow0 -
Question about Keywords & Ranking
I hope this isn't too basic of a question, but I am confused about something. If you use the Keyword Research tool and type in "Stained Concrete Flooring", the 3rd result (stainedconcrete.org) has the lowest numbers of any of the sites in the top 8-10... Is it because they have a large amount of traffic? or is there some other factor that I am missing?
Competitive Research | | Timvroom0 -
What keywords would you suggest for interesting concept?
Not sure if it's OK to ask just about anything as long as it is relevant, but I would love to hear thoughts about good keywords to promote an app that will make it easy to migrate/move phone data and files - contacts, photos, music, calendars - from one phone - like a BB, iPhone or WinMo - to an Android phone or device? I'm having the darnest time coming up with phrases that people who are searching for such an app would use? Thanks
Competitive Research | | holdtheonion0 -
Best methodology for creating local keywords when Google has no data?
Generally I'll look at data for specific geographical searches and incorporate the data from the other keywords, then track the metrics. I think there is likely a more efficient system but I'm not sure where to start.
Competitive Research | | DoriC0 -
Theoretical Canonical Query/Test
This is just a general discussion on your thoughts on this - maybe some tests have been done, but I haven't found any. Suppose I have document X If I put document X on high authority website A - It comes in SE position 1 for Keyword Z If I put document X on low authority website B - It comes in SE position 10 for Keyword Z What happens (if anything) if I put document X on website A and include a canonical tag to point to document X on website B. What SE position would document Z on website B now come for Keyword Z ??
Competitive Research | | James770 -
Why there is no tool that check the page content ?
When using the SEO tool: http://www.seomoz.org/keyword-difficulty/google.com We can see the top 10 competition on a lot of parameters but i think you are missing the research on PAGE TEXT CONTENT. What do you say ?
Competitive Research | | idoravivo0 -
What does 70% Keyword Difficulty mean in reality?
I did a quick search in SEOmoz keyword difficuilty tool and found out most of the keyword I pick with some nice traffic are all 70%. Keyword list: http://screencast.com/t/Y4pPK42ZXrST How "difficult" is 70%? If someone ask you to optimize and rank a (very) new website for a keyword with 70% difficulty: Will you take the challedge or you think mission impossible? Why? How do you relate this reletively abstract "number" to the real world? Thank you!
Competitive Research | | johnzhel0