Focus Keyword
-
Hi,
I have 2 doubts regarding keywords SEO optimization.
1. I would like to optimize the keyword "liquidation channel". The thing is, in my copy/page title/URL/etc it doesn't make a lot of sense to use this exact keyword, but rather "liquidation channels", in plural. Will I rank higher for liquidation channel anyway? And if so, to which extent? (e.g. about 70%...?)
2. I would like to optimize the homepage for the word "liquidation", but found out that some combinations using this keyword (like "liquidation sales" or "liquidation auctions") would have higher traffic and might work better for some pages. I understand I would still be ranking higher for the keyword liquidation, but to which extent? If it's 100% because the keyword is always included, does it makes sense to use 1-word keywords or should we always focus on multiple word keywords?
Would the same apply for 2-words keywords vs 3-words keywords, like "wholesale liquidation" SEO rankings being applied when optimizing "wholesale liquidation sales"?
Thank you,
-
I agree with Bob, and I want to add that one-word keywords tend to be _extremely_difficult to rank for. Your best bet is to focus your pages on the key phrases that make the most sense based on the topics of those pages.
Have you ever read Cyrus Shepard's "Keywords to Concepts: The Lazy Web Marketer's Guide to Smart Keyword Research?" It's a bit on the older side, but is still quite relevant. It might help you wrap your head around some of the intricacies of keyword targeting, and how search engines are learning to understand topics and intent.
-
Hi Via Trading,
Difficult questions since you’re asking about a border situation on one of all the different ranking factors out there. About a year ago I found myself trying to dive this deep into specific ranking factors as well and I found a lot of conflicts with “best practices” for ranking factors and what would make the most sense for users. Beside these conflicts I found there is a lot of exact (percentages for example) information not available in the SEO community. Looking at your questions, I think nobody is willing to invest his time in setting up large scale tests to find out how these two are correlating. Not because the question isn’t legit, but because there are bigger ranking factors that we don’t fully understand.
When you find yourself diving this deep into a ranking factor I advise you to stick to what does make the most sense for your visitors. This way you don’t do any over optimization and you can quickly switch investing your time in more important aspects of your website (content, promotion and just plain making your product awesome).
To help you further on your question I will try to give you some more information (and my view on this topic) about your question.
1. If it makes more sense to use “liquidation channels” I would go for that one since your page will probably be about multiple channels. If this is the case then just switching your URL won’t make your page content go about one channel, it would still have content about multiple channels on it. Search Engines do a great job at recognizing this so if you want to rank for ”liquidation channel” you should probably change the context of your webpage as well to become the perfect match for search engines. That said, I think you a web page about multiple liquidation channels can be very helpful when I look for one. In my experience you can rank for both keywords with either of the URL’s. Here is a screenshot I just took about a situation like yours I have on our own website.
http://i.imgur.com/pkfdAz3.png
With the keywords “tattoo shop” and “tattoo shops” we found it harder to rank on the singular then on the plural but with both keywords we managed to get a #1 position (we didn’t specifically linkbuild on any of those terms). Just like you I through changing my URL would increase my chances to rank for the singular (since this keyword has the most traffic). So when we expanded our business to a new industry (driving schools / rijschool in dutch). We used the singular in the URL but still found us ranking better on the plural. My bet is that this is because our page is about multiple driving schools and not just one driving school. Besides that I think our backlinks help a little to push this result as well so it’s not 100 exact science.
Backlinks are an important factor to consider as well, if you change your page about a plural into a singular but your content is still about a plural you will find other websites using anchor texts with the plural instead of the singular. So in the end, you will still have a harder time with the singular then with the plural.
2. The quick answer (this comment is already getting way out of hand ), it won’t be the full 100% per cent since a general term like that often triggers some results as Wikipedia or other descriptive sources. You will definitely have a correlation with this term but don’t expect too much from it. Your best change to also score on this term with your homepage is to make sure your whole domain is about this subject. That would make you a better fit for a general term like this. In my opinion you should focus your homepage on a more specific term that does the best job to describe your website or main product or service.
I hope this helps!
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
-
Point of diminishing returns for keyword research?
Hey, something I've been thinking about lately is "where is the point of diminishing returns for keyword research detail?" I get that keyword research is important for finding out stuff like "people generally search for 'doctor' way more often than they search for 'licensed medical professional'", but what about after that? Is there much useful information to be found by sifting through spreadsheets of stats about "doctor" vs "dr" vs "doctors" vs "physician" vs "physicians" etc? Especially when Google seems to treat a lot of those as interchangable? Or another example: If a remodeling company did basements, do you think there's much to be gleaned from AdWords data comparing "basement remodeler", "basement remodelers", basement remodeling", "basement remodeling contractor", "basement remodeling contractors", "basement renovation", "basement renovations", "basement renovators", "finished basements", "basement finishers", "basement finishing", etc.? Should those variations be analyzed and each targeted by their own sets of pages and pieces of content (e.g. a blog post that specifically targets "basement remodeler" and a blog post that targets "basement finisher" and a third blog post that specifically targets "renovated basement") Or should the takeaway be "there aren't any combinations that people overwhelmingly prefer to use, so let's just make content about basements and topics relevant to basements. Keyword research complete."
Keyword Research | | BrianAlpert782 -
Keywords with no search volume
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!
Keyword Research | | sararufo0 -
What is best source to find keyword use stats
Since google closed the Adwords keywoord tool I have been unable to find a source that compares with the long list of various keyword uses and the relative number of searches for each. Had printed out the ones I needed and threw them away!! Is there a comparable source available
Keyword Research | | wianno1680 -
Keyword limit??
So is it right we are only allowed 300 keywords across all campaigns? if this is right how are we suppose to work with this? is there a way to make it higher?
Keyword Research | | OasisLandDevelopment0 -
How to stay organized for keyword research?
As most of you know keyword research can be quite taxing. I have been trying to get organized and do extensive keyword research. But trying to stay organized is proving to be more and more difficult. Can I get some expert views from experts in the community as to how you all go about organizing your research and how you track things over time. Thanks
Keyword Research | | EricMoore0 -
How reliable is GWT's keyword data & what is the most accurate way of determining keywords you currently rank for?
I have been monitoring the query data (keywords, average position, CTR, etc.) in GWT, but sometimes the ranking data seems off. I filter the dates for the past week, so it is the most recent. I manually check some of the rankings and they are way off. Does anyone have feedback on this? If you have access to multiple domain data, that would be great. What is the most accurate way of determining keywords you currently rank for? I have also used keywordspy, and that is off too!
Keyword Research | | inhouseseo0 -
Does Bing/Yahoo have a keyword tool?
Just wondering if there is a Bing / Yahoo equivalent to this: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal ?? Would be nice to compare the different search patterns between the two search engines, without just assuming that the relative search volume on google for certain keywords is the same bing/yahoo.
Keyword Research | | adriandg0 -
Keyword domain names
My two best key words are "gps tracking" and "vehicle tracking". For the Irish market I have got the two domain names: www.vehicletracking.ie www.gpstracking.ie Have a very poor landing page on www.vehicletracking.ie and just redirecting www.gpstracking.ie to our site. I am wondering what I should do thie these two assets? Should I be running them as micro sites? re directing them? Or something else? Let me know what you think. Andrew
Keyword Research | | fleurya0