Adding qualifiers to keywords?
-
I know that it's worth adding qualifiers to high value keywords to create long-tail variations which will later have the potential to rank well for the main keyword as well...
My questions is, how important is it that the newly-formed keyword/phrase also be evaluated for search volume?
E.g. "tips for job interviews" has a high search volume, but scores 72 in the Keyword Difficulty tool - quite high. I would therefore be tempted to create a "10 tips for job interviews" articles or something similar, yet THIS particular phrase is searched for <10 times per month...
If there are not any easy-to-find qualifiers that also create a well-searched for keyword/phrase, is it still worth adding them?
-
OK, to answer the primary question of "My questions is, how important is it that the newly-formed keyword/phrase also be evaluated for search volume?"
It's important to check on that keyword phrase, but in the case you presented, it's not going to be a huge factor in your decision process. Had the modifier shown 1000 searches per month, than it would naturally be more worthwhile.
It's very difficult to estimate long-trail traffic based on keyword data from Google's Keyword Tool. There are plenty of keywords that are listed as zero or negligible traffic, that send me plenty of visits.
You'll have to make the call for yourself as to where to draw the line in terms of what keywords to focus on for page-level, and what keywords to focus on solely within the content level.
In other words, some keywords will be valuable enough to dedicate a page to, meaning targeting that phrase in your title, h1, and in your content and images. Other keywords are just long-tail phrases that should be within the content but not have an entire dedicated page.
In the particular case that you presented, I believe that creating an article titled "10 tips for job interviews" would be an excellent way to rank for "tips for job interviews". Google is advanced enough to know that a piece of content titled "10 tips for job interviews" is equally valuable to a piece of content titled "tips for job interviews."
In my opinion, what you should really worry about is how you're going to get enough links to that piece of content for it to ever rank, not whether or not the person is searching with small modifiers like 10 tips, etc. I'd probably try and get 10 experts to each weigh in with one tip - this will be a much more valuable piece of content than something you write yourself. Otherwise it will just blend in with the crowd.
-
Thanks for this, although it didn't fully answer my question, which was essentially: Is it worth doing? If no one is searching for these full key phrases, then why bother altering the main keyword?
-
Thanks for this, although it didn't fully answer my question, which was essentially: Is it worth doing? If no one is searching for these full key phrases, then why bother altering the main keyword?
-
You can also think of using different professions as qualifiers such tips of IT interviews, SEO interviews, graduate interviews. It is also worth think about market trends. In the UK degree courses tend to end in May or June with an up swing in graduates looking for work at this time. You could make sure well in advance that you have content to match this niche that is ranking well. Work on at least a three month time lag. Also look at the job board career sections and see what they are doing and if there is anything you can do better.
Also use social media and social bookmarking once you have the content up to spread the word.
Hope this helps.
Good luck.
-
Title like "10 Tips For Job Interviews" are excellent for getting people interested and clicking on your SERP.
But, nobody really searches for them. They just expect "top 10 tips for job interviews" to be one of the results for "tips for job interviews."
If you're going to head this route, try "top tips for job interviews" without a specific number.
Also try non-numerical qualifiers like "good tips for job interviews", etc. The keyword tool is your friend here for brainstorming purposes.
Qualifiers that don't register much Google Adwords Keyword Tool are also good to use in content instead of creating their own page.
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
-
Secondary related keywords
Hi, Let' say one of the topics I want to talk about is "wine tasting2. I do a search in the keywords tool and I find related keywords such as "wine tasting chicago" and all the words that I find do not apply to me because I do "wine tastings in Bordeaux". How do I deal in a situation like that ? Can I type in the keyword tool "wine tasting bordeaux" even though my topic is wine tasting ? I took "wine tasting" but I could apply that to the word "chateaux" where none of the related keywords apply to me. I run into issues when the topics are "large". The other question I have is still about "wine tasting" if I find secondary related keywords that apply to me such a "wine tasting in bordeaux", "wine tasting cellars" do I still need to add in my content the word "wine tasting" by itself in addition to the 2 related keywords or can I just only put the 2 related keywords ? Thank you,.
Keyword Research | | seoanalytics0 -
Keyword Ranking
I would like to understand how to search for all instances where Johansens is on the 1st page of Google (US/UK) for any keywords that have Portugal, Lisbon or Algarve in them i.e. "luxury hotels portugal". Is there an easy/automated way to do such a search? Many thanks for your support, Doug
Keyword Research | | CN_Johansens0 -
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 -
Ranking for more keywords - Noob question
Hi, I've noticed recently that our site is ranking for a fraction of the keywords that our competitors are ranking for. In terms of increasing the number of keyword rankings per page would it simply be a case of adding optimised copy to each page? Thanks, Dan
Keyword Research | | Sparkstone0 -
Keyword Analysis Report Excel Password protected
I am having a problem with the Keyword Analysis report that i am downloading as excell docs. There are password protected. Anyone knows the password?
Keyword Research | | Angelos_Savvaidis0 -
Keywords in SEO Moz versus Keywords on pages
II'm a little confused by how the SEO Moz keywords relate to our page keywords. Should all the keywords we put in SEO Moz be in our page keywords? Can our SEO Moz keywords span the kepywords of severla pages or do we need ot tighten up and only use 5 for example keywords in SEO Moz and on our pages? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | THMCC0 -
Site Wide Keyword Extractor
I need a tool or a method that will let me know what a search engine thinks the overall theme of the site is about. Sort of like the keyword extractor, but on a site-wide basis. Does anyone have any sugestions?
Keyword Research | | waynekolenchuk0 -
Geographically Specific Keyword Research - What do you use?
Does anyone recommend a particular keyword research tool or tools for geographically modified keywords? i.e. Web DesignerF Fargo. I often find that searches focused on services in the area we serve does not get the traffic volume Google's keyword tool needs to provide me with a number. I know the traffic is there, because I see it coming in via analytics. Thoughts? Recommendations?
Keyword Research | | BedeFahey0