Keyword Targeting Best Practices??
-
What is the best way to target a specific keyword? I rank well for several of my keywords but want to do better on others. How do I go about doing this?
-
**How to develop your ****_1-true-keyword _**into a topical theme:
-
Determine your primary keyword(s) - 1-10 terms that you think describe your site well.
-
List acronyms & jargon related to your primary keyword(s).
-
List synonyms, plurals, and related phrases.
-
Start adding modifiers to the set of words you've grown.
-
Repeat the process with each "categorical topical theme" your site is about.
-
Now you've developed a long list of targets, and it's time to prioritize.
-
Do your research. Get data on the search volume for each keyword in your list. Determine searcher intent.
-
Figure out if you have existing resources available to serve up for each keyword in your list.
-
Go Pro at SEOmoz, and record each keyword's keyword difficulty score.
-
Average out the ranking domain and page authority of the top 3-5 sites for each term you're targeting to better understand your playing field.
With this data, you can now make educated decisions about which keywords from your set to target first. You can evaluate which keywords might be the least difficult to rank for, and which might be the most rewarding to rank for, and make decisions that will truly optimize your search engine marketing efforts.
_ http://www.quora.com/Is-it-better-to-target-one-keyword-at-a-time-for-SEO-or-two+_
If you're localizing your keyword list, you can use a spreadsheet program like Excel or OpenOffice, or use online tools to append local terms (like area codes and city names) to your primary keywords list:
- Local Marketing Source developed this useful local keyword research tool which appends local search terms to your list of primary keywords.
- 5Minutes has a very useful tool for generating and appending local search terms to your targeted general keyword list as well.
-
-
"Lightly" seeding alternate phrases into a page's main content area where those are TIGHTLY related to the existing page's topical focus can often help if you do so by writing natural paragraph based content that includes those.
Also, vary up the anchor text that links into those pages, both from content areas of other pages on your site (not in navigation, and please, NEVER in footers), as well as from off-site inbound link sources.
Always keep the topical focus and link source to link destination highly relevant and trustworthy.
And don't try to go for one-to-one parity on forcing new links to have to match every single phrase or partial variation of a phrase you've seeded the page with. Let it unfold more "randomly".
By taking those steps alone, I have helped sites increase total volume of keyword phrases used to discover client sites by leaps and bounds because Google is really good (some of the time) at recognizing the broader context of a page when you use those methods.
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
-
Best SEO for table in mobile view
I'm wondering what the best way to present a table for mobile view in terms of SEO? It's a complicated table (not simple rows & columns but also col spans) which doesn't work with any responsive techniques I can find. I can offer different content for desktop / mobile so desktop is OK. But what's the best way forward with Google for mobile? I could offer a jpg or simply an explanation to revisit the page on desktop, but neither of those options seem particularly Google-friendly?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ann640 -
Name change to include a keyword?
Hello All...Just signed up for the 30 day trial with Moz. I am a wedding photographer here in the UK. If I was to change my company name to Simon Cook Wedding Photography from Simon Cook Photography, will this help my presence in anyway?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Simon_Cook0 -
Best practices with reoccurring event listings
On our client's events page there are a few reoccurring events that each have their own detail page. I'm trying to figure out what's the best practice for minimising duplicate content. For example, for the Bribie Island Markets that repeat weekly there are 2 (+more) detailed event pages: http://www.ourbribie.com/e/bribie-island-markets/1869/2013-12-07/2013-12-07
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | michaelp85
http://www.ourbribie.com/e/bribie-island-markets/1869/2013-12-14/2013-12-14 While they both contain duplicated content, they're unique in that they display the specific events date/time. My thinking is that the future events (e.g. 2013-12-14) should have a canonical link to the upcoming/next event (i.e. 2013-12-07). However this would require constantly updating/changing the canonical links. What's the best way to deal with this from a duplicate content prospective? Any better recommendations?0 -
None branded keyword Sitelink?
Hi Friends I have sitelink when people search my brand. Can I have another sitelink for none branded keyword that my site is more than 1 year top of google position?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vahidafshari450 -
What are recommended best practices for hosting native advertising sponsored content on domains for large publishers?
On top of clear on-page sponsored content copy would you add meta robots to noindex native advertising? Google recently came out against this type of content in GNews, is there a similar directive for the main index?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hankazarian0 -
Local SEO Best Practices
Hello Everyone, I'm new to SEOmoz, I'm looking to use this as a tool to really help me, and evenually I can help others. I am an Web Developer with some online marketing experience. I did Local SEO a Few Years ago, and things have really changed since then. I know this Panda and Penguin update really is putting a hurting on the directory submission. Google no longer has 'Citations" on their places page, and many other changes. With that being said, what are some best practices for Local SEO? I am a propeller head by nature, but am also very creative when I need to be. I have potental sites to market, anywhere from Holistic Medical Doctors, Plastic Surgeons Community Blogs, and Auto Repair Shops, Law firms (to give you some perspectic) I also read Danny Dover's Book, to learn some more about SEO, the one thing that is unclear is how to acquire quality links I would really appreciate any perspective on this, every little thing helps Zach Russell
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ZacharyRussell0 -
Best way to get the keyword ranking at the top
I am working on site for around six months now.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ray2810
I have done social bookmarking submission, directory submission, blog comments, forum submissions etc. Is there anything else i can do to make the rank go higher. nothing is working correctly.0 -
Service Keyword in URL - too much?
We're working on revamping the URL structure for a site from the ground up. This firm provides a service and has a library of case studies to back up their work. Here's some options on URL structure: 1. /cases/[industry keyword]-[service keyword] (for instance: /cases/retail-pest-control) There is some search traffic for the industry/service combination, so that would be the benefit of using both in URL. But we'd end up with about 70 pages with the same service keyword at the end. 2. /cases/[industry keyword] (/cases/retail) Shorter, less spam potential, but have to optimize for the service keyword -- the primary -- in another way. 3. /cases/clientname (/cases/wehaveants) No real keyword potential but better usability. We also want the service keyword to rank on its own on another page (so, a separate "pest control" page). So don't want to dilute that page's value even after we chase some of the long tail traffic. Any thoughts on the best course of action? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kdcomms1