Incoming Search Terms
-
Hi guys,
I saw a blog post recently where the author added a list of "incoming search queries" to the bottom of his post, obviously to improve the post's ranking for those terms.
On one hand, I suppose it it does help users find that post. On the other, it seems lazy and somewhat dodgy, but I haven't found any opinions on it elsewhere and have not seen this practice in my experience.
What're your thoughts? Outright search engine manipulation?
Cheers, Carlo
-
Glad you agree, thanks for your answers guys.
-
My take on it is that it's good old keyword stuffing and dodgy at best.
The content is of absolutely no use to a human reader - there's no reason for them to care what other search terms led visitors to that page. And since it clearly looks like those phrases don't actually link to other articles (correct me if I'm wrong) they can't be considered "related content".
So a spammy tactic for SE manipulation only. If the site owner knows the page is targeted at those terms, he should be using them properly within the content instead of stuffing them at the end.
This is the kind of stuff Panda's been finding and killing for the past year or so. I sure wouldn't want to bet my rankings on it - and look like a douche to my readers in the process.
Paul
-
Good question Carlo . If i had to handle that for the client, i would classify the links as "related content" or "related posts" which is a common practice with blogs and news oriented sites. The "incoming search queries" classification can be misleading and a direct suggestion that it is aimed at the search engine bots as opposed to the visitors.
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
-
What should I be shooting for for search visibility percentage?
Realistically - what's a "good" search visibility score? I'm working on a site that has been around less than a year. We are doing 3 blogs a week with carefully selected keywords. I know it will take time and lots of SEO work - but I'm interested in any ideas on what I should shoot for. Thanks for any thoughts! (Also not a local listing or anything - national search.)
On-Page Optimization | | mm19804 -
Can we change Title and/or Descriptions Dynamically Based on Search Query
If I recall we used to be able to change our title attributes tag dynamically based on the search query but not sure if it's possible now or if it makes sense to do so. Thoughts? Rosemary
On-Page Optimization | | RosemaryB1 -
Display URL changed for Organic Regional Searches?
Hey. We currently have a US version of the site (/us) which is displaying in US Google Search. However the /us domain is also showing for our co.uk Google searches. Is there a way I can ensure the /us is only displayed for US searches? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | LoveCrafts0 -
How can you activate the 'Results From' internal search bar on Google SERP?
Hi There, I am hoping someone can advise me on getting the 'Results From' sitelink to display for my site on the Google SERP? I have searched far and wide for the answer with no luck. I'd really appreciate your advice. Thanks! Internal_Search_Google_SERP_zps75a5383e.jpg
On-Page Optimization | | tmg.seo0 -
Google search: 'define:____'
See: http://screencast.com/t/oFSzIt5rRm Thrilled that Google is pulling our content over wikipedia (in this instance). Wondering how we can assure more success like this. Mike Corso
On-Page Optimization | | Mike_c
Gartner.com1 -
Two points of view on optimizing our search pages. What should we go with?
So we're in the process of going back and forth with our designer about optimizing our search results, which also doubles as a landing page for visitors searching with keywords like "Meeting Rooms Seattle" and "Seattle Meeting Spaces" We're on the front page in the SERPs, but still have a way to go. This is our current page: http://www.evenues.com/Meeting-Spaces/Seattle/Washington And this is something we've proposed for our designer to work with: http://imgur.com/JU1zg There search page text and links in the top left corner were to be placed for onsite SEO purposes ie we have no real text/content on the page for relevancy. We're currently in the process of writing the copy for each city on the search pages. Our designer made this argument: After giving it some thought I came to the conclusion that we may want to take a step back, and focus on the overall goal of this exercise. From what I have gathered, you would like to generate more click-throus and improve SEO, right? In my opinion, adding all of the provided copy and the link farm to the search results page would not necessarily help that. In fact, I think it would actually push the actual results way down. The content you provided me is more suited for a landing page, not a search results page (that is taking into consideration that you want similar content for other locations). Redfin has done a ton of great SEO work on their site. Using them as an example, if you go to Redfin.com, you will find tiny links in the footer that say "home for sale in seattle" etc. If you click on those, it puts you on a page like this: http://www.redfin.com/cities/1/seattle?src=homepage and then from there you can click to a neighborhood page like this: http://www.redfin.com/city/1387/WA/Bellevue. I would recommend that we create a set of location pages with the content the client is asking for, that are specifically optimized for SEO, and provide links in the footer of the site to get to those pages. Then the links on the new landing pages would land the user on the search results page. By keeping two different pages for two different purposes separate would help keep content more organized and help user find specific info they are looking for. As a quick fix we could put one line of text under the H1 text on search results as well, maybe with a strong tag. By doing that we will be able to keep the page looking clean and easy to navigate through. Anyways, that's just my two cents. Any ideas/input on this?
On-Page Optimization | | eVenuesSEO0 -
Shall Google index a search result?
Hi, I've a website with about 1000 articles.Each article has one ore more keywords / tags. So I display these keywords at the article page and put a link to the intern search engine. (Like a tag cloud) The search engine lists als articles with the same keyword and creates a result page. This result page is indexed by Google. The search result contains the title of the article, a short description (150-300 chars.) and a link to the article. So, Google believes, that there are about 5.000 pages instead of 1.000 because auf the link to the search result pages. The old rule was for me: More pages in Google = better. But is this still true nowadays? Would be a "noindex, follow" better on these search result pages? (Is there a way to tell Google that this is a search result page?) Best wishes, Georg.
On-Page Optimization | | GeorgFranz0
