How to rank for many keywords
-
OK, so I've been diving into SEO pretty hard lately and learning everything I can. Something I'm not quite understanding is how to rank for a lot of different keywords.
We're in the proofreading and editing space which can be broken down into many categories:
-
general proofreading & editing
-
essay editing
-
book editing
-
etc.
If I consider the "essay editing" category, the main keyword I want to target is, in fact, "essay editing". However, I'd also want to target:
essay editing service, edit my essay, fix my essay, revise my essay, etc.
Basically, a lot of modifiers.
I can easily target our main page for essay editing and essay editing service keywords, but how do I start ranking for those longer tail keywords?
Is it simply building content that includes them? Is it getting links utilizing anchor text? Or is there something I'm missing?
I don't see the point in building separate service pages for those other keywords; I think that's a waste and bad site architecture practices.
I'm just looking for my "aha" moment on these longer-tail rankings.
Thanks!
-
-
EGOL,
Firstly, I want to state what a truly great answer this is. Since most people are not playing in this niche, they may not appreciate the insights you've pointed out in such little time.
Content is going to be a large part of our strategy. While others have done this to an extent, you'll notice the same bland, boring stuff recycled over and over. There's a huge opportunity in this space to take content to a new level and create truly great stuff. That's what we're planning on doing.
Regarding creating multiple service pages for these specific keywords... I think you're absolutely correct. When I can't figure things out, I tend to think obsessively about them until I believe I have an answer. Last night, before heading to a friend's birthday party (and before you answered this question), I reconsidered my standpoint (also after I poured through some Adwords search and conversion data for our site.
I decided that the best approach would be to create a general "essay editing" page with footer links to pages like "fix my essay", "revise my essay", etc. Like you, I realized that there actually is different intent for these search terms than there is for "essay editing service" and I greatly appreciate your answer in helping confirm my hunch.
The one place I do believe you're not quite spot on is where you say, _"This is not an easy business niche. Your competitors have been around long enough that they will not be defeated quickly or with little effort." _ This niche has not been disrupted like many niches have in the recent years. The players, in my opinion, have become complacent and nobody has been attempting to become an industry leader here (I believe there's definitely an opportunity to do so). The guys ranking toward the top of the SERPS do not have very impressive link profiles, they don't create good content (if any), their user experiences and design of their websites are awful.
I'm not saying it won't take effort and time to surpass them, but I do believe it's one of the more "doable" niches out there.
Again, thanks for the great answer. If you've got any more insights, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Cheers!
-
There are some smart competitors in this space and they have no problem generating special pages of content for the various terms that might be search terms for their services.
"Is it simply building content that includes them?"
If I was entering this market I would have a site with lots of "service" pages, each with generous content. I would also have a blog that gives lots of free tips for producing a great essay and editing it yourself - before turning it over to a professional for final review.
I would also offer a "writer development" service where you not only edit their essay but you review the edits with them by phone so that the client can gain an understanding of how to write better in the future.
Is it getting links utilizing anchor text?
This is not an easy business niche. Your competitors have been around long enough that they will not be defeated quickly or with little effort. I think that you will need great content that teachers and professors will link to as examples of how to improve student writing. Lots of this has been done before. You will have to do it better and attract attention of the people who will want to share what you have created with students.
I don't see the point in building separate service pages for those other keywords; I think that's a waste and bad site architecture practices.
If you were in a niche with a few naive competitors then you could get by with just a few service pages.
I think that those separate service keywords are typed into search boxes by people with a different mentality. The "fix my essay" guy has a crappy essay that he hopes you will turn into Sterling by 7:30 AM and he gets in touch with you at 6:00 AM. The "essay editing service" guy probably has an essay that needs a lot less attention and is not on such tight deadlines.
But, since you are offering an essay editing service writing generous amounts of interesting service pages along with a great blog shouldn't be as tough for you as a guy who sells hydraulic jacks.
-
Kibin, what I'd do is work to make sure my home page is nicely optimized for the search phrase I think is the most important (I'd use Google's keyword tool to get a feel for which is the most likely one) and then be sure to add a blog to the site.
In the blog articles, I'd make sure that I cover the different search phrases that I think my potential visitors are going to be searching for. Over time with a portfolio of blog stories that provide useful content for your potential clients, you'll see good results - share your content on the social media sites too.
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
-
Too Many links in a Ecommerce website
Hello, I am running a website, which is a kind of e-commerce website. We are providing doctors appointments and online consultations in Pakistan. I am checking my page's SEO using moz tool, it shows me too many links on the page. My question is how many links should we have on a single page?. As on my website every single doctor has a link to his profile, I am using paginations plus i have added internal links to other pages which is related to same specialist doctors. looking for the answer to this question
Link Building | | MuhammadNoman-Imam0 -
Why personal change coach not ranking for his own name, exact match
The term is tim hallbom The new website is TimHallbom.com I was under the impression that someone could take over rank for their own name. Let me know what we're doing wrong. Thanks.
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Keyword are not ranking
Hello, Recently We have a taken a project " http://customerconnect-services.com/ " and are responsible for the Digital Marketing for the website. FYI, we have been following the best On-Page SEO practices ever since we took the project: Performing Keyword Research, Finalizing the Keywords,Using those in the Page-Title, Meta-Descriptions, Heading Tags and of course in the Content as per MOZ suggestions & SEO standards. But, we are unable to rank in first page; all the considered keywords have a ranking of 51+ which is a serious matter of concern for us. We have also checked whether the Domain / URL has been blacklisted, but it's not (Not even by Google). We are therefore unable to figure out what is going wrong even after following so many best practices to get the keywords a good ranking (1st & 2nd page of SERPs). Therefore I would like to request you to provide your expert opinions in this regard by checking what is it that we are not getting right. The website is euro t20 slam As this is a high-priority issue for us & the client is a prestigious one of course, please help.Looking forward to hearing from you at the earliest.
Link Building | | Sabirasifseo9990 -
A number of times you should use your keyword in a guest blog
Is it true that if you want to rank for a chosen keyword, you have to mention that keyword 3%-5% of the whole content (in a guest blog)?
Link Building | | FilkaCer2 -
Targeting City Geo-tags/Keywords for Clients with Multiple Locations
Hey everyone! What methods are best to use for SEO campaigns working with 1 website for a company which has 2, 3, 4, or more locations in order to get keywords for their services to rank well... in all their location cities? I feel we know the answer could be any one of the below notes, however, it's always nice to learn more about what all you other SEO's are doing or have done which saw success. Please note: We have heard about building microsites on sub-domains example city.domainname.com/keyword-or-service
Link Building | | WhiteboardCreations
We have heard about building sections off the root domain such as domainname.com/city/keyword-or-service
We have heard about just pushing more content to the blog which can target a wider range of keywords and cities
We have heard about building a new site for each city location replicating the main website and swapping out content for 100% originality
We have heard about just building more and more backlinks with different anchor text using the cities in the anchor text Thanks in advance and look forward to hearing from some other experts facing these same challenges!1 -
Consolidating many external blogs onto main website: canonicals or 301s
Hi Everyone, Presently I have many blogs across a range of domains, each one targeting the client/type of user interested in that product (or service in this case). I originally set up this strategy to use the content of each blog to create a "link juice farm" (our products are educational courses so have a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT target market depending on the course area), which in turn links to the related page/course on our main site. My plan is to move all the content from those external blogs into subcategories on my main website blog in order to increase its traffic, authority etc. Originally, I was going to cut and paste the content, then put in appropriate 301 redirects from the external blogs to the main site. However, I then thought about copying all the content to my main site, setting it as the canonical version, and leaving all the external blogs intact and running. The idea being, I still get the benefit of all those external links pointing back at my main website. Which would be the better strategy for me to pursue? Thanks in advance for your insights, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out with this question.
Link Building | | love-seo-goodness0 -
Smart optimization strategies to increase website rankings and Organic traffics
I have Got A Grade in On page Analyse from SEOMOZ . I want to get Top rank for " Healthy Breakfast " Keywords.. for this page http://ahealthybreakfastfood.com/category/healthy-breakfast/ I am new in SEOmoz and also SEO world. Actually i want to know "Smart optimization strategies to increase website rankings and Organic traffics " thanks
Link Building | | seolearner0070 -
Would using SE.NukeX or M. Submitter Hurt My Rankings Or Help?
I used to think they was great for time saving, for 2.0s forums etc yet I'm worried that, as this method is widley used it would now possibly hinder my site?
Link Building | | ramtulla0