Is it bad to optimize for tier one keywords only?
-
Hello,
My site is about personalized cards, and I have optimized (rank A) each sample page to the main topic of the card (eg: sapo pepe). So when people search for that keyword (sapo pepe), my page ranks high.
Now, if instead of checking the optimization for "sapo pepe" I check for "cards sapo pepe" I get an F, because the keyword is not there. Thing is that people search for different tier 2 keywords, like "cards, models, examples, etc" and I cannot put that many keywords in the page...
My question is: does Search Engines rank you high if you optimize your page for a subset of the keywords people search for? I understand that if someone optimizes for "cards sapo pepe" they would get higher than my site.
Hope I was clear, any comment is appreciated!
Thanks,
MAriano
-
There you see, that's my concern... I do not want that...
ok thanks, makes sense to tune my pages just a bit to include at least one mention to each keyword and make sure I grow my ranks...
Thanks a lot both you for the ideas and experience.
-
When the pairs of pages were first built we simply replaced WordA with WordB. Then ran into a duplicate content problem - lots of pages were being filtered from the search results. We then wrote unique for all pages.
-
Hate to ask this but: did you repeat content in the second page? how you manage to do that?
I am asking because I cannot create custom content for every page, it's a catalog with 400+ models... In my case I would have to duplicate the whole catalog... without adding too much valuable content...
Thanks for the response.
-
Thanks,
Now that you mentioned the keyword tool, I did research that and the number of searches for the tier1 keyword only is 10x, 20x, or more the number of searches for the Tier1+Tier2 keywords
I DO want a uniform criteria for my pages, so thinking it twice now... and making a consious decision, I should optimize for Tier1 only and make slight mentions to the other keywords, betting that they will become visible when needed.
-
I think I built it to show the content properly, but now I need to make it show up in search..
That right there is the key to this thread. You need to first find which keywords are being searched via Google Keyword Tool, then optimize your site for perhaps two of these top terms.
A good place to put those other keywords would be image names and images description copy (if you put copy below the image to describe it). So instead of just Mickey-Cards.jpg you would replace cards with alternate keyword. Image names are not real high on Google's list, but it will help to build out a broader keyword list without messing up the flow of your page. Also, now looking at your site, you have images with item numbers below that. Would it be too much to add some text below the image and above the item number. Smaller font, not bold, but italic?
Also, no-follow links (twitter, facebook, etc) are a good place to put alternate keywords. They don't pass juice, but are still counted as referrals. Use this same logic when building all your links. Very important links use your tier 1 keyword, lesser links, use alternative keywords.
-
I made two pages for each product.
One was highly optimized for the slang name (highest search volume) and lightly optimized for the formal name. The second was highly optimized for the historical name and lightly for the ignorant.
That was a few years ago. Once my site became dominant in the SERPs for all of these terms (for a wide variety of products) I merged the two pages of content and now have just one page highly optimized for the slang name with mentions of historic, ignorant and formal.
I think that google is getting better at associating the usage of these words and today google often changes my title tag to match the query.
-
**When my site was new and weak I had to create special pages in a historical context or slang context to get optimal rankings for those words. As my site grew more powerful the primary pages began to rank well for all of the word variants. **
Great, my problem is that I would need to create pages for each combination of tier 1 and tier 2 keywords (Mickey pics, Mickey pictures, Mickey photos, Donald pics, Donald pictures, etc)... is that what you did?
Thanks!!!
-
Thanks for the details. I understand your problem better now.
I have a site that sells a product that has a formal name, a slang name, an archaic name and an ignorant name. Something like photographs, photos, pictures, pics. Google understands that my site is about all of these - and even related words such as "images".
When my site was new and weak I had to create special pages in a historical context or slang context to get optimal rankings for those words. As my site grew more powerful the primary pages began to rank well for all of the word variants.
-
and I cannot put that many keywords in the page...
I don't know why this is the case but if I was in your situation I would either fix it or change my philosophy about what can be displayed on a page.
[MB] At least in spanish, people use different terms looking for the same thing: examples, cards, models, photocards, etc... (... plus Mickey) If I have to put ALL those keywords in a relevant way on my page, then it would become really ugly to read (I try to write for humans, not for SEs) Hence my question... I've chosen one, but for what I have seen, people sometimes don't even use those tier 2 keywords, they just browse for images of Mickey... so that is why I just optimized for the tier 1 keywords.
I understand that if someone optimizes for "cards sapo pepe" they would get higher than my site.
if you don't have the word "cards" on your page or in link anchor text that hits your page then you page will not be relevant.
[MB] I do have "cards", but I don't have many others (synonyms or similar words), that is why they rank low on them. I've chosen to do so, but I do not know if it was the right thing.
My question is: does Search Engines rank you high if you optimize your page for a subset of the keywords people search for?
Yes, but only if you deserve it. You will not rank high for "cards Mickey Mantle" unless you have a strong site or a number of good links
[MB] My site is small and new, I think I built it to show the content properly, but now I need to make it show up in search... Probably my biggest challenge is to find the proper tier 2 keywords to make it more relevant.
Thanks, your answers are helpful and inline with my ideas.
Best,
-
and I cannot put that many keywords in the page...
I don't know why this is the case but if I was in your situation I would either fix it or change my philosophy about what can be displayed on a page.
I understand that if someone optimizes for "cards sapo pepe" they would get higher than my site.
if you don't have the word "cards" on your page or in link anchor text that hits your page then you page will not be relevant.
My question is: does Search Engines rank you high if you optimize your page for a subset of the keywords people search for?
Yes, but only if you deserve it. You will not rank high for "cards Mickey Mantle" unless you have a strong site or a number of good links
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 -
Is it worth creating a page for misspelled keywords?
I had thought the answer to this was no with the way Google search corrects mispellings. But in Google webmaster tools queries for a page I see the page ranking for a misspelled keyword. And looking at Key Word Finder it tells me the search volume for that keyword is high. But, when I search for the keyword myself it Google it auto corrects the results to the correct spelling. Is it worth creating a page for misspelled keywords?
Keyword Research | | Azam_Khan0 -
Number of keywords for single page website
Hello, i have a question about keywords in Single page website. For how many keywords should i focus in single page website? For example: In my industry are important 2 different keywords - cabinet making and **made to measure furniture. **Should i focus on both keywords or its better to pick better keyword and focus only for that one (of course including different forms of that word and so on). Thank you for help.
Keyword Research | | Reyzer1 -
Rank for a keyword with a slightly different designation
Hi guys, I'm a newcomer in the world of SEO. I'd like to rank for the keyword "therapy toy" but I'm used to name my product "therapy smart toy". Is a slightly different designation of my product can affect my ranking position in the short or long term? Thank you for your help 🙂
Keyword Research | | JulienLeka0 -
Decide which keyword to check
Hi. I made 3 different keywordlists. based on the following rules: list 1: top 50 of best ranking keywords of this campaign list 2: Top 50 keywords with highest volume in adwords and related to the website list 3: Top 50 last month used keywords by our clients from GWT Now i want to make one top 50 list keywords i want to track and optimize the landingpages for it. What is the best way to choose from these three lists. There are a lot of overlaps (especialy in list 1 and 3.) so those keywords have preference. But how about keywords with high volume and high difficulty, related to the website, and low ranking? i leave the conversion out of it for now, first goal is to get much traffic as possible.
Keyword Research | | Leonie-Kramer0 -
Image alt attribute - keyword stuffing?
If on the page (blog post) there is a lot of images and they all have the same alt attribute - is it keyword stuffing?
Keyword Research | | templatemonster0 -
Keyword difficulty report - am I stupid??
Hi, Im a programmer but SEO newbie and I am trying out Moz Pro. To be honest I feel really disheartened right now, I find the world of SEO very difficult and full of conflicting information. Anyway, I am trying to get my head around the Keyword difficulty tool in order to determine what keyword I want to go after and what I would need to do in order to outrank the competitors. The website with the highest PA, most external links to the domain (4000 versus around 80-90), the most linking root domain and the best on page optimasations ranks nr 5. The website that ranks 1 is the only one with good social signals. All of the websites has the keyword in the page title. What am I missing? This makes no sense to me. Is this Keyword tool reliable? VERY grateful for any help from you guys.. /Emma
Keyword Research | | EmmaGrey0 -
What keywords does the competition have?
I know this might be a long shot. I've been working on my google rankings and am first for a few keywords but still seeing quite low traffic. Is there a tool that allows me to see what keywords my competition is receiving high levels of traffic from? Thanks Dan
Keyword Research | | DanFromUK0