Optimizing pages for keywords
-
I have a couple of websites for retailing the western chaps manufactured by my company. I have recently tried to increase my learning for SEO since one of my main sites (started in 2006) just lost about 45% of it's organic search volume since the end of May. It seems my search to learn just creates more and more questions.
I have been using google adwords for several years now and have used that information to find the most searched keywords. There are some general keywords like western chaps and cowboy chaps that receive decent search volume. If I get more specific to a certain type of chap, chinks for example, the popular high volume keywords are chinks, chinks chaps, western chinks, and cowboy chinks. These all relate to one type of chap...the chink. I want to be visible for these keywords, but how does one optimize for more than one without diluting? Should I also try to optimize on the homepage of my sites for the general terms like western chaps and cowboy chaps? Can I optimize for both?
I could really use some help. Any experts out there up to the job of consulting for me, some with extensive knowledge and experience? I'm not looking for the SEO giants with hundreds of clients. I don't feel that I will get the proper value from those types. My company is small and spending is an issue, that's why I would like someone to consult with. I should be able to do most of the labor, I just need the knowledge.
-
Hello Mike,
Thank you for taking your time to respond. I can easily write good content using all those keywords and can do so without stuffing.
-
Choose what works best for the product and fits naturally into the content. You need to remember that the search engines will decide what they think you're most relevant for and rank you accordingly.... which means that just because you optimize for "Cowboy Chinks" doesn't mean you won't also rank in the SERPs for "chinks" and "western chinks". Google recognizes synonyms in content. Write for people, not for the bots... unique, informative content that will best serve your customers is better than attempting to force in every keyword imaginable in the hopes of ranking for everything with a single page. And once you start writing it you just might realize you could fit all or most of those naturally into your content.
-
Hello Brooke,
Thanks very much for your input. I do intend on optimizing indiviual pages but I'm a little confused on how to go about it.
I was a little bit general in my first post. Let's say I want to optimize a page on my site for the specific type of chap called "chinks". My google adwords campaigns have shown that consistently over a several year period, the most searched keywords are 1) chinks, 2) chinks chaps, 3) western chinks, 4) cowboy chinks. They all have significant traffic.
I have only one product category for chinks on my website and all the pairs of chinks that we sell are shown that category. Do I need to specifically choose only one of the four keywords to optimize that product page for? Do I just forget about having decent placement for the other three? I could create four product categories for chinks and optimize each one for each of the keywords but that would look like a ridiculous site to anyone searching for chinks on my website because there would be four different categories, each with a different name but all four would show exactly the same chaps. Logic tells me that I can't optimize my existing chink category for all four keywords.
Also, should I optimize the paragraphs describing each of the individual pairs of chinks with the same keywords or would this create keyword cannibalization?
Thank you,
Kelly
-
Hi Kelly,
I agree with Bethany below that you should start to look at how to optimize pages of your website instead of trying to optimize the whole thing at once.
I would really start by looking at the pages on your site that receive the most traffic from organic search. Make sure your title tags, meta description and content contain the keywords you would like to appear for in SERPs while also insuring that the optimizations add value to the user experience (I am not telling you to keyword stuff by any means!)
I would then start to build content around these keywords and topics that add value to your brand. This will help to regain some of the lost position in SERPs and also help to ensure that you are not penalized by another Google Update. I will let you know that this isn't a solution that is going to work over night, but will help your website to build strength for those topics.
After you have built your content I would start to focus on off-site optimization to help get links regardless of what anyone else says.
Sorry this is a really broad recommendation. Let me know if you need anymore detail.
-
Think of about optimizing PAGES not your entire site. So optimize pages that are related to chinks for those specifically related chink keywords. Optimize your homepage for the broad keywords like 'chaps.'
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
-
Question about creating content pages for keywords
Good morning, We are trying to rank our India based company which provides the following services
On-Page Optimization | | harshal.khatavkar
Engineering Design Services
Architectural Design Services
MEP Design Services Our target audiences are in the US and UK. Offcource, we are targetting above services keywords on most of our main pages and created dedicated services pages too. But lately, we found out that we are ranking well for keywords like Outsourcing Engineering Design Services, Outsourcing Architectural Design Services, etc... which are actually very very good keywords in terms of closing the leads/inquiries as people are actually looking out for outsourcing but the search count for those keywords is low. (though we closed 2 inquiries from those keywords). These pages we created in past just to increase the content of the website. I really want to give it a try to target those keywords by creating more pages, blog posts, backlinks, etc... My question is if we create more and more pages around those keywords then will it affect the rankings of the pages which are already ranking for those keywords or will the new pages compete against those pages or the new pages will help to boost current pages? We can write good content and blog posts on the outsourcing topic but not sure if we should create new pages or increase the length of the existing pages. Can you guys please help with some directions on this as I really don't want to take the wrong route. Look forward! Regards0 -
Keyword Stuffing
Working on optimizing my e-commerce website. We have managed to obtain very good ranking on most keywords that we use directing to different products. However, there is one that ranks very low, and Moz alerts that keyword stuffing might be one of the reasons. While I have edited the content to include less of the same keyword on that particular page, the links to different products that contain the same keyword from the same page (accessories and related products) I believe are increasing my count and it seems to be working against me. \ Should I start eliminating some of these links so as to eventually obtain a better ranking? any help would be greatly appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | NewVape0 -
Positioning rethinking regarding triplicate keyword "landing pages"
Hi! We're rethinking our website and we have some doubts on how it would affect our positioning. Our main keyword right now is "casas de madera". Positioning by this keyword we have three different "main" pages: Our home (http://www.canexel.es/) 2)SEO landing page (http://www.canexel.es/casas-de-madera/) 3)A blog section (http://www.canexel.es/blog/casas-de-madera/) We thought at first about changing our home main keyword, but this option has been ruled out since is the keyword that gives us the most visits and changing it would result on a rebrandindg strategy we are not sure we want to pursue. We're thinking about a canonical from the landing page (2) to our Home (1) and making it disappear from our website. Regarding our blog we've thought about removing the blog section. We've thought about a 301 from every post to a new category or just deleting the category "casas de madera" from our site and telling google not to index the section (3) but continue indexing the posts we already have published under this category. Would any of these harm our positioning? And, if so, is ther any other steps you wolud recomend us taking? In this same topic, we're about to create a SEM Landing page for this same keyword. This page will be very visual and with little text. We are not sure if we should have a canonical pointing from it to our home or just not indexing the new SEM landing page. What would you recommend? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Canexel0 -
Will pushing a visitor to a conversion page hosted on a 3rd-party domain hurt the landing page ranking
Had an interesting question from a client. The client has a page that is optimized for a specific term. The goal of the page is to push users to sign-up for a trial. The trial registration (conversion) page is hosted by a third-party. Will pushing users to the conversion page cannibalize the SEO authority of the landing page. My reflexive answer is to say no, but now am not so sure.
On-Page Optimization | | infoblue0 -
Is it necessary to add keywords to all of your pages?
Hi Everyone he company I work for has just built a new website with approximately 87 pages/sub pages. Should i be looking to add keywords and descriptions to all of these pages, via the allocated areas in the back end of the site? I am using "google's key words" tool to generate relevant key words. If any one has any advice it would be much appreciated. Thanks for you help Regards Pete
On-Page Optimization | | dawsonski0 -
Keyword Optimization
I optimized this site filmeonlinenoi.com witch is in romanian for this keyphrase "filme online gratis" , i stuck on page 2, i cant get to the first page! I was, but i fall again to the second page...
On-Page Optimization | | Alexsmenaru0 -
SEO Value of Within-Page Links vs. Separate Pages
Title says it all. Assuming that you're talking about similar content (let's say, widgets), which is better: using within-page links for variations or using separate pages? I.e., do we have a widget page and then do in-page links to describe green, blue, and red widgets, or separate pages for each type of widget? In-page pro: more content on a single page, thus more keywords, key phrases, and general appearance of real content. In-page con: Jakob Neilsen says they're confusing. Also, for SEO, you only get one page title, rather than a separate page title for each. My personal bias is for in-page, since I hate creating dozens of short pages for what could be on one page, but my suspicion is that separate pages are better for SEO.
On-Page Optimization | | maxkennerly0