Keywords in google's webmaster tools
-
how heavily do the list of keywords in google's webmaster tools reflect your ranking for those keywords? For example see this screenshot:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39497/Screen shot 2011-06-04 at 7.22.31 PM.png
we are a self storage company, and our first two keywords in google's webmaster tools are storage and self. the problem is nobody searches for self storage (from my keyword research). most people search for "storage +cityname" like "storage toronto" for example.
so i guess my question would be this:
would it be effective to change all the instances of "Self" on our website to "Toronto" or other city names to try to push the city names higher in google's webmaster tools keywords rank?
-
I find that a lot of the data in webmaster tools is not that helpful. It takes some time to sort through and figure out what can help you and what can't. Some of my suggested keywords are things that no one would search for. If I optimized my site for these keywords it would just look silly.
Similarly, don't forget that the Adwords Keyword tool is not accurate at all when it comes to search volume. For my main keyword, it tells me that I should have 12,000 searches per month. I am number one for this keyword and yet I get 5000 impressions per month.
If you are focusing on targeting local searches, do you have a local listing? This is REALLY important. It's not hard to optimize your local listing so that you appear at or the near top for several terms.
-
I agree that you are doing many of the right things.
As it happens, I have many Toronto small business clients who compete with much larger players.
In your case, I would suggest:
-
A greater focus on Yelp and Google Places reviews. You need more recent reviews. And you can go beyond soliciting reviews on your blog.
-
Consider a 90 second video for your home page that summarizes the value proposition and what sets you apart. It should include testimonials. See www.dccentre.ca for an example. See
http://www.youtube.com/user/KiddieProofers
for a YouTube Channel of 90 second videos focussing on consumer tips.
Rationale: Your site is excellent, but very dense and text heavy. It may be scaring people away. Videos might help. (And be sure to include Google video Maps) I would also experiment with cutting back on content and carefuly monitoring changes in your bounce rate.
- Experiment with Google adwords if you have not already done so. Agencies like mine benefit from an in-house Google team that does the initial campaign set up and tweaks for 30 days. You might want to contact one. Just watch out for big mark ups!
Hope this helps.
-Daniel
-
-
I agree with Alan; you are definitely on the right path. Google Webmaster Tools is only one of many signals you can check. Check out the rankings report Page from SEOMOZ to maximize your use of their Web App as I see you are a PRO member and this is a MUST READ. Also Google Insights, Google Adwords Keyword Tool, and Wordtracker are very helpful in identifying opportunities and search metrics. Then Check your On page Grade in the web app for your specific page and term and try to optimize for one or two keyword phrases per page only.
Hope this helps.
-
Actually you appear do be doing things right (I did a cursory check of your sit). I wouldn't worry that you see the single words in the Google Webmaster system - it's just how their system evaluates content. Self Storage is what you do, so both words occur repeatedly throughout the site. And that's natural and proper. So for organic clicks, don't be concerned that you're showing up for words that don't by themselves directly relate to your offerings. There are probably millions of combinations of other words on your site that you show up for that aren't related to your site.
What matters is how well you show up for the phrases you care about. And then focus on building content, inbound links, and social engagement around those, as well as brand name...
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 do you do with indexed pages that you can't find any keywords for?
You know those pages that you really need to have for your site that most people get to through the nav bar or maybe internal linking, but never through organic search? The ones where you can't find any applicable keywords with volume or even just a keyword with no volume data that just shows up in the Google autocomplete or People Also Search For. What's the better option? just not optimize the page for any keywords at all, but have Title Tag/Meta Description optimized for CTR just in case OR optimize the page for a very loosely applicable keyword even though it's a a bit of stretch or longshot
Keyword Research | | SearchStan0 -
YouTube Keyword Research
MOZ has some really powerful tools available to us, but I was wondering if there are any tools for conducting keyword research for YouTube? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | Alaeddin1 -
Help - my site is losing rank fast and I don't know what I've done!
My site Easigrass.com had been ranking well but recently it's started to fall in the ranks. I don't know why but I've fallen 4 places on the last 2 months for the keyword 'artificial grass'. anyone willing to take a look and throw me there thoughts?
Keyword Research | | Easigrass1 -
National keyword results v local keyword results
If the keyword contains the location term like "SEO company London" is it better to use the wider results over local? Additionally, some best practice examples of national v local result tracking would be great 🙂 Darren
Keyword Research | | SEODarren0 -
About Keywords
Hi everybody! I was reading a huge pdf about keywords, long tails and too many things and my brain is now like a blender. What is the diference between long tails and keywords? Thanks to everybody! Have a nice day!
Keyword Research | | Harmario0 -
Is the Adwords keywords planner accurate ?
Hey guyz,
Keyword Research | | atakala
As you guyz do, I base all my seo effort into the keywords' traffic and quality which I can get from Adwords Keywords Planner.
But this post has confused my mind .
It' says the average searches doesn't exactly the average searches.
And everything is okay here now I can say that of course it's not %100 accurate.
But the shocking part is he gives an example of how a big gap there is between real searches number and adwords keywords planner tools give us . What do you think guyz?
Can it be true ?
(And also last time I asked a question, Randy has replied me, If possible please Randy do it again :D.)
Best wishes.0 -
How Can I Rank My One Keyword ?
I read many places about never use the same keywords/anchor text this will consider as spam by google, so i want to know if suppose my main keyword is Indian bridal sarees than how can i give rank to that keyword, should i use the same exact keyword but in different format like bridal indian sarees or indian bridal sarees shopping something like that. Should i use LSI keywords in that keywords. Please help Second, I also read some people saying they use 70% primary keywords and 30% LSI or generic words, so that mean if i have 10 articles so in 7 articles i have to give primary keyword and the rest of the 3 will be generic. Kindly please advice this also.
Keyword Research | | chandubaba0 -
Ranking Reports for New Keywords
I added new keywords to my campaign. They do appear in my ranking report. But I am not getting any ranking data on the new keywords. It looks like they are yet to be crawled. For my initial set of keywords, i see the specific rankings in each search engine and for some it says "not in the top 50." For the new ones all I see are zeros. Will the ranking data eventually appear?
Keyword Research | | dseevers0