Setting Up a Keyword Matrix
-
Greetings MOZ community!!
My real estate web site contains about 500 pages with perhaps 70 pages targeting low volume, somewhat valuable but not very competitive keywords. Three to four URLs target very competitive terms.
The following terms are among the most valuable:
New York City office space,
New York office space,
Manhattan office space,
NYC office spaceSuch variants as:
Office space in New York City,
Office space in New York,
Office space in Manhattan,
Office space in NYC
ETCETERA convert really wellHow would I match different terms to different URLs?
For example I have just re-written the following two critical URLs:
www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (home page)
http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-space/office-space (product page)Would it make sense to use "Manhattan office space" and variants on the home page while excluding "New York City office space" variants? At the same time I would use "New York City office space" variants on the "office-space" product page while excluding all mention of "Manhattan office space". Is this logical and does it conform to SEO best practices?
For the "NYC office space" terms I would add them to http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings. This URL has almost no text but a strong potential to rent because of a high number of incoming internal links.
Is this approach sensible?
In general what measures should I take to prevent URLs from competing for the same keywords?
Also, is there a software package or tools that I can use to come up with keyword variants?
As a non SEO professional, can I create my own keyword matrix or is this really in the realm of a professional SEO consultant?
Thanks, Alan
-
My opinion is that the URLs are less important than the actual content on the page, including title tags, headlines, body text, etc.
Unfortunately, there's no way to manually determine when you've crossed the line of "near-duplicate" content, so it's best to make each content experience serve a unique experience targeted towards a specific purpose.
-
Hi Cyrus:
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.
How different must the URLs be? Our site covers commercial real estate rentals in New York City with the focus being on office space.
The menus on the site contain categories like commercial space, with pages dedicated to office, loft, retail, showroom space, etcetera.
It would be difficult to exclude our primary product (office space) from our commercial space menu just because it is also discussed on the home page.
Is there anyway that I can objectively determine if I am crossing some kind of red line where content on one page overlaps with other pages? Last thing I want to do is trigger a Panda update.
Thanks, Alan
-
This is a tough question to answer because each page should serve a unique and important purpose for your visitor, and these examples seem like they are trying to cover the same topic using different keywords.
While this approach is somewhat common, when your variations don't "vary" too much, it becomes fodder for Google's Panda algorithm, which penalizes sites with content that repeat the same topic over and over again with minor variations.
On the other hand, if your pages really do serve a unique purpose, then the situation you described is perfectly acceptable. I suspect Google considers "New York City" and "Manhattan" as two distinct, but closely related entities. It's tough to know in advance how different pages optimized for these terms will interplay with each other, but you may have to do some experimenting to find out.
Keep us updated on your progress. Best of luck!
-
Thanks for your feedback.
Perhaps the scope of this question is to wide. If that is the case, do you have any suggestions on the procedures I should follow to develop a keyword matrix?
Thanks, Alan
-
It's tough to answer your question simply because I don't know your sites overall strategy. What keywords are you targeting, and how are you targeting them currently type information. This isn't something I'd ask you to do in a public setting like this forum
My personal suggestion would be to find a SEO Mentor. Someone you can ask questions of to learn yourself, but not directly hire. With the potential partnerships your site offers it would be reasonable for someone to take you under their wing in hopes of generating clients through you.
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
-
Disparity between new and old keyword planner
Hi everyone! While performing keyword research using both Google's old and new Keyword Planner, I've noticed a disparity between the two tools. In many cases, the old tool gives a much larger monthly search volume than the new tool. There are a few cases where both tools provide the same monthly search volume for a term, but those are few and far between. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks in advance!
Keyword Research | | Brandon.H0 -
The same keyword on multiple pages, but not all (combined with other relevant keywords) for products.
Hi Guys, I want to get an opinion/advice on this. My client has a site that have all their products (I am working on expanding the product descriptions, benefits and how they differ from each other) listed and I just want to know if I can use the term 'gear oil' for example on multiple pages as one of the keywords. The product range (among others like transmission fluid and anti-freeze) is gear oil (with the different types of gear oils available described) and I can't really change what the product is. I do have different variations (such as gear lubricant, automotive gear lubricant, car gear oil etc.) but will it do damage if I use the same keyword (like gear oil) on multiple pages (along with another relevant keyword that does not involve the words gear oil)? Any help on this will be greatly appreciated!
Keyword Research | | annabel.schoeman0 -
Optimize the ranking with the right keyword
Hi, I would like to know the processs if i want use in the same time 2 keywords. "géolocalisation véhicule" and " geolocalisation vehicule " As you can see the diffence is just the accent and i would like have the same ranking for both Thank for your help Steve
Keyword Research | | fleurya1 -
How do I use two keywords?
Hello! I am ranking very well with a keyword. But that same keyword without an S at the end (making it singural) gets quite a few more searches per month according to Google's Keyword Tool. However, dropping the S just doesn't sound quite right or make as much sense. So how can I target both keywords? Thanks in advance!
Keyword Research | | 2bloggers0 -
How can I do to improve ranking for head keywords?
Hi guys, I'm currently working for an italian restautant finder web site http://www.cibando.com The site currently do not rank for any of the cityName pages eventhough all this pages received a B grade in the on-page report card by Seo Moz and have a great amount of internal links. This is an example of the pages I'm speaking about: http://www.cibando.com/ita/ristoranti/milano/milano As I can changeso little on this page, I'm thinking about creatinng a new cityName page having this URL http://www.cibando.com/ita/ristoranti-milano in which I add some text about the city and the restaurants people can have dinner at and add some link to the currently cityName page and categoryCuisine page. Is it a good idea? Do oyu have any suggestions? Any expert out there give an insight? Thanks in advance. Francesca
Keyword Research | | Francy0 -
Keyword research
i am trying to figure out what would be good keywords to optimize for an orthodontist. i looked up the keywords "his city + orthodontist" or " his city + braces" and the google adword tool tells me there are no monthly searches for those terms. i am not sure what i can optimize for if no one is searching for the most obvious keywords.
Keyword Research | | dad7more0 -
Worried about keyword cannibalization
I've been reading a lot about keyword cannibalization and I'm worried that some of my sub pages may be pulling rank from my home page. If I'm trying to rank my home page for the keyword phrase "blue widget manufacturing" and I have sub pages with the titles "blue manufacturing services", "blue widget enginnering", "medical widget manufacturing" is it possible that those pages could be causing me to commit keyword cannibalization? I'm looking at a lot of the results for my keyword phrase and they don't seem to have additional pages with similar keyword phrases. Wondering if I should change my titles so they don't look as optimized.
Keyword Research | | TRICORSystems1 -
Which is best for keywords; plurals vs singular
Hello! This is my first question so I hope it will be a good one and everyone finds it useful; I have found many conflicting views and need some clarification. Question: When it comes to optimising for specific keywords, which is best; plurals or singular? Example: Should I optimise for 'conveyor' with medium competition and a larger local [exact] traffic volume, or go for 'conveyors' with a higher competition and a slightly smaller local [exact] volume of traffic? Obviously this example is a bit of no brainer as I would tend to sway towards the lower competition with a good volume of traffic to be more competitive, but when the terms are so closely linked, would it be wise to cover both grounds now and go for 'conveyors'? What is general consensus out there? Thanks in advance! Richard
Keyword Research | | BlandyDoes0