Ranking For Synonyms Without Creating Duplicate Content.

[Fuel]

We have 2 keywords that are synonyms we really need to rank for as they are pretty much interchangeable terms. We will refer to the terms as Synonym A and Synonym B.

Our site ranks very well for Synonym A but not for Synonym B. Both of these terms carry the same meaning, but the search results are very different. We actively optimize for Synonym A because it has the higher search volume of the 2 terms. We had hoped that Synonym B would get similar rankings due to the fact that the terms are so similar, but that did not pan out for us.

We have lots of content that uses Synonym A predominantly and some that uses Synonym B. We know that good content around Synonym B would help, but we fear that it may be seen as duplicate if we create a piece that’s “Top 10 Synonym B” because we already have that piece for Synonym A. We also don’t want to make too many changes to our existing content in fear we may lose our great ranking for Synonym A.

Has anyone run into this issue before, or does anyone have any ideas of things we can do to increase our position for Synonym B?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

There's a 100 different ways to do this, but typically my favorite approach is to try to work the synonym into the same copy without seeming spammy.
For example, if my primary keyword is "GMO" and my very literal synonym is "Genetically Modified Organism" then I'd try to work both variations into the copy.

<title>GMO Dangers - Knowing the Risks of Genetically Modified Organisms</title>

Here's a great article that goes into depth about the advantages of incorporating multiple variants into your SEO targeting http://cognitiveseo.com/blog/5370/941-traffic-increase-exploiting-the-synonyms-seo-ranking-technique/

[Alick300]

Hi,

I  do following steps to target synonym keywords & keywords ranking improve for both keywords (synonym).

1>I do use both keywords in meta title {one keyword - second keyword |modifiers(e.g cheap, buy, best)}

2> I use one keyword that have more search volume in H1 tag.

3> Place both keywords in webpage content and I would suggest you to long webpage content (at least 500 words).

4>I use both keywords as anchor text for getting links and also append modifiers for anchor text variation.

What I have shared above it is my personal experience I hope it helps in your case as well but not very sure because I am not aware of  keywords, webpage content , link building methods etc.

Thanks