Ranking well for 3 keyword phrase but not for 2?

[Jon-S]

Hi all,

We have a site that sells whisky and is ranking well for a specific 3 keyword phrase for example "glendronach hielan whisky" (brand, product, type) which is great but the site isn't doing well for 2 keyword phrase for example "glendronach whisky" or "glendronach hielan".

I'm a little confused as to why it wouldn't rank higher for the 2 keyword phrases given that there present in the 3 keyword phrase. Is there a massive jump between ranking well between 3 and 2 keyword phrases?

If so what could anyone suggest to try and rank on the 2's?

[DonnaDuncan]

Not surprising JonOS. If you've done a good enough job with the on-page, that's usually what's remaining.

[Jon-S]

Thanks Donna, I've done just that and had a closer look at the competition and I'm leaning towards the lack of back links being the factor holding it back.

[Jon-S]

Thanks Tammy, Some good points there for me to take a closer look at.

[DonnaDuncan]

Hi JonOS,

The answer is going to depend on the strength of your competition but yes, as a general guideline, it's much harder to rank for a 2-word phrase than it is for a 3-word phrase. That's because it's less specific. The less specific the search term, the greater the amount and strength of the competition.

What can you do to rank better for the 2-word phrase? I suggest you plug your 2-word phrase into the Moz Keyword Difficulty Tool so you can see the relative strengths of your competition and devise a plan of action based on that.

[TammyWood]

A URL would be beneficial to answer this question. That being said, ensure that you are using the phrase in all your on page optimization efforts.

IE: Title, Description, Schema, breadcumbs, navigation, content, h1 & Alt tags. These are both relevant and more than likely you are ranking due to the auto answer by Google's infamous "Did you mean" or the auto complete. Next, would be are other pages on your site more relevant for the shorter term? Is the traffic value really that significant that you would prefer two over three? Do you have anchor text throughout the rest of the site utilizing the two word phrase? Links from third party sites with that term? Have you been penalized for keyword stuffing for that term? There are many variables, without an audit- it's difficult to say.