Exact keyword match on a page is dead. Is this right??
-
Hi,
I read that you should give up on using exact keywords on a page if it means that the written content flows better. I just want your thoughts on this please because I don't want to miss opportunities.
The keywords used are an example: SEO LONDON is the high vol./popular keyword that I want a page to rank for. Would I use that as the main keyword throughout the page, even though it doesn't really make sense (by this I mean you'd never really use this term other than typing it into google)? Or should I use something that makes more sense such as, 'SEO IN LONDON' or LONDON SEO?
Would Google overlook the 'IN' in 'seo in london' so it's seen as 'SEO London'? (Same sort of question for LONDON SEO).
If this is the case then why does google still show 1000 hits for SEO LONDON and just 100 for SEO IN LONDON? This makes me think that I should just target the exact keyword that people are typing even if it doesn't look natural.
Best, James
-
Thanks John - really helpful!
-
The customer has to come first. So the landing page must resonant with the customer.
In the "body" as you say, I might not use it. Hummingbird, has given us a variety of ways to make the point, without repetition. What I would do, if it is competitive space is do a keyword density check on the other sites that do rank. And also write down why you think the top 4-5 sites rank for that keyword... quality backlinks, video, awesome landing page... Do a decent competitive analysis.
Then I would review where I stood in comparison. There is no silver bullet, just hard work.
You have limited resources so first need to focus on best opportunities. I just do not know what they are. Do you have an SSL, is you loading speed for your home page under 2 seconds... ? They are all considerations I would make... on top of a competitive analysis. A starting point should be a site audit... https://moz.com/blog/technical-site-audit-for-2015
My view is make a list of to do's and just work through them... do it properly and it always works out...
-
Hi
Thanks for this! So you'd say the exact match in the title but not in the H1 as well? How often would you use it in the body?
Best, James
-
James
SEO London, appears natural to me. But that would be in the Title Tag, once. Your H1 is what I assume you are talking about? That could be Search Engine Optimization Experts, London, or skip the London. They dovetail.
It does matter what your competitors are up to. Old school, but you could do a keyword density analysis of the top 20 results and see if you can identify any trends.
Exact match is still powerful, but too many exact matches may lead to being penalized. So it has to be natural and inviting and better still answer the customer query.
Hope that assists.
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
-
Keywords and content query
Hi we are in the process of redesigning a web site and I’m looking to ensure each of the pages are correctly optimized. I’m concerned that some of the pages do not allow for text or content . From an optimization perspective is there a general rule around the amount of text a page should have and the amount/ration of keywords they should contain? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Keyword Research | | aplnzjune180 -
Page not ranking despite indicators showing should easily be mid-1st page?
I have many years old website selling a service. The main keyword is 47% competitive, and we used to be #1 page 2, occasionally page 1 couple years back. Domain authority is double of any of the competitors on 1st page, followed root domain links is many times that of 1st page competitors, infact against some of them almost 10 times as much, MozRank and MozTrust higher too. Infact, every metric is higher than competition. Only metric which isn't as good is Followed vs NoFollowed links metric, 95% of our links are NoFollowed, but we are still #1 in external followed links. Yet we are stuck on 4th page, and on some localizations we are not even in Top 50. This has happened slowly over time, not a overnight thing. Page we are trying to rank for gets grade A for optimizations, yet we have less significant pages ranking higher for that keyword. Further, newer pages tend to rank better than old ones. The whole site actually ranks quite low and we are not even getting search traffic for long tail keywords.
Keyword Research | | PulsedMedia
No problems reported on GWT, Analytics etc. Is this a google penalization or something of the sort? How can i troubleshoot this and get past this?0 -
This page could be penalized as keyword stuffing?
Dear Mates, This sample page is http://goo.gl/kGljFX Title tag: Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate Coupon Code 30% - Buy Page Meta Desc: Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate Coupon Code 30%: Convert both Standard-Definition and High-Definition formats, super fast speed. H1: Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate Coupon Code H2: Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate Key Functions: H2: Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate Detailed Features: Could you take a look and let us an idea? Thank you Claudio
Keyword Research | | SharewarePros0 -
Difference in Keywords and Anchor Text ?
Sorry i am noob here: I thought both are same but when i see GSA tutorials i found that both are different. If suppose my keywords is black german shoes than what is my anchor text will be. Also anchor text isdifferent like generice keywords click here, find more etc. Please give explanation.
Keyword Research | | chandubaba0 -
Using a country in your keywords
My company has recently started offering services in South Africa - which is great - same language - lot of potential there. But I suspect our keyword research is suffering from "thinking like a foreigner". i.e. "buy cars South Africa" rather than "buy cars". Wouldn't google.co.za naturally assume: 1) Anyone using their service for "buy cars" is looking for "buy cars South Africa" (I know it's more complicated - Google will give different results the more it can figure out about your location) 2) That any co.za site optimised for "buy cars" is automatically 90% optimised for "buy cars South Africa" too - so isn't a productive long tail query (against something like “buy sports cars”) I appreciate that some companies will be TARGETING foreign browsers (i.e. holiday accommodation South Africa) so will need to explicitly optimise their on-site for the country for “foreign search engines”. But I'm asking about companies in South Africa targeting people from South Africa.
Keyword Research | | Ali310 -
Keywords for homepage and product categories
My homepage explains the different electrical equipment our company sells, our main product category page also does the same but in more detail. I'm stuck where I feel the homepage and product category page need to be optimised for the same keyword except the homepage needs to be optimised for our company name too. Was anyone else in the same situation as me and how did you choose the right keyword between two pages that have the same message?
Keyword Research | | Seaward-Group0 -
Keyword Updates
I have a list of keywords in a campaign that I need to update. I use the keyword report card to review those keyword performance by page. I dont currently see a way to update those keywords, I only see the option to add or delete. I don't want to delete and re-enter because then I will lose that "mapping". Is there a way to simply update a keyword?
Keyword Research | | webdecorators0 -
Google Keyword Estimator
Hello Does the Google traffic estimator include the impact of instant? For example, if I type the phrase "London restaurant", instant may provide a list of search results for the phrase "London restaurant guide" prior to me confirming whether or not I just want to search using the phrase "London restaurant". Is this registered in any way as a search for the phrase "London restaurant guide" (i.e. does Instant impact upon the search volumes presented in the Google traffic estimator)? In addition, is there any up to date assessment on how reliable the revised traffic estimator is? The tool currently suggests that for a well known brand we are working for does not have any search volume (over a whole year) for the brand keyphrase when used in isolation (there is traffic for various combinations of the brand and a generic term). However, as one would expect, our analytics data is showing that there are in excess of 1 million annual visitors that use the brand keyphrase in isolation to access the website via natural search and nearly 1.5 million via PPC. Is anyone else getting these problems? Thanks in advance for any assistance. Rgds Neil
Keyword Research | | mccormackmorrison1