Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
      Moz Pro

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

      Try it free!
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. On-Page Optimization
    4. How does Google Detect which keywords my website should show up for in the SE?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    How does Google Detect which keywords my website should show up for in the SE?

    On-Page Optimization
    5
    5
    2716
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • FarrisFahad
      FarrisFahad last edited by

      When I checked my Google Webmaster Tools I found that my website is showing up for keywords that I didn't optimize for ...

      for example I optimize my website for "funny pictures with captions", and the website is showing up for "funny images with captions". I know that this is good, but the keyword is dancing all around,

      sometimes I search for "funny pictures with captions" and I show up in the 7th page, and some time I don't show up. and the same goes for the other keyword. of course I am optimizing for more than two keywords but the results is not consistent.

      my question is how does Google decide which keywords you website should show up for?

      Is it the on-page keywords?, or is it the off-page anchor text keywords?

      Thank you in advance ...
      FarrisFahad

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Saijo.George
        Saijo.George last edited by

        I am sure if you searched for " ~images -images" before Google decided to drop the ~ operator , pictures would have come up as an alternate keyword and so, they would have seen it as a close match for pictures and served your site for your query.

        It was one of my fav tool for finding alternate keywords to optimise for , sadly that is gone now 😞

        As for on page vs off page both are important .. it not an "either or" condition you should do both to get good results , especially if the competition is strong.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • brad.s.knutson
          brad.s.knutson last edited by

          Google tends to "think" for you when running searches.  They often assume like words mean the same thing, so running a search query for "funny images" and "funny pictures" will likely produce very similar (if not the same) results.  You should take this to your advantage, rather than worrying about it too much.

          I see this used a lot when I search for "web developer" and get results for "web development" and "web design."  The keywords are bolded as if Google assumed that is what I meant.  I don't think it's a problem, just something to account for in your keyword research.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Raydon
            Raydon last edited by

            Son, if the answer to your question was that simple or known so accurately, those who knew it would be wearing everything in gold!

            it is a combination of both of those factors as well as your competition's use of your keywords and others.

            Also, it will depend on the rate of new and worthy content creation with relevant and similar keywords included within your website/blog.

            it also depends on how popular is your particular keyphrase with searchers themselves, you can use services like google trends, google correlate, and google adwords keyword tool to find out some useful numbers about your targeted kws and their popularity with searchers and competitors (at least with regards to paid ads, but if they know what they are doing they will more than likely use the same kws for SEO as well) alike.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GrowFuse
              GrowFuse last edited by

              Well those two terms are very similar. Chances are if someone is searching for images they don't care if pictures show up(are they not the same thing?) The reason it shows up on the 7th page is because like you said you don't actively try to rank for it therefore Google does not see it as relevant. I hope this answered some of your questions, if not ask more and I will be glad to answer.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • 1 / 1
              • First post
                Last post

              Got a burning SEO question?

              Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


              Start my free trial


              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.

              • See all categories

              Related Questions

              • Viktoriia1805

                The particular page cannot be indexed by Google

                indexing googlesearchconsole onpage

                Hello, Smart People!
                We need help solving the problem with Google indexing.
                All pages of our website are crawled and indexed. All pages, including those mentioned, meet Google requirements and can be indexed. However, only this page is still not indexed.
                Robots.txt is not blocking it.
                We do not have a tag "nofollow"
                We have it in the sitemap file.
                We have internal links for this page from indexed pages.
                We requested indexing many times, and it is still grey.
                The page was established one year ago.
                We are open to any suggestions or guidance you may have. What else can we do to expedite the indexing process?

                On-Page Optimization | | Viktoriia1805
                1
              • TeodorMarin

                What to do to index all my links of my website?

                Ok, i have a new website, with only 14.000 page indexed by google, but the potential is big, 1-2 million pages. What i have to do, to force somehow google to index my website faster? This is my website: https://vmag.ro/

                On-Page Optimization | | TeodorMarin
                0
              • NewVape

                Keyword Stuffing

                Working on optimizing my e-commerce website. We have managed to obtain very good ranking on most keywords that we use directing to different products. However, there is one that ranks very low, and Moz alerts that keyword stuffing might be one of the reasons. While I have edited the content to include less of the same keyword on that particular page, the links to different products that contain the same keyword from the same page (accessories and related products) I believe are increasing my count and it seems to be working against me. \ Should I start eliminating some of these links so as to eventually obtain a better ranking? any help would be greatly appreciated.

                On-Page Optimization | | NewVape
                0
              • xdunningx

                Using Bold text for keywords

                Hello I am updating an old e-commerce website of mine and many keywords are in bold - shall I remove the bold tag or keep them there? This is for SEO.

                On-Page Optimization | | xdunningx
                0
              • estebanseo

                Using keywords in my URL: Doing a redirect to /keyword

                My website in "On Page Grade" received an A.Anyway, I only have 1 thing to optimize:_"Use Keywords in your URL__Using your targeted keywords in the URL string adds relevancy to your page for search engine rankings, assists potential visitors identify the topic of your page from the URL, and provides SEO value when used as the anchor text of referring links."_My website is ranking in top10 for a super high competitive keyword and all my others competitors have the keyword on their domain, but not for my URL.Since I can't change my domain for fixing this suggestion, I would like to know what do you think about doing a 301 redirect from / to mydomainname.com/keyword/So the index of my website would be the /keyword.I don't know if this can make a damage to my SERP for the big change ir it would be a great choice.

                On-Page Optimization | | estebanseo
                0
              • vladokan

                Is it good to have a subdomain with keyword?

                Hi, I want to ask do you thing that it is good and necessary to have a subdomain with a keyword in it when the domain doesn't include it? f.e. you have a website named domain.com but there is no keyword in it. And if you add subdomain keyword.domain.com will this bring any benefit?

                On-Page Optimization | | vladokan
                0
              • Aftermath_SEO

                I have two pages ranking for the same keyword.

                The index page and the targeted landing page for that keyword. They have different content, title, meta but I am competing with myself for the main keyword in the industry. What is the best way to fix this? 301 the keyword page to the index page?

                On-Page Optimization | | Aftermath_SEO
                0
              • webestate

                Keyword Density Tools

                Does anyone have recommendations on the best tool(s) to use to check the keyword density of each page of a website? I'm not sure if SEOmoz has such a tool.

                On-Page Optimization | | webestate
                0

              Get started with Moz Pro!

              Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

              Start my free trial
              Products
              • Moz Pro
              • Moz Local
              • Moz API
              • Moz Data
              • STAT
              • Product Updates
              Moz Solutions
              • SMB Solutions
              • Agency Solutions
              • Enterprise Solutions
              • Digital Marketers
              Free SEO Tools
              • Domain Authority Checker
              • Link Explorer
              • Keyword Explorer
              • Competitive Research
              • Brand Authority Checker
              • Local Citation Checker
              • MozBar Extension
              • MozCast
              Resources
              • Blog
              • SEO Learning Center
              • Help Hub
              • Beginner's Guide to SEO
              • How-to Guides
              • Moz Academy
              • API Docs
              About Moz
              • About
              • Team
              • Careers
              • Contact
              Why Moz
              • Case Studies
              • Testimonials
              Get Involved
              • Become an Affiliate
              • MozCon
              • Webinars
              • Practical Marketer Series
              • MozPod
              Connect with us

              Contact the Help team

              Join our newsletter
              Moz logo
              © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
              • Accessibility
              • Terms of Use
              • Privacy

              Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.