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
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • 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.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • 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.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Check yours now
    • 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.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • 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.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • 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. Technical SEO
    4. Choosing Focus Keywords

    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.

    Choosing Focus Keywords

    Technical SEO
    3
    10
    4645
    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.
    • Lulus_Likes
      Lulus_Likes last edited by

      Hello everyone!

      I am new to the community and I have a question about determining keywords. I have created a blog {LulusLikes.com} to practice my SEO.

      I have installed the Yoast SEO plugin and I have noticed the plugin always encourages you to choose a different focus keyword. So if my focus keyword is "Dog of the Week" and it's a weekly contest, wouldn't that be my focus keyword each time I had that type of post?

      How should I choose my focus keyword for that type of post?

      I hope that makes sense. Thanks!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Lulus_Likes
        Lulus_Likes @evolvingSEO last edited by

        Thank you so much! This is the best explanation I've gotten so far!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • evolvingSEO
          evolvingSEO @Lulus_Likes last edited by

          No problem 🙂

          What you would want to do is learn a little about site architecture, and how different pages will target different thing. Think of a sire like Zappos:

          • homepage - targets something broad like "shoes" and "shoes for sales" etc
          • shoes categories - target things like "men's shoes, men's dress shoes" etc
          • subcategories - "men's dress shoes black"
          • finally products - "size 9 men's dress shoes black"
          • even resources - "how to choose the most comfortable men's shoes"

          So your homepage should target the broadest concept / keywords. Then you might have category pages targeting things slightly more specific. Then your posts would target informational searches of very specific things people are looking for.

          Lulus_Likes 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
          • evolvingSEO
            evolvingSEO @Lulus_Likes last edited by

            Hi There

            We were just saying the type of content being created seemed like a very good fit for sharing on social media.

            I'd say if it's your goal to be practicing SEO - that process and SEO work should start way before writing a new blog post and entering a focus keyword. You would want to begin everything with keyword research. This helps you determine what to create content about to rank for things.

            You may also want to learn a little about how different pages should rank for different things - and your homepage should target your main over arching topic. This will be usually the broadest, most highly searched term.

            There's some great resources on keyword research:

            http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research

            http://backlinko.com/keyword-research

            http://www.copyblogger.com/keyword-research/

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • Lulus_Likes
              Lulus_Likes @evolvingSEO last edited by

              Yes, I think it is safe to say that ALL of my traffic is from social media since I just started and have a tiny little following. But, I would like to learn how to get traffic based on my SEO. I really appreciate you breaking it down for me. That makes sense to find a "gap" and fill it with content.

              So if I'm not so much focusing on one single keyword per post, should I focus on adding overall keywords through out my whole website? Like incorporating "dog clothes" or "dog fashion" into all my posts? I know not to stuff keywords, but if I can organically incorporate them?

              Sorry for all my newbie questions, but I really appreciate your help!

              evolvingSEO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Lulus_Likes
                Lulus_Likes @paints-n-design last edited by

                Like I said earlier, this is a brand NEW blog to try to help me learn SEO (which I am clearly terrible at) so does that mean I need more text so it's not appearing only as social media? I did use some Instagram posts to get started. So that is probably why it looks like that.

                I guess what I am wanting to do is make it like a fashion blog so I can promote products. Those have SEO, right? I find them when I search for them. So would that mean I should focus on overall keywords to use throughout my website? Like maybe "dog clothes" or "pet clothes"?

                My "dog contest" it's a contest I hold on Instagram and then post the winner's images on my website. So wouldn't I want to optimize it for that?

                Sorry for all my newbie questions but I REALLY appreciate your help!

                evolvingSEO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • paints-n-design
                  paints-n-design @Lulus_Likes last edited by

                  I cant say any other thing than @evolvingSEO he is right, your content clearly looks like social media. 
                  There is an opportunity for image search of course, thatswhy you could name the puppy/dog you write about like I said above - but your traffic screams out social media 🙂

                  If you optimize for dog contest, just because it is searched a lot, you will frustrate any person wich want to participate on a dog contest (as long as you dont do dog contests).

                  Lulus_Likes 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • evolvingSEO
                    evolvingSEO last edited by

                    Hi There

                    To step back a second, not all blog posts or pieces of content need a focus keyword. It depends on the goals of your content, and how you are trying to get it traffic. It looks like a lot of your content may be best suited to get traffic from social media etc. That's great, and in that case just write your article and don't worry about the focus keyword too much because it may rank for stuff by happenstance, but your main traffic sources won't be SEO.

                    That said, sometimes you may create content because you specifically see an opportunity to maybe rank for something where there is a "gap" in existing content in Google's search results. For example, you may notice a lack of great results for something like "pembroke welsh vs cardigan corgi" - and as a goal, you may set out to create the best piece of content on that topic to rank for it, and SEO is your primary goal. In that case, you'd enter "pembroke welsh vs cardigan corgi" into Yoast, and it will tell you how well your article is optimized for that based upon simple best practices.

                    So in other words - focus keyword is great when you know your target keyword ahead of time and are writing an article based off of that. If you're just writing an article for non-SEO purposes, maybe you'd refine a target keyword after the fact, but it's not a huge concern.

                    Choosing your focus keyword also has to do with just knowing good keyword research in general. There's two main factors to think about. Search volume and competition.

                    • Search volume - how many people look for the keyword per month. For blog posts it's best to stick in the 10-1,000 searches per month range.
                    • Competition - there's no single competition metric (Google does not provide one) but you can judge competition by experience of looking at search results or using a tool like Moz's keyword difficulty - which will give you a number from 1-100.

                    The trick of course is to try to find the highest volume but lowest difficulty, and that's a great beginning point for choosing focus keywords.

                    Lulus_Likes 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                    • Lulus_Likes
                      Lulus_Likes @paints-n-design last edited by

                      Thanks for your response! Okay that makes sense. So if I make my focus keyword for example - "brown retriever puppy"  then I would be better off making one of my main keywords "dog contest" ? Because that is something people search for.

                      Am I understanding that correctly?

                      Thanks again for the help!

                      paints-n-design 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • paints-n-design
                        paints-n-design last edited by

                        Yoast tells you what people search for, i guess noone searches for "Dog of the week". 
                        If you write for a targeted Keyword, you should do that only one time - otherwise, what should google show in SERPs??

                        But in your case, Dog of the week is not the targeted keyword. Don't know how people searching for dogs you write about, but that should be the target keyword - maybe for the category - and with the post about the dog of the week should target other things. Maybe "brown labrador retriever puppy"

                        Lulus_Likes 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

                        • Ginovdw

                          Keywords are indexed on the home page

                          indexation keyword rankings

                          Hello everyone, For one of our websites, we have optimized for many keywords. However, it seems that every keyword is indexed on the home page, and thus not ranked properly. This occurs only on one of our many websites. I am wondering if anyone knows the cause of this issue, and how to solve it. Thank you.

                          Technical SEO | | Ginovdw
                          1
                        • Begbie2006

                          How long does it take to rank easy keywords?

                          I have an established site with low keyword ranking and the keyword I am wanting to rank for it rated below 10 on Moz. It has been a few days since I published the article.

                          Technical SEO | | Begbie2006
                          0
                        • Alick300

                          Strange keyword showing in GA

                          Hi All, Since last two days I am seeing a very strange keyword appearing in Google Analytics. Why such keyword appearing in GA? any idea? Please see keyword in attachment. Thanks ay6hH6z

                          Technical SEO | | Alick300
                          0
                        • ReviveMedia

                          What can I do to stop ranking for a keyword that has nothing to do with the companies website?

                          A website that we maintain keeps ranking for the keyword 'homeless shelter'.  The company is UTILIS USA and they produce heavy duty shelters for military personnel.  They have nothing to do with homeless shelters but continue to receive traffic concerning the phrase.

                          Technical SEO | | ReviveMedia
                          0
                        • SEOisSEO

                          LSI keywords logic - enter in meta and bold in text?

                          Hello, In the lack of good info about this on the Internet, let me try here. I know that it is a good idea to put LSI keywords in natural flow in the body text of the article. But shall I also put LSI keywords as a meta? In the same manner as doing with non-LSI keywords? Or shall I only reserve meta for non-LSI keywords? In body text, shall I emphasize LSI keywords in bold? As non-LSI keywords already does. This is a bit confusing as I don't wan't LSI keywords to take over show from my long tail (phrase) keyword. I will appreciate if someone could share a bit light over this. Thanks in advance!

                          Technical SEO | | SEOisSEO
                          0
                        • Malarowski

                          Does a TM in the keyword have effect?

                          If I include TM in a keyword string, does this make it another keyword or does Google ignore that? Example: Kentucky Hot Sauce vs Kentucky Hot (TM) sauce. Of course the TM would be done properly via ™ Cheers.

                          Technical SEO | | Malarowski
                          0
                        • wcksmith

                          Keywords in file names vs folder names

                          We understand the value of a keyword phrase included in the URL.  Is there more value to having that phrase in the folder name of the URL or the file name or does it matter? Example: http://www.biztoolsone.com/website-design.php or http://www.biztoolsone.com/website-design/ Which is best? Thanks,  Wick Smith

                          Technical SEO | | wcksmith
                          0
                        • DanHill

                          Outranking a competitor when their domain name is the keyword

                          Hi I'd just like to ask the opinion of my fellow members here : We are currently ranking second for a very important keyword and would obviously like the top spot on the SERP - the site that is ranking first has the domain name as the keyword phrase(along with a good amount of quality links from a variety of domains) - now I know it is possible to outrank them since I do remember reading about this in one of Rands posts(I think it was the whole white hat black hat one he posted recently) - bascially we have more domain authority, slightly less links but from double the amount of root domains and a higher page authority too! Does having the keyword as your domain make THAT much of a difference when we are(imo) quite close in terms of great content and link profiles(and all the onpage factors) ? Thanks!

                          Technical SEO | | DanHill
                          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
                        Free SEO Tools
                        • Domain Authority Checker
                        • Link Explorer
                        • Keyword Explorer
                        • Competitive Research
                        • Brand Authority 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.