How does Google Detect which keywords my website should show up for in the SE?
-
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 -
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
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
-
Avoid Keyword Dilution
Hi
On-Page Optimization | | ulefos
I am struggling with keyword dilution, and I don't understand what I need to do to change.I have read it but don't get it. This is the explanation - You want to target each keyword with a single page on your site, so modify the anchor text of this link so it is not an exact match. The only thing that I see is the title and the anchor text the same and the image alt also the same is that what the problem is here is the page I am trying to sort out for the keyword kiln dried logs.
Thank you0 -
90 days for Google
Hi, I'm new to Moz so still getting a feel of the forums. If my question has been answered then please point me in the right direction. I have noticed with many SEO companies they advertise that they can get you on google front page in 90 days. I'm not really interested in their techniques but more of why google takes 90+ to even appear. I have been working on my site for over a month, adding content, building good links, social media, blogs etc... but have not even come close to appearing in the top 50 pages for google. Is this normal? Is it just a matter of time before it starts to appear? Also, I have checked my backlinks and there is about 8 links that are coming from random pages in the US and some from China and india which i have no idea of. I tried to visit on of the sites but it had malware. I added all these back links to google disavow so hopefully that will fix it. Could that be the reason google would not even list my site? Thanks... Rick
On-Page Optimization | | pureozone0 -
How to name images for billingual website ?
I have a website where images are based on a different domain. And i am calling only one single image for english and french version. I m wondering if it s valuable to use both languages in naming the images like Apple-Pomme.jpg or if there might be any drawbacks.Thanks !
On-Page Optimization | | ennick0 -
Why Is this Website Not Ranking?
HI There - I have been working on this site: http://limohireauckland.co.nz - primarily for our keyword phrase 'limo hire Auckland' - I am running a campaign for this site from the Pro tools and using the pon-page report card this url achieves an A grade for that particular phrase. The client is working on links in the local community etc but we are not appearing in the SERPS at all for most of the phrases we are optimising for. There has recently been a huge redesign on the site (approx 6 weeks ago) and the old content was not great. Am I missing something really glaringly obvious? Or am I being too impatient?
On-Page Optimization | | AllieMc0 -
Keywords in Navigation
Hi, What is best practice for main navigation links with regards to use of keywords in them. For example is it best to using the phrase 'Pricing", "Website Pricing" or "Website Design Pricing" To me 'Pricing' is more appropriate because to the user they know they are on a website designer's site so what else would pricing be for right?! Furthermore you use less 'real estate' on the nav bar! There is on page text around the site which has links to "see our website design pricing" etc so I assume that is perhaps a more natural place to include that phrase? Look forward to your insights 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | NeilD0 -
Number of occurances of a keyword
At the moment my site is down due to issue at the datat centre so please don't ask for teh url as it will be some time before it is back up and running. On one of my pages I am targeting two related keyword phrases e.g. "How to use Widgets" and "Using Widgets" Each of these phrases appears once each in the Tile tag, H1 tag and meta description and two or three times in the body text. Which I beileve is current best practice. However the word Widgets appears more 60 times in total could this be hurting the rankings of the other two phrases? Many Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | spes1230 -
Panda Update and Website Content
According to the Panda Update information, website content that is or was written to help with SEO is now not the best idea, but content that is very informative and interesting is the way to go. But if you have an Ecommerce Website how can you write informative bookmarking content, if each product you sell is very similar, and the information for the product is just details about the product. Its hard to write good content for an eCommerce website. We have 300+ products that are all similar, but if we would write content about each product, it would be similar and not interesting to read. People just want to purchase the product, not read a bunch of content. How do websites that sell many products and not content driven websites rank well in search?
On-Page Optimization | | hfranz0 -
Google and display:none
Hi Guys, i want to know what you think about solution which i have to switch content in tab on my page. Here: http://www.exprestlac.sk/beta/produkt/vizitky i have some important content in tabs, which are switching via javascript. So when you click there on O produkte next to Ceny it will show you product description. My problem is that in source code when page is loaded i have this: Product description.. And after user click on O produkte javascript remove that display:none and show content. But Google will see only display:none as i think. Can i get penalty from Google? Will it index this text? Thanks for your suggestions how to resolve this.
On-Page Optimization | | xman870