How to rank for many keywords
-
OK, so I've been diving into SEO pretty hard lately and learning everything I can. Something I'm not quite understanding is how to rank for a lot of different keywords.
We're in the proofreading and editing space which can be broken down into many categories:
-
general proofreading & editing
-
essay editing
-
book editing
-
etc.
If I consider the "essay editing" category, the main keyword I want to target is, in fact, "essay editing". However, I'd also want to target:
essay editing service, edit my essay, fix my essay, revise my essay, etc.
Basically, a lot of modifiers.
I can easily target our main page for essay editing and essay editing service keywords, but how do I start ranking for those longer tail keywords?
Is it simply building content that includes them? Is it getting links utilizing anchor text? Or is there something I'm missing?
I don't see the point in building separate service pages for those other keywords; I think that's a waste and bad site architecture practices.
I'm just looking for my "aha" moment on these longer-tail rankings.
Thanks!
-
-
EGOL,
Firstly, I want to state what a truly great answer this is. Since most people are not playing in this niche, they may not appreciate the insights you've pointed out in such little time.
Content is going to be a large part of our strategy. While others have done this to an extent, you'll notice the same bland, boring stuff recycled over and over. There's a huge opportunity in this space to take content to a new level and create truly great stuff. That's what we're planning on doing.
Regarding creating multiple service pages for these specific keywords... I think you're absolutely correct. When I can't figure things out, I tend to think obsessively about them until I believe I have an answer. Last night, before heading to a friend's birthday party (and before you answered this question), I reconsidered my standpoint (also after I poured through some Adwords search and conversion data for our site.
I decided that the best approach would be to create a general "essay editing" page with footer links to pages like "fix my essay", "revise my essay", etc. Like you, I realized that there actually is different intent for these search terms than there is for "essay editing service" and I greatly appreciate your answer in helping confirm my hunch.
The one place I do believe you're not quite spot on is where you say, _"This is not an easy business niche. Your competitors have been around long enough that they will not be defeated quickly or with little effort." _ This niche has not been disrupted like many niches have in the recent years. The players, in my opinion, have become complacent and nobody has been attempting to become an industry leader here (I believe there's definitely an opportunity to do so). The guys ranking toward the top of the SERPS do not have very impressive link profiles, they don't create good content (if any), their user experiences and design of their websites are awful.
I'm not saying it won't take effort and time to surpass them, but I do believe it's one of the more "doable" niches out there.
Again, thanks for the great answer. If you've got any more insights, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Cheers!
-
There are some smart competitors in this space and they have no problem generating special pages of content for the various terms that might be search terms for their services.
"Is it simply building content that includes them?"
If I was entering this market I would have a site with lots of "service" pages, each with generous content. I would also have a blog that gives lots of free tips for producing a great essay and editing it yourself - before turning it over to a professional for final review.
I would also offer a "writer development" service where you not only edit their essay but you review the edits with them by phone so that the client can gain an understanding of how to write better in the future.
Is it getting links utilizing anchor text?
This is not an easy business niche. Your competitors have been around long enough that they will not be defeated quickly or with little effort. I think that you will need great content that teachers and professors will link to as examples of how to improve student writing. Lots of this has been done before. You will have to do it better and attract attention of the people who will want to share what you have created with students.
I don't see the point in building separate service pages for those other keywords; I think that's a waste and bad site architecture practices.
If you were in a niche with a few naive competitors then you could get by with just a few service pages.
I think that those separate service keywords are typed into search boxes by people with a different mentality. The "fix my essay" guy has a crappy essay that he hopes you will turn into Sterling by 7:30 AM and he gets in touch with you at 6:00 AM. The "essay editing service" guy probably has an essay that needs a lot less attention and is not on such tight deadlines.
But, since you are offering an essay editing service writing generous amounts of interesting service pages along with a great blog shouldn't be as tough for you as a guy who sells hydraulic jacks.
-
Kibin, what I'd do is work to make sure my home page is nicely optimized for the search phrase I think is the most important (I'd use Google's keyword tool to get a feel for which is the most likely one) and then be sure to add a blog to the site.
In the blog articles, I'd make sure that I cover the different search phrases that I think my potential visitors are going to be searching for. Over time with a portfolio of blog stories that provide useful content for your potential clients, you'll see good results - share your content on the social media sites too.
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
-
Removing many pages from my site a problem?
I have to remove two blog categories from my site which amounts to about 98 pages. I will redirect the URLS to other appropriate pages on my site. Will Google rank my site different if I lose that many pages?
Link Building | | artsp1 -
Why would backlinks trump content and keywords / DA?
While analyzing competition, I frequently see backlinks being the biggest factor at deciding rank for keywords, while content and keyword page grading can say great things, it always comes down to backlinks it seems. Even our DA is better or equal, Why would this be?
Link Building | | Deacyde0 -
3 Month Delay in Domain Rank?
Our domain rank was around 40, then we hired an SEO company and our Domain Rank went up to 80, now we see it back down to 40. When we asked our SEO company, they said this was due to a 3 month delay in Domain Rank numbers. Is this true?
Link Building | | allurez0 -
Content Marketing and how it effects Rankings
Hi there everyone! I have what I think is a simple question, but one I can't fully understand the answer to. If I had a homepage that I wanted to optimize for the keyword, e.g. "Second Hand Cars", so I add the keyword in the page title and text etc etc. But I still don't rank well for it. So I turn to content marketing and create some content on my site's blog about new cars, sports cars, and of course second hand cars, with some great content and anchor text pointing back to the home page. Now here's my question, how does creating that content on a blog, or on someone's blog/website help my homepage rank higher for my chosen keyword? Surely it would just help the blog post rank higher? And if someone were to search for "Buy Secondhand cars", wouldn't my hypothetical blog post (with more shares and links than my home page) rank higher than the home page itself? If anyone can clear this up for me I'd be eternally grateful! Thanks in advance Cheers
Link Building | | CD_20160 -
Number of pages to target per Keyword
Hello, I Want Help my company with our webpage we are "manufacturers" and "wholesale Suppliers" our products are "Transponder Keys", "Automotive Door Locks". On my keyword research on Adwords I Found "Transponder Key" = 1600 Exact Global Searches so, long tail Keywords like "Transponder Key Manufacturer" have less Searches but are less competitive. I´m trying to Target "Transponder Key Manufacturer""Transponder Key Supplier"
Link Building | | iKsn
"Transponder Key" Main Question, when you do SEO for webpage, all your seo campaign goes for 1 webpage, example www.example.com/new_seo_content.html or one page for groups of similar keywords like Transponder key, transponder key manufacturer, transponder key supplier0 -
Ranking discrepancies
The head office of our organisation has just set up a new website and I see that it is ranking third below two of our retail stores. I performed a link analysis s and see we out rank our stores in terms of Links etc. Can someone explain to me why we are below these stores. Also our website was only launched a week a go. Could this have an effect?
Link Building | | dawsonski0 -
Paid Directories and On-page Keyword SEO
I have a new website and I am getting ready to submit to a few paid directories to get my links started. I wanted to optimize my domain name/keywords for those directories and also for my on page SEO. My domain contains my keywords. For example "www.horsebuggy.net Questions: #1 Should I target the horsebuggy.net in my on-page SEO or just target horse buggy? #2 When I submit to a paid directory which should I choose for my company name. (I currently have a DBA for each term....for ex.. horse buggy and horsebuggy.net . Thank you, Boo
Link Building | | Boodreaux0 -
Can you have too many badge links?
If you badge program becomes really successful, can too many badge links hurt your rankings? Since they are image links that are often placed in the sidebar of blogs, could Google mistake badges as do-follow ads and apply a penalty?
Link Building | | SparkplugDigital0