Target keywords on homepage or sub page?
-
Is it better to target main keywords on a site's homepage, or in a sub page.
I would usually assume the homepage, but if the domain for the homepage doesn't include the keyword is it better to have a sub page with an exact match URL?
For example we target the keyword "abc123"
Is it better to optimise the homepage:
Or create a page to target it:
And leave the homepage to target brand keywords, but link to the "abc123" page.
Whats the best option?
-
Haha well done
-
I get enough search traffic from it to support 10 people. I guess the phrase "lot of traffic" is a matter of perspective.
-
Yep this is very helpful. I see you have lots of good rankings too. Do you get a lot of search traffic from them?
-
This is my landing page's rel canonical.
| rel="canonical" href="http://www.shipoverseas.com/us/ship-car/africa/shipping-car-to-nigeria.html"/> |
| |I don't point it to a category page.
-
Fransisco, are you using canononical tag to any effect on pointing the sub pages to the head category page?
-
Use my site as an example. www.shipoverseas.com
The homepage is about "international car shipping".
All the landing pages are about "shipping cars to xyz country".
When I 1st started this site, I didn't know that my home page was going to be about "international car shipping". I thought I was going to try to have it rank for "ship car to Europe", "ship car to au", "ship car to africa". Instead I made categories + landing pages.
I hope that helps you organize your site.
Tim, my marketing strategy is based off what people are looking for, not what I think is best. Look into your GA to find these clues.
-
I think theres a lot to be said good about exact match domains.........visitors see the words in the domain name and thats not a bad thing. Everybody got a little weighting from EMD`s, now they dont, so your not losing anything over the domain naming, just a levelling. Its not a penalty.
Whether to brand or not is another question and of course if you do then brand domain will be best. (Google now loves brands more than life itself, so worth considering.)
Consider this scenario. You are New York Lawnmowers, you have domain newyorklandmowers.com and when you place your brand links...they are in fact possibly coincide with anchor text, Over oprimisation penalty? Else you can only use URL or varying forms of anchor text.
If you are Lehman of New york and sell Lawnmowers you can be lehman.com and use Lehman as branding links, the URL, a small percentage of New York Lawnmowers anchor texts and other variations. (Dont forget blank images too)
Google will find the brand name without even fitting it in the title, its that smart, from the content and geolocation. Leave the title for the main target money keywords. Your subpages will not carry the same weight as the index page, but of course build links to them. You might find your subpage is against keywords on another site index page. Thats unavoidable.
PS. I changed my brand to the name Google but all i got was webmasters complaining about dropped rankings
-
Hey Francisco,
Yeah I agree with you on the exact match domain, and I think you're right about opting for the memorable brandable domain.
But what do you mean about using the homepage as a representation of all the landing pages?
How do you avoid the homepage competing with the sub pages?
Thanks man!
-
Hey Moosa,
Thanks for your response.
Wouldn't there be an issue of diluting my onpage optimisation if I tried to target multiple keywords on my homepage? (especially in this case where the keywords aren't very complimentary)
And with the sub pages wouldn't that then be competing with the homepage, somewhat cannibalising our SEO efforts across 2 pages?
-
One can have a different opinion from me so I am advising you something I would do if I would be at your place.
I would list down all the keywords I want to target on the website and divide them in to 2 parts Primary keywords and Secondary keywords keeping their importance ad competition in mind. I will then target the secondary keywords to sub pages and try to target primary keywords on the home page.
Also, I will create sub pages for exact match keyword (for primary keywords) to give support to the home page!
-
I use the home page as a representation of all the landing pages.
regarding your Exact Match vs Brand domain, Matt Cutts already announced that he was going to lower the weight of Exact Match domains. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for. I'm in it for the long term so I always opt to get a memorable domain (brandable).
This is the approach I use: brandname.com/abc123/
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
-
Combining products - edit existing product page or 301 redirect to new page?
We want to combine existing products - e.g. 'hand lotion' and 'body lotion' will become 'hand & body lotion'. As such, we'll need to combine the two product pages into one. What would be the best route to take in terms of SEO to do this? My initial reaction is to create a new product page and then 301 or 302 redirect the old products to the new product page depending on if the change is permanent or temporary. Would you agree? Or am I missing something?
On-Page Optimization | | SwankyApple1 -
Targeting Home page is better for local seo
Hey guys i need know whether targeting homepage for local SEO is good or creating separate page for locatin
On-Page Optimization | | moz12pro0 -
Grade F page on Moz positions No 1 on Google Keywords not contained
Hi I am trying to understand why a page list in position 1 on Google despite the fact it does not include the search terms anywhere in the page source. One of our sites has been in that position for years has great content and links for the key word terms so how can the other page overtake it and all of the other keywords without so much as a sniff of the keyword in the URL, Meta, content or images. It grades F on Moz! How can I discover the technique that has been used. This really is black art stuff or do Google accept payment from major corporations to list their pages irrespective of content?
On-Page Optimization | | Eff-Commerce0 -
Can a country level domain perform well in international SEO if all the targeted keywords are related to that country domain?
Hi fellow Mozers, I am doing international SEO on Google US, UK, UAE and Saudi Arabia. All my targeted keywords have my country name in it, for example, export companies in France, best import companies in France and so on. Finally, my website has a country level domain i.e. www.xyz.co.fr _Hence, my questions are: _ 1. Is it good have a country level domain in this case or should I go TLDs? 2. Should my Google Plus page be a local business page or company page from SEO perspective? I have more than 10000 users who have +1 my website. _Thanks in advance. _
On-Page Optimization | | Abhi81870 -
Keyword at homepage
Hi there! Is it true that the most relevant keyword should it be located in the home page of a website since it has the most link-juice or this statement is a "myth"? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Different pages for OS's vs 1 Page with Dynamic Content (user agent), what's the right approach?
We are creating a new homepage and the product are at different stages of development for different OS's. The value prop/messaging/some target keywords will be different for the various OS's for that reason. Question is, for SEO reasons, is it better to separate them into different pages or use 1 page and flip different content in based on the user agent?
On-Page Optimization | | JoeLin0 -
Homepage ranking before optimized page
We finally managed to obtain a spot in the first 10 positions of the serps for our main keyword. Since a week, our homepage started ranking in the top 15 as well, so we we're pretty excited about that. On our way to dominate the top 10! Since 2 days we started to rank with our homepage before our optimized page, which sucks because the metadescription (made up by Google) isn't helping our CTR. Is there a way that we can show Google that the other page is more relevant than the homepage? Or do we have to wait until we have build up enough PA to switch places with the homepage (seems unlikely to me).
On-Page Optimization | | duoweb0 -
Optimally, how many times should the key word or phrase you are targeting for a particular page be mentioned or appear on that page?
Our marketing team is debating how many times the key phrase on each of our web store's product pages should include the word/phrase we are trying to be competitive with. Can you advise?
On-Page Optimization | | Glynlyon0