Going after multiple similar keywords, which is the better approach?
-
Let's say I have a page targeting a keyword, "New York Restaurants". There are also several "very close" variations of this keyword which I could also target. Here are the volume estimates:
New York Restaurants - 100
Restaurants New York - 40
Best Restaurants New York - 30
Best Restaurants in New York - 20
etc.Given this, which of the following is the better overall approach?
A) Have one page and work all of these keywords so the page targets all of them. For example here try to weave in "Best" in different ways.
B) Have multiple pages and use 301 redirects. Create one page only targeted at "New York Restaurants" and then create additional pages with the other terms in the URL and Headline, which 301 redirect to my "New York Restaurants" page. This is similar to how wikipedia does redirects, for example "Bourne 2" 301 redirects to "Bourne Supremacy".
Thanks!
| New York Restaurants | 12,100 | Medium | $0.93 | 0% | ACCOUNT |
| Restaurants New York | 2,900 | Medium | $1.00 | 0% | ACCOUNT |
| Best Restaurants in New York | 3,600 | Low | $0.69 | 0% | ACCOUNT |
| Best New York Restaurants | 2,400 | Low | $0.80 | 0% | ACCOUNT |
| New York's Best Restaurants | 260 | Low | $0.76 | 0% | -
I agree with Andy.
When thinking of the right strategy for page/content development that all target the same general terms, Google is moving toward thematic indexing, versus keyword by keyword. As long as the collection of target terms on the page is pretty close (just like your example list), the page should rank well for all target terms (and probably some other ones you have not intentionally targeted).
For your meta data, you could introduce a Title that incorporates all keywords such as "The Best New York Restaurants" and a description such as "The best restaurants in New York as voted by local residents. See if your favorite New York restaurant is on the list. Read reviews, submit your vote and more!"
Then use each of your various terms 1-2 times at the most throughout the content. Use your most valuable term in the first 50 words on the page. Make sure the content is written for humans and not spiders. the bots are getting very good at detecting this, so just as Andy said, the user experience should be your focus, not rank.
Also, don't forget to add images and alt text that incorporates some of your keyword targets as well.
Best of luck!
-
You're very welcome.
-Andy
-
Fair enough, thanks!
-
But your keyword variations are for personal gain and to try and get as many people to your site as possible. Wiki's is just to correct what people search for. Trust me, Google will view this practice the same way.
I would never suggest using a redirect for trying to enhance a site in this manner. Use a 301 only to push someone from a page that no longer exists, or that has a genuine reason to be there.
Refer to Googles reasoning on redirects rather than Wikipedia's in this situation.
-Andy
-
Thanks Andy. Quick followup, where do you think Google draws the line on what is a "non-spammy" redirect? From what I can tell it seems like Wikipedia's reasons for a redirect (e.g. plurals, misspellings, etc.) are basically the same as my keyword variations. Is it really that spammy or an "at risk" practice?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Redirect#Purposes_of_redirects
-
Be very careful about trying to get any sneaky redirects in to a page. If this is found out, Google will come down on you. It is only similar to what Wiki do in the sense that Bourne Supremacy is also known as Bourne 2. What you are trying to do is trick Google into ranking you for more keywords.
The best way to do this is make a site / page about these restaurants, and make it as good as you possibly can. Make it a real user experience so that people want to come come back. Add those extra keywords in there, but do it sparingly, so it doesn't look like it has been written for the search engines.
-Andy
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
-
Keywords and keyword traffic
Hi I am struggling to know what keywords i should be targeting and how the website should be best optimised for said keywords. The website offers bespoke service in the lake district UK a popular tourist destination, The business operates within say a 30 km riadus of the area. So target vistors to the website would specifically be looking for services in the lake district. The trouble is for many targeted keywords for the area are quite low or no data shown. For example: tipi camping lake district, tipi hire lake district, Glamping lake district However nationally keywords for the service have a lot higher traffic i.e. tipi hire or tipi camping, glamping what keywords should be my target? and should I targeting my website for? I don't want to target customers looking for these services outside of the lake district and also by targeting keywords without the term lake district means my competition is greater as i'm competing with the whole of the Uk for serivces It can't provide. please advise thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bengo-990 -
How can I target more similar keywords in the most effective way?
Hello Community In my niche there are many keywords that are similar and Im not sure how to go about targeting them. Quick example: buy domain name register domain name register domain and hosting For these 3 keywords I have 1 article that ranks first for the first keyword and 5 and 8 for the other two. If I want to have higher chances of landing a first position for the other 2 keywords, should I write an article for each of them? A specific piece of content designed around each single keyword? My niche is in Italy so don't bother checking on Google 🙂 Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Andrew_IT0 -
Optimize Pages for Keywords Prior to Building Links?
Greetings MOZ Community: According to site audit by a reputable SEO firm last November, my commercial real estate web site has a toxic link profile which is very weak (about 58% of links qualified as toxic). The SEO firm suggests than we immediately start pruning the link profile, requesting removal of the toxic links and eventually filing a link disavow file with Google for links that web masters will not agree to remove. While removing toxic links, the SEO firm proposes to simultaneously solicit very high quality links, to try to obtain 7-12 high quality links per month. My question is the following: is it putting the cart before the horse to work on link building without optimizing pages (with Yoast) for specific keywords? I would think that Google considers how each page is optimized for specific terms; which terms are used within the link structure, as well as terms within the meta tags. My site is partially optimized, but optimization has never been done thoroughly. Should the pages of the site be optimized for the top 25-30 terms before link building begins. Or can that be done at a later stage. Note that my link profile is pretty atrocious. My site at the moment is receiving about 1,000 unique visitors a week from organic search. However 70% of the traffic is from terms that are not relevant. The firm that did my audit claims that removal of the toxic links while building some new links is imperative and that optimization for keywords can wait somewhat. Any thoughts?/ Thanks for your assistance. Alan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan10 -
Plural versions of keywords
I am a Magician and optimising my site for local seo mainly. I would imagine this will affect any local business but I woule like some input from the community on how to handle variations of the same keyword. e.g I am a Magician and I am based in Hampshire So I have created a page for Hampshire and from previous keyword research optimised it of Magician Hampshire. However there are many more variations of the keyword. e.g Magicians Hampshire, Magicians in Hampshire, Hampshire Magician, Magician in Hampshire, Close up Magicians in Hampshire, Hampshire Magicians, Magicians near Hampshire, Local Hampshire Magicians. The list goes on but I can not find an answer on wether I should have a separate page/blog post for each of these keywords or include them in the same page. If I include them in the same page how to not make it spammy I am sure this is the same for electricians, dentists, hairdressers etc so am hoping there is a common answer to a problem that has been puzzling me for a long time Many Thanks Roger
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rnperki
http://www.rogerlapin.co.uk/0 -
Two Webstites Targeting the Same Keywords
If I aquire a website in the same industry targeting the same keywords. Should I merge them into one? I understand it's a bad idea to have multiple websites promoting the same thing, but i'd like to capture the customer base of a competing website. What's everyone's thoughts? A- Merge new to main website with 301's? will google like that? B- Keep them separate? Will google like that? C- Don't bother. D- Toss the computer and get into Horticulture
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | residualboulders0 -
Keyword tool for news?
Working on developing a news product and wondering if there are tools available to gauge search interest in a particular topic. For those that work in news, what are your favorite SEO tools?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0 -
Meta Keywords: Should we use them or not?
I am working through our site and see that meta keywords are being used heavily and unnecessarily. Each of our info pages will have 2 or 3 keyword phrases built into them. Should we just duplicate the keyword phrases into the meta keyword field, should put in additional keywords beyond or not use it at all? Thoughts and opinions appreciated
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Towelsrus1 -
How to Target Keyword Variations?
I have a list of keywords I'm trying to target and they are essentially different variations of each other: Example: blue yankees baseball hat yankees blue baseball hat yankees baseball hat in blue Should I be targeting all these on the same page, or should I be making a new page for each one? Thanks Mozzers!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ATMOSMarketing560