Keyword targeting
-
Hi guys,
Are there any restrictions around targeting for keywords? For eg: a competitors name can we target for that keyword?
Would appreciate some advice around this
Thanks
-
Hi Justin, Ahhh the bias of the Google keyword tool. I once read an experiment where a guy built a site, based on a hunch, around a keyword that had zero search volume.
After ranking 1st for that keyword for a month, he checked his analytics only to find that his site had received a 1000+ visitors that had all arrived via his main keyword. (This was when analytics used to show your main keyword)
For cases like this, I'd just go with my gut instinct Justin, as that's sometimes the best keyword tool. Even your instinctive keyword tool search volume varies a lot, depending if you've had your morning coffee or not.
For any keywords with search volume under 1000, I don't pay too much attention to the keyword tool. I have a few home renovation sites targeted to specific areas. All keyword research on these keywords is usually zero searches per month. These are keywords such as 'Home Renovations (Suburb)'. After I rank first for those medium density suburbs with the keyword 'Home Renovations (Suburb)', I usually get about three calls a month for that service. Remember these are home renovation jobs at $20K+ a job, so they turn out to be pretty lucrative jobs leads I can give to my clients. And all from '0' searches per month!
Perhaps you'd have better luck asking the physic for next months search volume ... lol.
-
Hi Justin,
First of all that would be difficult if you want to rank for 'celebrity' name. Now coming to your question yes you can target "celebrity" name to rank for a keyword but If you you’re using competitor brand terms on your own pages – a risky proposition from a legal standpoint.
So try to avoid to use exact name on webpage content. Rest there are no restriction.
Thanks
-
Hi Alick300
Thanks for your feedback. Is there a restriction using a "celebrity" name to rank for a keyword...
I know you mentioned trademark and I don't think her name is a registered trademark?
Thanks
-
Lol hey Richard,
Thanks for your response Great feedback and good to know the legality behind this kind of situation. I have been doing some extensive keyword searching for long tail keywords and noticed there is a low search volume in NZ for the keyword Psychic Readings, Online Psychics, or even online psychic readings and I'm wondering why the search volume is so low.
I know NZ is a small place, but I know there is a particular psychic medium in NZ that has a huge following, on fb her fan base is 100k most of those people are based in NZ so surely the search volume for google can't be that low?
I go over and search terms in Australia for that same keyword, only to find they have alot more search volume. My only guess is the population is alot more then NZ, but I find it hard to believe that only 10 people on average search for the keyword Online Psychic Readings in NZ each month with the competition being HIGH according to google keyword tool...
So this boggles my mind....
Your advice would be much appreciated.
Cheers
-
Hi Justin, It all depends on whether or not that business has that word, phrase or term trademarked. If they don't have their name or 'money term' trademark protected, then feel free to use it as you see fit.
Trademarked terms and business names are used to prevent you from gaining a financial advantage from their branding and marketing efforts, and to prevent brand confusion in the marketplace.
Even without a trademark, the biggest infringement you can make in this situation is to attempt to trick the potential customer into believing that they are dealing with the official brand or business. Provided you don't do that, you can use the terms or words as much as you want legally. Am I going to see you ranking for 'Apple Computers' tomorrow?
-
Hi,
No there is no such restriction in SEO. There is some restriction in paid advertising(Google Ad Words) only, you can't use competitors keyword/brand name in Ad copy but you can add those keywords in Ad Words Ad group.
In short you can target competitors keyword even in Google Ad Words Campaign.
I am quoting Google "Google will not investigate or restrict the use of trademark terms in keywords, even if a trademark complaint is received."
Thanks
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
-
Adding a secondary keyword or other keyword variation to the title tag affect ranking for primary keyword?
Hi Moz Community, According to Google Search Console, the main keyword for our website is undergoing a low click through rate, even though we have good ranking for that keyword (top 3). Currently, our homepage's title tag is "Brand Name: Primary Keyword". I am thinking about adding a secondary keyword or other keyword variation to differentiate our company from others in order to possibly increase the click through rate. Will this affect the current ranking for the primary keyword? Also, is the clickthrough data in Google Search Console accurate? Thank you! Best, Raymond
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | raymondlii0 -
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 -
If Penguin 2.0 targets specific pages and keywords, should I spend less SEO effort on them since will they be harder to optimize? Penalty repair is only starting at end of year.
I’m working with a company that got hit by Penguin 2.0. They’re going to switch to white-hat only for a few months and review analytics before considering repairing the penalty. In the meantime, would it make sense to focus less SEO effort (on-site optimization, link building, etc.) on any pages or keywords that were penalized or hit hardest? Or are those the pages we should work on the most? Thanks for reading!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DA20130 -
Website layout for a new website [Over 50 Pages & targeting Long Tail Keywords]
Hey everyone, We are designing a new website with over 50 pages and I have a question regarding the layout. Should I target my long tail keywords via blog pages? It will be easier to manage and list and link out to similar articles related to my long tail keywords using a word press blog. For this example - lets suppose the website is www.orange.com and we sells 'Oranges' Am I going about this in the right way? Main Section: Main Section 1 : Home Page - Keyword Targeted - Orange Main Section 2 : Important Conversion page - 'Buy oranges' Long Tail Keyword (LTK) 1: www.orange.com/blog/LTK1 Subsection(SS): www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS1 www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS1a www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS1b Long Tail Keyword (LTK) 2: www.orange.com/blog/LTK2 Long Tail Keyword (LTK) 3: www.orange.com/blog/LTK3 Subsection(SS): www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS3 www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS3a www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS3b All these long tail pages and sub sections under them are built specifically for hosting content that targets these specific long tail keywords. Most of my traffic will come initially via the sub section pages - and it is important for me to rank well for these terms initially. _E.g. if someone searches for the keyword 'SS3b' on Google - my corresponding page www.orange.com/blog/LTK1/SS3b should rank well on the results page. _ For ranking purposes - will using this blog/category structure hurt or benefit me? Instead do you think I should build static pages? Also, we are targeting more than 50 long tail keywords - and building quality content for each of these keywords - and I assume that we will be doing this continuously. So in the long term term which is more beneficial? Do you have any suggestions on if I am going about this the right way? Apologies for using these random terms - oranges, LKT, SS etc in this example. However, I hope that the question is clear. Looking forward to some interesting answers on this! Please feel free to share your thoughts.. Thank you! Natasha
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Natashadogres0 -
Could targeting 2 geographic locations decrease rankings?
Hello, I think that us targeting 2 different geographic locations (San Francisco, CA and Salt Lake City, UT) is negatively effecting the rank of some of our main keywords. My evidence for this: Since December our main keyword (NLP) dropped in ranking for nlpca(dot)com from about 19th to about 40th. This is about when we started to really target 2 different locations. Other main keywords dropped a lot as well, like the important term "NLP Training" Also, our name, nlpca(dot)com indicates NLP California (CA stands for California in Google) The other day we bolded a sentence with the words "Salt Lake City, Utah" at the top of our content and in one of Google's Databases (the one I was looking at) we dropped in rankings for "NLP California" where we used to be completely sitelinked (where we took up a lot of space at the top of the search). Also, we shot up to 1st on my datacenter for both "NLP Utah" and "NLP Salt Lake City". At the same time, our rankings for the term "NLP" dropped off the map. It has come back up, but we've also targeted California again. A lot of our anchor text has the word "California" in it. We're thinking about building a separate site for Utah and just linking to it from the California website when we need to. Does it sound to you, in your experience, that targeting both locations in our case is what's causing a decrease in rankings? Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
Keyword weight in Domain Name
Hi All, I'm looking for some advice on URL structure. Our domain name includes 1/2 of many keyword strategies that we're considering. For example our domain is like, dive.com Keyword strategies that we're looking at targeting would include things like, "dive shop", "dive equipment" etc etc Are we competitive to have a structure like this? dive.com/shop/ dive.com/equipment/ Or will this structure yield stronger results? dive.com/dive-shop/ dive.com/dive-equipment/ Your thoughts are appreciated. Thanks! Malcolm
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MAGNUMCreative0 -
Subdomains for niche related keywords
I wanted to know how efficient using a subdomain is, taking in consideration all the updates Google has made lately. I am looking to use a subdomain for a well branded website for a niche specific part of their website. The subdomain will end-up having more than 100 pages. I'd like to see in what cases do you guys recommend using a subdomain? How to get the same benefit out of a subdomain as i am getting from the actual main domain?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CMTM0 -
Do keywords for my homepage matter?
Prob the most n00b question of all, but once I understand this I will be able to research on my own from here: If a search engine produces results by the keywords from individual website posts/pages, then how are the keywords I choose for my homepage so important if the general homepage meta-tag keywords are essentially ignored by the search engines? Should I repeat my primary keywords on EVERY post, in addition to the ones that relate to that individual post or am I misunderstanding something fundamental? My new site is http://splatterMUSIC.com and I want to be at the top of the results for anyone wanting to watch music vlogs, album reviews, music lessons, funny music-related videos, new non-major label music videos, and all kinds of other concert footage, etc.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEOsolver0