Something not too many people know during SEO performance is the benefits that narrowing the focus to a set of strategic target keywords can bring.
Ok, let’s put it this way: one misconception some people have is that trying to rank higher than their competition across the board simply by the number of keyword or their generalization is the key for success, this would end up in a complete flop!
Make your keyword phrase your cannonball!
The first steps towards the change on this keyword phrase and what is a convenient number is:
A keyword research must be performed, this is to find specific words and phrases that are seeing respectable traffic volumes, but aren’t being competitively fought for.
Keywords and phrases that are not very competitive and fit their target are vital to incorporate in SEO campaigns. Doing so specifically into on-site content and inbound links have historically been an effective strategy, especially for increasing rankings for those searches.
Ok, going back to the subject,
One highly successful strategy in assertive SEO is to choose one keyword or keyword phrase per page of a site to serve as a target keyword. Click To TweetYou might want to have the same target keyword for multiple pages, but what optimizers generally advice is to try not to focus on multiple keyword phrases on a single page.
What is the benefit of following such advice?
Well, let’s get down to the theory….
Actually, there is not much to think about the theory of this advice, it is pretty sound, though. It pretty much triggers the conception of opting for specialization over generalization, in terms of keyword or keyword phrase.
What should you always focus on? One page, one term.
…and then again you may say: why is it important to limit optimizing each page to a single phrase? Well, here you have some hints…
Two simple words: Clarity and Focus
It might be tempting to throw just a bunch of search phrases on your homepage, “what could I lose?” you say, but the reality is that you’ll do much better selecting one search phrase and building rankings for that specific term.
When there are too many keyword phrases it may seem like you aren’t clear of what each page is about, the result would be muddling the meaning to the search engines (and to your customers too)!
A logical and more assertive behavior, upon wanting to rank for different things (specific offerings), would be to create pages that target those specific offerings and/or products and then adapt those offerings into specific keyword phrases that are very competitive and make clear what they refer to.
Google’s algorithm is actually smart enough to understand pretty well the intentions of the keywords or keyword phrases, and then this search engine obviously will always look for quality over keyword stuffing.
Designing For Intent, make the questions already knowing the answers…
This is what really happens in simple words when customers type a search into Google, it is like they were looking for an answer to a specific question. They are searching with a specific intention, and finding the specific answer would be vital for them to stay.
How can you step forward to proper management of keyword phrases? Consider these tips so you can start anticipating that intent, and answering those questions, even before they are asked.
3 considerations on keyword phrase assertiveness
- It is very important to make sure each page on your site is optimized on one key phrase. This is nothing else than picking one keyword phrase for each page and focus down on it. It is also very important that the phrase you select appears in the title tag, meta description, URL, and page content.
- as for your home page, select that single search term that you find highly important to your business, and work optimizing for that term. Remember that this is usually the term that will you bring you the most general traffic, and it can be a focused-down niche term that does both things: widely expresses the content it represents, and conveys specific customer intent.
- Use the final selected keyword phrase to cross-link your own pages. In any intent of SEO, internal linking is a very important part. External links to your site are like votes for that page to be on top of the SERPs. Internal links count too, do not oversee them!
…in two words!
Always remember there are many factors for certain pages to rank higher than others. It may be a laborious task for SEO to consider all of those reasons. Consistent information, right keywords, proper link building, having an eye on most of these things will take you to the top of SERPs.
Building each page with the right intent — answering the question of one specific search phrase on each page even before it was asked — you stand a better chance of ranking than trying to scattershot every phrase in the book on your home page.
