For this week's tip (see #1, #2 and #3 in the series) , I thought we'd quickly run through an issue that, early in my SEO career, frequently confused me (and seems to trip up lots of sites today, too). The concept is simple - given a page that's ranking well for keyword "A", some folks make the mistake of targeting close variations of "A" on separate pages without good justification.
Here's a quick example:
Sometimes, it can be wise to target variations on different pages, but you need to think carefully about why. In our example above, the intent for a searcher seeking "electric scooters" vs. "buy electric scooters," "electric scooters for sale," and "cheap electric scooters" isn't substantively different. Therefore, it might be unwise to create a multitude of pages to target each of these variations when a single page could target each effectively. In my experience there's no need to even venture into spammy territory here. Let's look at some title tags:
Spammy Version
TITLE: Cheap Electric Scooters for Sale, Buy Electric Scooters
Good Version
TITLE: Buy Electric Scooters at Scootermoz - 1000s of (In Stock) Electric Scooters for Sale
In the good version, I didn't use cheap in the title, and I probably wouldn't in a real example either. From experience in retail SEO, I've seen that "cheap" (as a keyword modifier) is often a low conversion rate visitor, and it may even lower the conversion rate of other visitors. Instead, I'd probably opt to put it in the text of the page (and even then, relatively sparsely). The other phrases are valuable, and I've included them in the title and would pepper the page appropriately with mentions. Typically, with a variant that's best to keep on a single page, the broader phrase is included (as in "electric scooters" being included in the phrase "electric scooters for sale"), and thus, mentions of the longer phrase will help with keyword prominence of the original as well.
There's no trick here - just a simple guiding philosophy:
- It's far easier to get links to one page rather than four
- Wasting internal link juice on extraneous pages is never a good idea
- Spending time and energy on content for additional pages that could be focused in higher ROI activities is tragic
- A single page with a concentrated keyword phrase and several variations is likely to perform better in the engines that multiple offshoot pages targeting very similar phrase variants
There are times when breaking out the pages would make more sense. I'd use a relatively simple process to determine which path to choose:
There may not be any rocket science at work here, but given how commonly I see mistakes like this, I'd say it's a valuable tip to keep in mind and apply to the sites you build and audit. As always, input is welcomed!
Good tip, especially as a gut check for those who may run out to make 5 new pages just to target additional phrases.
Although depending on the competitiveness, I might have gone with something like this for the good version:
Buy Electric Scooters - For Sale at Scootermoz
to capture the more direct "Buy Electric Scooters" and "Electric Scooters For Sale" phrases.
But I think it is also important though to determine:
In the case where the traffic potential for each phrase is high enough and the competition is so steep that you need to focus on strong proximity within the title tag for each phrase to rank, then breaking them out onto additional pages may make sense. Ideally, we aren't talking about creating a new page for the sake of this, but determining how one of those phrases could be used on an already existing page.
And then measure the results of having those terms on one page versus broken out, looking at both the individual traffic and conversions on individual pages combined with the total of all of these pages.
Another way to approach the title tags, based on keyword research and an understanding of what the high traffic phrases are compared to lower, long tail terms are, is to counter balance them in the titles:
Primary Phrase | Secondary Long Tail Phrase - Secondary Niche Phrase | Your Branding
Of course, even better if you can interwork the phrasings so that the essentially run together, but without looking spammy, possibly even picking up an additional phrase or two.
The challenge of course is always in the application and you hit the key point -- we should always be asking ourselves whether a phrase can stand on its own, but also should it?
Thanks for this insightful comment :) The "Primary Phrase | Secondary Long Tail Phrase - Secondary Niche Phrase | Your Branding" is a great suggestion for crafting titles.
Great post :)
Regarding your suggestion (identity) with the Title tag I have my doubts adding secondary and tertiary phrases, rather including them in Meta Description and of course sprinkle them in body content.
Especially if the main keyword phrase is very strong (ie high competition) I wouldn't stuff the Title tag with secondary or tertiary phrases. Of course, there might be cases when it really works :)
sherlock
Rand you are the best Seo-teacher. Your language is so simple that I as a German can understand everything. To express complex themes in an easy way needs quite an amount of professionalism. You are professional in every way! Thank you rand! Thank you so much!
This goes along the lines of one page = one topic. That's the explanation that I usually use and it makes the most sense to people.
Is there enough unique content for a "Buy Electric Scooters" page and a "Electric Scooters for Sale" page? If yes, they are two pages. If no, they are one page.
Actually overhauling our site now and going through a lot of this. Very timely.
Mmmm, flow charts that tell me what to do...I like!
Sh*t. You beat me LGTim. Today I thought finally I would be the first one to comment. But while I was composing (*rolls his eyes*) my comment in Word, you stole my chance.
And our comments mean almost the same. Now I seem so like copycat.
Agreed - always like the flowcharts!
Probably Headsmacking for the Pros, but priceless for beginners. A very good tip. Thanks.
Loved the second graphic, I like it when decisions can be made through algorithms. Makes life much easier.
I wish the Matrix was true.
Goddamit! I get first comment and don't even have the brains to yell "First!"
<sigh> I guess I could edit my first comment, but it just wouldn't be the same...
I try to use this dilemma to my advantage, especially with new clients. They love hearing less is more, and for the most part that’s true (see Rand’s examples above). There are always exceptions to every rule, but I’ve found it much easier to add more pages, than to start out with too many and cut some out.
The client likes to hear this because you’re explaining how you’ve got BIG plans for them, with the potential for lots of additional pages, but you’re also taking their budget into consideration – you’re not just adding a bunch of stuff that they don’t need and charging them for it.
Great post Rand - I love it when you write about stuff I already do - It makes me feel clever...
Great post.
I've been debating on creating lots of pages for this purpose and inflating the number of pages on the site at the same time.
I don't think I will go there now.
Thanks Rand,
I was just going over my site a architecture and had this question. Didn't even have to spend a point to ask it. Thanks!
It's equally important to keep a check on no. of keyword variations you are trying on a page and also that the keyword variations are not all generic. I reckon, trying too many variations can also dilute the theme of a page.. any contradictions??
My main phrases are things like "designer widgets", "fashion widgets", "widgets with a buckle", "unique widgets", etc. It is still a widget, the only difference is I am trying to target what my customers call the widget that they are looking for (one person's designer widget is another person's fashion widget).
My conversions are *mostly* in the long tail search. People who are searching for just "widgets" probably aren't willing to pay my prices. Competition isn't fierce in my niche, but it does exist.
Am I better trying to create separate pages (and come up with page after page of trying to make a fashion widget sound different from a designer widget?) or should I try to target it on one or a few pages?
Am I making sense yet? Probably not.
Hard to say, when talking about widgets ;)
If you can make a page stand strongly for the other term, and there is a enough crossover due to perceptions within the market, then it may be well worth the effort. The distiniquishing points are whether the terms are distinct enough, and whether there is enough value in putting forth the effort.
Otherwise, depending on how deep the site is, or how competitive the search market is, you might be able to integrate this in at a subcategory level and still be strong enough to gain a strong ranking position, or integrate into the most appropriate product pages, though pulling for more generic, top-level search phrases at the product level may be a bit more challenging.
In the end, the best thing you can do is to test and see what works.
Someone wise once said that even if you think you know something it never hurts to read about it one more time.
Although all of this is a bit of headsmacking it helps so much re-reading this stuff because trying to explain this stuff to clients with no experience is sooooo challenging at the best of times. The illlustrations rock and have inspired me to create my own for documents. It cuts down explanation time by a thousand!
Thanks as always!
Hi,
I like how you have presented the logic.
Very nice.
Very helpful guide for a newbie like me. Thanks
I guess this issue goes unnoticed with many of the sites. And when you can target more than one variation of the keyword on a single page, you leave yourself more pages to cover more keywords..
Explanation by Rand was very simple and lucid..
Thanks for the valuable info...
Hi Rand,
I am totally agree with the point you have mentioned in given articles. To promote same product by using different variations on keywords having separate pages is totally useless.
I am agree that it will increase the rankings in less time with compare to single page promotion but if you think from long perspective. Single page for one product promotion will look very professional and will get consistent rankings on long run bases.
Thanks for sharing wonderful information.
Nice way to explain and the flow char is really good but what i feel is experience counts here. even after this flow chart i will not be 100% sure when to do break keyword phrases but then this is nice to start with.
Yeah, I would tend to agree - it's not too wise to make several pages for the different long tail variations in your electric scooter keywords or otherwise.
Question from a total NOOB...
I have a variety of patterns/styles/colors of the same stainless water bottle, should I post each on their own page or is that spreading out my link juice too much? Maybe I should put them all on one page with a drop down for pattern choices?
Kristen
Not a total NOOB question at all... ecom sites are challenged by this all the time.
Product pages are often quite challenging anyway b/c they have such little distinctive content. So often it ends up being mostly product specs (depends of course on the products, but typical), which end up looking rather similar compared to a lot of products, not just those that are similar.
At that point, I'd probably opt to keep them all on one page, making that page as strong as possible for the specific product, then relying on good on-page references to pull for longer tail phrases that might reference the colors.
That said, this may also depend on the products and user search patterns. Some products may rarely be searched for based on color (or other product modifier) while other products may see considerable searches.
The other consideration may be on the overall impact to the site's size in relation to crawl equity and potential URL bloat. If breaking products out by some modifier means a substantial increase in size with little overall opportunity, decreasing the crawl equity of the site and primarily introducing what appears to be duplicate content, then I'd think long and hard before doing that.
You could also get creative and target different product offerings based on these additional modifiers by introducing the more popular modifiers into the title tag. Example:
Adding "black" to company A's product
Adding "blue" to company B's product
Adding "silver" to company C's product
rinse and repeat
Thank you SO much! I'm going to experiemnt with the "all on one page" idea for while and see how things change. I'm already ranking on page one for some of the keywords as is but maybe I beleive I can rank better for others with one page.Worst case scenario, I just change it back.
Thanks Again,
Kristen
I once (very briefly before I said "no!") had a copywriting client who wanted me to keyword stuff 5 keywords into every page. All related. I told him that this wasn't a good SEO strategy, but he didn't listen. So I said whatever, did the job, and told him that I wouldn't do it for him again.
If this had been around, I would have sent it to him as proof I wasn't crazy!!
This is a great reminder! I'm wondering how this applies to publication sites, where there can very well be dozens of articles that cover the same topics. I find that it becomes a little harder to control and I suppose nuance becomes more and more important.
Thanks Rand. I was umming and ahhing about this just the otherday.
In the end I decided to seperate out the pages to specific geographic locations but may well end up combining them i.e. Office Space in Soho & Central London whe i have some clearer stats.
I think you forgot to mention something important - you should also link to the page with words like "cheap", "for sale", "affordable", etc.
Another great post rand.
In spite of the things you mentioned in this post, Rand, people are always more likely to make these kind of mistakes knowingly or unknowingly.
Even if your PPC traffic can justify multiple variants of the page, link juice is surely going to be distributed that will lead more pages of yours with a low PR than 1 page with a good PR.
It is indeed wiser to have one bird in the hand than thousands in the bush.
Nice post! I think there's no rocket science needed here. I especially like the flow chart which guides, which is enough to make a good choice.
Besides that I think splitting keyword variants out into multiple pages has worked well for the past years, but I think search engines are awarding keyword variants targeted on a single page more and more.
Rand, thanks for the graphic.
The process chart definitely helps visualize a process for developing keyword phrases.
I have been working with a site that has over 5000 pages. The Target Key Words are basically combinations of ten key phrases.
They want more, I'm thinking less. This post I think helps make my case.
Thanks Rand
How does this apply to local search?
I'm sure that it can, and with only a few (yet difficult) keywords I have seen combining a few regions to be really helpful. However in a market like ours (Inland Empire) were we have at LEAST 6 "micro regions" each of which contain about 3-4 cities, it is hard to cram that ALL into one page without being overly spammy. Especially when the markets are all fairly saturated with bad (yet still competitive) seo'd sites / micro sites.
Our solution was to find a creative way to target each of those micro regions. We are not entirely done (or id show an example) but its sort of the "make your product / page worthy of links / visits" mentality that Rand mentioned last week in the "link bait vrs landingpage" post.
i'd be interested to see your solution once it's finished.
since our market is still in it's infancy, for local search, we run into the problem of our product being a 'one-size fits all solution', but people still search locally. we go back and forth on if we create all of those local pages. it wouldn't be a form page with just the city/state swapped out. the pages would be different, but each targeting a diff city.
I think this concept ties in with information architecture nicely.
If website is about electrical scooters and there are 5 sub-topics e.g. Comparing product features, Why use one, pricing etc, we should have 5 pages.
But if all you are targeting 5 phrases instead of 5 topics, its just adding to clutter.
We are putting each landing page in the about section of the website. Each page is discussing each micro-region and the role that web design and our company is playing out in that micro region. Dropping in each micro regions cities on that page. Our call to action is the same as well as all our points of entry. Then having our illustrator make adjustments to the design for each page, we are able to justify it. At this point Im just waiting on copy from our writer to take them all live, but the ones we have launched thus far (3 of the 6) are doing there job fairly well.
Only thing they lack is link building, mostly cause I hate that part the most.
Nice article Rand. This information is always good to reinforce. One should always ask himself/herself if doing something like this makes sense. Personally, I've had greater overall success (rankings and conversion) when I've used one page that contains varied keyword modifiers for product/services based e-commerce sites. I'd have to think more deeply about this conundrum for information/content based sites.
I don't know about everybody else, but when I land on an e-commerce website that uneccisarliy uses unique pages to target keyword variations, I immediatley lose trust in the site--just like that.
This conversation is very similar to the ole', "Should I use a sub-domain or new directory to..." Hey, if you have a product or service that demands separation from your core business/domain, go for it; otherwise don't.
- Eric Itzkowitz
Clear and to the point. Guiding philosophy always seems to pay off in the long haul. Thanks for clarifying a valuable SEO principle.
While I see the point of this blog posting, this can be a tough one for SEOs to figure out. Consider your scooter example. I would agree that splitting one page into three synonymous pages is a bad idea. However, it isn't always black and white. I strongly recommend you take a close look at search volume and make your decision based on how well you can narrow in on worthy search terms.
Consider a situation where you have products grouped at a very high level (i.e. camping equipment). You may discover that by grouping these products into subsets you can better target searches with high volume (i.e. tents, sleeping bags, backpacks). In this instance, it makes sense to split up the products and create new pages. Further still, it may make sense to group them by manufacturer.
Of course, a situation such as this represents one in which the business owner likely did a poor job setting up the site in the first place, but these things do happen. Don't be afraid to add new pages if, as Rand pointed out, they can be justified.