Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Best practice for targeting 'unnatural' location based keyword phrases
-
When optimising for a local based service, lets say a painter in texas, you will have various keyword phrases which are relevant e.g
Texas painter
Painter in Texas
Painter Texas
I have found that often the phrase which has the most searches is:
[Service] [Location] = ('Painter Texas' in this example)
But unlike the other phrases this is very hard to work into a natural sounding sentence or heading.
Is the best practice to try and target the unnatural sounding phrase anyway due to the higher search volume, or target the next one down to stay natural sounding in your copy?
thanks
d
-
I'm very much interested in this question as well.
Someone told me that small words such as 'in' are stop words and as such ignored by Google and that [painters texas] would be the same as [painters in texas].
But in that case, why does Google's keyword tool give such different exact results for these 2 phrases?
Anyone else got any input on this?
Thanks
-
Definitely go with natural syntax. Google can figure out what the page is about without having to sacrifice readability. In fact don't overdo it with the frequency - just having the phrases in the title tag and a couple of times on the page is plenty.
-
Thanks for your answers guys, but you have all focused on the anchor text of inbound links, whereas what I am really enquiring about is the on-page optimisation.
Specifically, optimising for a phrase like 'Painter Texas' which is hard to work into headings or body copy in a way that doesnt sound strange to humans reading it.
e.g:
Texas painter = "If you are looking for a texas painter, you have come to the right place!" - Fine
Painter in Texas = "People often call us the best painter in texas" - Fine
Painter Texas = ?????
The problem is that this final phrase has the highest search volume. So do I go with this and sacrifice 'naturalness' (e.g. If you are looking for a painter texas, then you are in the right place), or sacrifice search volume and go for more natural copy ?
-
I agree with David in that variety is the key. I also think that Google is doing a much better job at determining local intent in queries. I would make sure to build links without the geographic modifier as well. In fact, I would think that too many links with geo-modifiers may be a spam signal if it isn't already. Additionally, be sure to include lots of "stop" words in your anchor text along with verbs, adjectives, etc. Things like "a painter in Texas" or "recognized as a top painter" are phrases that real people would use to link to a real site rather than "painter Texas."
You definitely want to build links with the company or personal name and include the keywords next to it as Google can definitely discern the proximity of the keyword and score it accordingly.
For example: Joe Bob is a Texas-based painter...
Hope that helps!
-
It's always better to target a page with a single phrase. However it doesn't mean you can't use your alternate phrases at all. Just don't try to make it compete with your primary phrases.
"So remember Tom's Painting next time you need a Texas Painter."
I'm going to resist any urge to refer to Tom's Texas sized paint brush"
-
I run into this all the time as a local heating contractor. IMHO, the best practise is to target all the top three phrase combinations. This avoids the penalty of having too many identical anchor phrases, and, at the same time, helps you to rank well for all the different combinations of your keywords. Gewgle is smart enough to give you credit for "Painter in Texas" as a close match to "Painter Texas" and to see that Texas Painter is likely the same as Painter Texas. Anchor text variety is the key.
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
-
Relevant but not-relevant keywords impact to SEO
Hello, I would like to know if the selection of individual keywords(that are not primary, secondary or tertiary) are important for SEO regardless of the relevancy to the page topic. I am wondering how much of a contribution a non-P1/P2/P3 can make in terms of SEO? For example it is a product page and I have built my content with P1,P2&P3 based only on the product and its properties itself. Do you think that a content gap for the page could be the production process of that product? So even if it is a product and its properties page, I can add 2 sentences about the production, so that I can drive more traffic by including these 2 informative sentences.? EXAMPLE:
Keyword Research | | Siir
So lets' say my topic is "hair types" (P1) and my subtopics are "Straight," "wavy," and "curly"(P2s) which I used as subtitles. But throughout the page, I am planning to add some relevant but not-directly-relevant keywords here and there since they have high metrics and volumes. For example a potential sentence I can add: "innovative hair products these days can offer amazing results for the desired hair types". It is not specifically about "hair types" but I am using the keyword "innovative hair products" (good metrics keyword) which may help for the traffic... Another potential not-so-direct sentence can be: "For all hair types, the hair damages are common: heat damage, chemical damage and mechanical damage". Would adding this extra sentence where I am not specifically talking about "hair types" (my topic) but "hair damages" and damage examples (off-topic high metric keywords) help me to drive traffic to my website? And how much of an impact would it be?0 -
Keyword Themes - What's in a theme?
I recently read the Moz guide for "How To Rank - 25 Step SEO Master Blue Print" and had a question on keyword themes. What is considered a theme? Is there a recommended number of keywords in a theme? For example, if my site is for listing and selling cars, would the following terms fit within the same "car" theme or should the terms be broken out by "cars general" / "car locations" / "car types"? Cars Cars for sale in new york Ford Explorer for sale
Keyword Research | | Emily_A0 -
'And' vs '&'
Hi everyone This question has been running through my mind since a few days now. Does Google recognise 'and' / '&' as the same? Say for example my website url is: appleandorange.com and my keyword for my company is Apple & Orange. If i Focus on Apple & Orange for on-page SEO will google also recognise apple and orange ? Or will I have to on-page SEO seperately for Apple and orange? So for instance if I keep focusing on Apple & Orange will my website appleandorange.com appear on google? Thanks in advance
Keyword Research | | u_rauf920 -
Setting Up a Keyword Matrix
Greetings MOZ community!! My real estate web site contains about 500 pages with perhaps 70 pages targeting low volume, somewhat valuable but not very competitive keywords. Three to four URLs target very competitive terms. The following terms are among the most valuable: New York City office space,
Keyword Research | | Kingalan1
New York office space,
Manhattan office space,
NYC office space Such variants as: Office space in New York City,
Office space in New York,
Office space in Manhattan,
Office space in NYC
ETCETERA convert really well How would I match different terms to different URLs? For example I have just re-written the following two critical URLs: www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (home page)
http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-space/office-space (product page) Would it make sense to use "Manhattan office space" and variants on the home page while excluding "New York City office space" variants? At the same time I would use "New York City office space" variants on the "office-space" product page while excluding all mention of "Manhattan office space". Is this logical and does it conform to SEO best practices? For the "NYC office space" terms I would add them to http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings. This URL has almost no text but a strong potential to rent because of a high number of incoming internal links. Is this approach sensible? In general what measures should I take to prevent URLs from competing for the same keywords? Also, is there a software package or tools that I can use to come up with keyword variants? As a non SEO professional, can I create my own keyword matrix or is this really in the realm of a professional SEO consultant? Thanks, Alan0 -
What is the best way to do a one time rankings check of 10000+ keywords
Title pretty much sums it up. At the pricing moz offers this is not practical. Even at their highest tier i would only get 3700 keywords, so it would take several months to get the results.
Keyword Research | | adriandg0 -
Keyword research tools
So I went to a panel a while back that said Wordtracker is basically useless. I'm not using it as an end-all, be-all, but more for insights and context. Do you agree with that statement? The hosting company provides a keyword research tool, so I wasn't sure how seriously to take it. Have you guys been using Bing for the search data previously provided by Google's Keyword Research Tool? Do you find that to be a viable resource? Thanks.
Keyword Research | | SSFCU0 -
Accuracy of search volume for keyword planner v old keyword tool?
Hi there, I'm (logged into Google Adwords) and researching search volume for keywords but I'm seeing weird results. I know that the term "outage notification" had between 1000 and 5000 monthly global searches when I last looked (I know this because I add a search volume tag to the keywords I track ranking of via Moz). Yet, now when I check global search volume via keyword planner I'm seeing only 70 global searches per month (AND low competition which I know is not true). Is this perhaps because only the exact match is reported or is something else going on? Very frustrated as I have now lost faith in the keyword research process via Google keyword planner....not sure where to go from here!! Thanks very much
Keyword Research | | SnapComms1 -
Keywords + Country?
Hey guys, Let's say that I'm doing on-site SEO for a website that sells football shirts. This website targets 5 different countries. We only have a .com domain and no other country specific domains will be added at this point. When I choose the keywords, do I opt for product name + country or only product name? football shirts france or football shirts? Some info: Countries have been added in the title of the pages. Countries appear in the footer. Thank You.
Keyword Research | | BruLee0