Small website. Lots of keywords to target. What to do?

seachto7

Hi all,

Just wondering what your advice would be on this.

A small website, say 5 main pages, excluding the about us and contact us.

If I have a group of say 40 search terms I would like to track, how can I do this with a small site, if in theory, you should be only targeting a few search terms per page?

How could I make the site rank in some form for all 40 keywords eventually?

I will obviously have a small group of the 40 that will be the core or priority areas, and these may well go towards the pages on the site. But what of the rest of the group of keywords?
If I can't assign them to pages, what would you recommend as a strategy?
Thanks

Chet Zar

seachto7 wrote: »

Hi all,

Just wondering what your advice would be on this.

A small website, say 5 main pages, excluding the about us and contact us.

If I have a group of say 40 search terms I would like to track, how can I do this with a small site, if in theory, you should be only targeting a few search terms per page?

How could I make the site rank in some form for all 40 keywords eventually?

I will obviously have a small group of the 40 that will be the core or priority areas, and these may well go towards the pages on the site. But what of the rest of the group of keywords?
If I can't assign them to pages, what would you recommend as a strategy?
Thanks

40 keywords? Too many.

Are all of those 40 valuable keywords for the website/business? Generally you would start out with maybe 5, and go from there - if no reason other than cost/time. To rank on page 1 for 40 terms would require a significant investment...depending on the business sector, its competitiveness, etc. Although nearly all sectors are competitive these days.

seachto7

There would be maybe 5 that would be priority, maybe 10 in total that would be good to rank for. The business deals with accommodation and location.

For example, let us assume it is "Athlone accommodation". If I ranked well for the Athlone related keywords, what if I wanted to look down the line at "Westmeath" and "midlands" related keywords? How could I then target them on the site seeing as I already have the main pages optimised for other terms?

Chet Zar

seachto7 wrote: »

There would be maybe 5 that would be priority, maybe 10 in total that would be good to rank for. The business deals with accommodation and location.

For example, let us assume it is "Athlone accommodation". If I ranked well for the Athlone related keywords, what if I wanted to look down the line at "Westmeath" and "midlands" related keywords? How could I then target them on the site seeing as I already have the main pages optimised for other terms?

Well that's maybe what you're missing first off - you optimise for the most relevant pages, not for your home page. As in, you don't target 'red shoes' to Shoes.ie, you target it to Shoes.ie/red-shoes.

So it would be the same for your example - you will target your efforts towards the Athlone accommodation pages, not solely to the home page..

seachto7

That's what I am doing, making sure the accommodation page is optimised for accommodation related keywords etc.

But say, in a years time, I wanted to see if I could rank for "accommodation westmeath", well my accommodation page is already optimised for "accommodation athlone" and the likes, so what would my best option be there for targeting westmeath related terms. Creating a new page maybe?

Chet Zar

seachto7 wrote: »

That's what I am doing, making sure the accommodation page is optimised for accommodation related keywords etc.

But say, in a years time, I wanted to see if I could rank for "accommodation westmeath", well my accommodation page is already optimised for "accommodation athlone" and the likes, so what would my best option be there for targeting westmeath related terms. Creating a new page maybe?

Yep well that's what I meant Your Westmeath hotels page is optimised for Westmeath keywords, your Meath one for Meath keywords, and so on.

Each page you want to focus on should target maybe 2-3 keywords.

seachto7

Cheers for that.
Would creating more pages clutter up a site that in reality only needs a small number of pages.
It's a no no to put links in a html sitemap from what I have read, or in the footer right?

Chet Zar

seachto7 wrote: »

Cheers for that.
Would creating more pages clutter up a site that in reality only needs a small number of pages.
It's a no no to put links in a html sitemap from what I have read, or in the footer right?

Ah yeah man, old hat and very 90s!

No tricks, Google is wiser to them than ever and there is only going to be more and more of a squeeze on the tricksters Which is great for the industry and I applaud them for continuing to seek to improve search quality.

I would say only create as many pages as you actually need.

seachto7

Ok, so I have a homepage, an acccommodation page, a restaurant page (they also have one), gallery, food menu page, drink menu page, blog page, contact us page.

These would all be optimised around the town location. (Let's say Athlone). If I wanted to eventually target westmeath or midlands search terms, I could create new landing pages.

Where are these pages going to go, as in how are they going to be found? As in, there would appear to be nowhere on the site to link to these pages. They wouldn't be going in the main navigation tab, as they would not be needed in theory....

Chet Zar

seachto7 wrote: »

Ok, so I have a homepage, an acccommodation page, a restaurant page (they also have one), gallery, food menu page, drink menu page, blog page, contact us page.

These would all be optimised around the town location. (Let's say Athlone). If I wanted to eventually target westmeath or midlands search terms, I could create new landing pages.

Where are these pages going to go, as in how are they going to be found? As in, there would appear to be nowhere on the site to link to these pages. They wouldn't be going in the main navigation tab, as they would not be needed in theory....

Well, presumably you want people to find you for terms like Westmeath, Midlands hotel, etc, if this hypothetical hotel is in Athlone? Which means you will want to target your efforts towards more than just 'Athlone'.

The 'other pages' issue only comes into play for other, unrelated terms. For example, if the hotel opened a second location in Cork and wanted to promote the Cork hotel via the Athlone hotel site, they would naturally have a Cork-relevant page, and you would target Cork-related terms to that.

You don't strictly need to create new landing pages for 'Westmeath', because it is so strongly related to 'Athlone'. The content will naturally reference and include both terms. What you're looking for is keyword => content matching/relevance.

Make sense?

seachto7

I see what you mean.

So if I had all my Athlone covered search terms covered and all were ranking well, would it be wise to try and broaden the net so to speak with additional search terms, or just maintain what I have?

DeniseTaylor

Hi

I'm new here, but wanted to mention to watch out for over SEOing your site. Too many backlinks, too many keywords, to many "unnatural" elements and you could get a penalty.

Google wants high quality sites that offer information that visitors love. That's what you should build - using original, helpful content.

Good luck!

seachto7

oh aye, I won't be over egging the pudding at all........

Chet Zar

seachto7 wrote: »

I see what you mean.

So if I had all my Athlone covered search terms covered and all were ranking well, would it be wise to try and broaden the net so to speak with additional search terms, or just maintain what I have?

Oh yeah, sure isn't that the point of SEO - it's an ongoing process, where you rank for as many of your valuable keywords as possible. Main thing is that the keywords you are working on have value. Not much point ranking for something that nobody is searching for, or a keyword that has shown to not do very much for your site.

seachto7

I guess so. I suppose I am thinking of hobbies, activities and interests that can be done in the area that the accommodation is located..... Could I possibly target some people looking for those activities.......

link8r

seachto7 wrote: »

I guess so. I suppose I am thinking of hobbies, activities and interests that can be done in the area that the accommodation is located..... Could I possibly target some people looking for those activities.......

Yes and Yes you should. Go broad. As long as you write the content, Google will index/rank it as it sees fit. Publishing relevant, original content shouldn't get you in trouble. Worst case - you have bad PageRank shaping/architecture and it ignores it but unless you are producing 100's of pages I wouldn't worry. Just make sure you're connect to Google Webmaster tools and they will highlight any site health warnings via there.

Tourists want to know where they are going, how to get there, what can they do/see/eat etc. Give this to them in your own voice and give as much detail as possible.

Use a CMS like WordPress which will take care of the admin of all of the content, sitemaps and so on.

seachto7

All good as far as Wordpress, Webmaster tools is concerned etc.
So, as I target an activity that can be done in the area (and it's relevant), it's best to create a landing page for it I assume.

If I created an "activites" page, then created links off that to more detailed pages on things to do there?

Another question if I could - If a relevant high authority site agrees to post a link on their site in return for a link, is it a case of creating a unique "links" page which would detail the links to these websites?

I am pretty much all PPC but I had been working alongside someone last year doing low level SEO stuff, but only in the last 3 or 4 months have I been trying to go it alone, and so much has changed even in the last few months, some of the stuff I had been doing could be considered No-No now.......

so, apologies for the stupid queries!

link8r

seachto7 wrote: »

All good as far as Wordpress, Webmaster tools is concerned etc. So, as I target an activity that can be done in the area (and it's relevant), it's best to create a landing page for it I assume.

If I created an "activites" page, then created links off that to more detailed pages on things to do there?

Yes, that's what you should do

seachto7 wrote: »

Another question if I could - If a relevant high authority site agrees to post a link on their site in return for a link, is it a case of creating a unique "links" page which would detail the links to these websites?

That's link swapping and you should avoid it like the plague. That's a deep no-no and always has been. These are part of a group of links known as "Unnatural links", which also include paid-for and this is Google's biggest gripe.

seachto7 wrote: »

I am pretty much all PPC but I had been working alongside someone last year doing low level SEO stuff, but only in the last 3 or 4 months have I been trying to go it alone, and so much has changed even in the last few months, some of the stuff I had been doing could be considered No-No now.......

so, apologies for the stupid queries!

The basics of SEO haven't really changed. Just avoid trying to game the system...

seachto7

So, if the site was a chamber of commerce type site that agreed to link to the accommodation site?

link8r

seachto7 wrote: »

So, if the site was a chamber of commerce type site that agreed to link to the accommodation site?

There are some natural links that you want to get - but on a A-B, B-A basis in all cases.

If the chamber will link to you, why link back?

seachto7

link8r. Yes, I suppose you are right. The paid link strategy is what I had dabbled in last year, but hadn't been doing enough of it to get seriously hammerd, but I could see the effects all the same.....so want to build up good habits this time.......

link8r

As Google often use as an example - P0rn sites suffer from getting backlinks but still rank.

A much better way is to increase your networking and getting involved in events and projects. To crystallise a goal in your mind, try thinking of it this way:

Google wants to mirror offline activity with online activity - so if you're meeting businesses, Cxo's, going to events - do you blog about this, connect with them on twitter or G+? How will Google know what you're doing?

seachto7

very true, good point about the offline activities......

Chet Zar

link8r wrote: »

A much better way is to increase your networking and getting involved in events and projects. To crystallise a goal in your mind, try thinking of it this way:

Google wants to mirror offline activity with online activity - so if you're meeting businesses, Cxo's, going to events - do you blog about this, connect with them on twitter or G+? How will Google know what you're doing?

+1 million! This is what I always say to people.

It's not online vs offline - one should be a reflection of the other.