How To Successfully Optimize A Page For Over 10,000 Keywords by Mark Nunney, 3 September 2008
A quick guide to optimizing a page for search engines to successfully target over 10,000 keywords.
Key points
- Focus each page’s SEO on a primary and a secondary keyword.
- Search for target words in Wordtracker and use them in page title tag, description tag, headers, body text, internal and external linking text.
- If you can, use over 1,000 words for the body text.
- Make your page useful, interesting or amusing enough for others to link to.
Optimizing your pages (on-page SEO) is a small part of the ‘creating content’ stage of the SEO process that includes keyword research, strategy, planning and creating content, site structure and site navigation, and then promoting that content to build links.
Let’s look at how it’s done…
Focus your page’s SEO on a primary and a secondary keyword
To get started, target each page’s SEO on a primary and secondary keyword. (Don’t make the common mistake of using different pages to target the same keywords.)
Your page will be targeting many more than those two keywords - they are your starting point and your focus. Follow the steps below, write more than a thousand useful interesting words, and your page can successfully target tens of thousands of keywords. Before we go on, I'd just like to show that this really does work...
The following image is from a Google Analytics report for a page from thinkingmanagers.com about swot analysis and strengths and weaknesses. We can see that visitors have used over 10,000 different keywords to reach it.
An interesting and illuminating part of this page's success and its on-page SEO is that, at the moment, it doesn't rank particularly well for its primary and secondary keywords. It does so well because it digs deep into those keywords' long tails - other keywords that contain the target words.
To choose your primary and secondary keywords, follow the SEO process from keyword research to SEO strategy and a build a plan for content.
On the following example page (see grab), the primary and secondary keywords are ‘Business strategy’ & ‘Business continuity strategy’.
You can see those keywords in the page title shown at the top of the browser window.
Enter target keywords into Wordtracker
Enter your primary target keywords into Wordtracker’s Keyword Researcher - see below:
Use Wordtracker’s suggestions if possible and as appropriate. Our example page has used a number of keywords from Wordtracker's results.
Use singulars, plurals, synonyms and ‘similars’. See that our example page uses strategic, strategies, planning, plans and strategy models.
Use target keywords in these specific places
Use your primary and secondary target keywords in the following positions on your page:
- Page title tag
- Description tag
- Headlines, sub-headlines and body text
- Internal and external links (use text)
Now let's look at each of those...
Page title tag
See the following grab from our example page:
… the code of which looks like this:
<title>Business strategy | Business continuity Strategy</title>
Description tag
Most experts say that your description metatag won't improve your SERPs rankings as it’s not directly considered by search engines but they'll also use it because a good description metatag can increase clickthroughs if your site is seen on a search engine results page (SERP).
Also there is some evidence that increased clickthroughs might in turn increase rankings.
Here’s a simple formula for your description tags: primary & secondary keywords + benefits of your site.
And (if you’re really clever) add a call to action. Followng is an example from ThinkingManagers.com:
“Business strategy & Business continuity strategy: Improve your business with advice and free newsletter from leading gurus Edward de Bono and Robert Heller”
Here’s the code for that:
<meta name="description" content="Business strategy & Business continuity strategy: Improve your business with free insight and advice from leading gurus Edward de Bono and Robert Heller" />
Headlines, sub-headlines and body text
Following is a grab from our example site showing a headline and a sub-headline which includes our target keywords:
Next, below is a screenshot of the start of the example page’s body text, with target keywords highlighted:
Note we haven’t used the target keywords as much as we might have. But don’t be afraid to use them more if you think it won't reduce the level of response from your readers. Make sure your sentences are real sentences and that you use variations such as singulars, plurals, synonyms and ‘similars’ (words with similar meanings).
Internal and external links (use text)
The blue text in above body copy is links to other pages on the site. Notice how they use the target keywords (and variations of them). It’s also good practice to link to other sites, preferably sites that rank well for your target keywords.
Over 1,000 words if you can
Long, detailed, useful, inspiring or amusing articles that follow the above guidelines will target a long tail of keywords that your target market are searching with. This will include thousands of keywords that you can’t research - some of which haven't even been thought of because 20% of all searches are with keywords that have never been used before.
Also - long, detailed, useful, inspiring or amusing articles will be linked to if they are found. And getting them found is a link building job.
About Mark Nunney
Mark Nunney (@marknunney) has been a successful professional SEO since 2000 and is CEO of The Website Marketing Company, although (apart from the link in this sentence) he's never optimized their website! He also publishes ThinkingManagers.com, the business management website which he has optimized a bit. With Wordtracker he is committed to teaching 'SEO for profit in the real world'. You can follow Mark Nunney's SEO on Twitter.
44 comments
Wow, that is an ugly page - does it convert at all? I couldn't read past the first paragraph because it hurt my eyes too much!
Cheers Mark, I guess this is why they consider content the king.
Ian Lockwood: lol. which page is ugly? The one your comment is on or the one shown in the screen grab. Either one, you raise an interesting issue. As any direct response expert will tell you, there is rarely a positive relationship between beauty and response rate. I just looked at your website and it looks very handsome :)
Very interesting article. I've wondered about this, but a lot of SEO guys say that Google doesn't read much past the first 3-500 words. I'm going to do a little testing with longer articles now. Thanks for the info.
This is an excellent article that illuminates the issue of keywords beyond simple discussion capacity to accomplish.
We will be working to create ways to expand our keyword substantially based on this.
Of course while extremely useful, this doesn't deal with the challenges local businesses have finding their way to the top of the search rankings. This is particularly troublesome for searches of consumers are really seeking the local provider, but can't get there because of the web's "Global Focus".
Unfortunately, for the near future PPC remains the local business optimum Internet solution.
Blake Ratcliff The Apartment Guy www.occupancy100.com www.linkytown.com
WOW, it's wonderful Hi mark thank you for writting this new article Good Job
Wooow , thank you
Thank you so much Mark!
This information is very useful for me.
Thanks Mark,
Blake - I would have to disagree having got all my local clients to the top of organic Google for local searches. More importantly they all get more business from it, than our service costs.
Mark - 1,000 words, good for search engines but maybe not so for humans?
Hi Mark, it's the example page I was referring to: http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/business-management/business-strategy.php
The use of Courier makes it difficult to read, it really doesn't lend itself to text flow, I presume its use was a strategic decision though, so I'd be interested to know the theory behind it?
Glad you like my site by the way, thanks! :)
Blake: Chris TT suggests the obvious strategy of targeting local keywords with geographic modifers, eg 'car dealer in My Town' rather than 'car dealer'. Thanks Chris.
Chris TT: Not every page needs to have 1,000 words, of course. But it should be possible to have 1,000 or more without affecting the user experience. Eg, If you've got something else you'd rather users saw first - let's say a picture or a great offer - just put the words underneath that. That no good for whatever reason? Have one page with a small number of words and another with juicy 1,000 word in-depth article.
I think Google has given us a blueprint for the perfect SEOed, link-building, Google-friendly page (and there is no difference between these 3 things IMO) and it is the Knol - where you'll find G highlighting pages with over 4,000 words. G sums it up nicely: a Knol is "an authoritative article about a specific subject".
Ian: Good question on the font. Yes there is a tactical reason. It's not a strategy though - a font might serve strategy (shouldn't everything?) but itself could never be more than a tactic). And there is a story with a twist...
Direct Mail (DM) experts (and i've worked with two masters - Sylvester Stein and Peter Hobday) will tell you that serif fonts (especially Courier) have been proven many times over to be the ones that create the most response (as much as 20% more). In DM - it's the law.
You wont find Hobday's subscriptions marketing advice for free in many places but I just gave you (and him) a link to one where he talks about Courier among other things.
Here comes the twister: I just searched for some more info on Courier and found that Hobday himself did an online test and the sans serif font won!
Lessons: never stop learning and always stay in touch with your pals.
I'm off to find Peter Hobday on LinkedIn and ask him about that test before I tweak my CSS.
Mark and Ian - Hi, you found me.
Yes, Courier New works best for print. Sans Serif works best for online. By a big margin. Verdana and Arial are two good ones I use.
(Why isn't important. In fact 'why' is a diversion.)
What works in print is already well known (But often forgotten). I found what works best online with a test I carried out last year to 3,000 names.
Interesting stuff guys, thanks. That explains why all those Reader's Digest letters are in Courier! ;)
Great job on clarity of explaining basic SEO. But the 1000+ words page benefit need more prove. Thanks
Hi Mark,
Wouldn't diagree with the article and knol statement. Using wordtracker for the success there is pretty essential.
I would though discuss the 1000+ words for people reading online. A study found (I think by Harvard but I'm willing to be corrected) that people needed 300 words to understand a topic but then started losing interest post 500 words.
It's just a case of horses for courses with words and pages - whilst always keeping in mind - relevance.
All the best.
Chris TT: Interesting point. I think a small % of readers of 1,000 + word pages will read it all. Summaries and standfirsts can be teasers and satisfy 'speed readers'. And if I want response to an advert it will go 'above the fold'. Responding is an interesting subject: ever noticed how long those direct mail letters you get are? So there must be more than one type of response (there is). Also, if the page is "an authoritative article about a specific subject" perhaps those that read to the end are more likely to be those that subsequently link. Then there is targeting the long tail of the your page's primary keywords. It's not a dogma, not essential, just a compelling case for users, link building, SEO and response.
Wow, I get it, matter of fact, I just bought the trial (14 days left) and I haven't left my seat...Way to go Mark and wordtracker...I've bought the books and listened to my "web guys" (great guys, but their patience is limited) but now I have a source I understand. I've made it to the top of the second page in Google, with word tracker I'm going to the top of the first. Thanks for making things "understandable" for "the rest of us". I'm a clean comedian, not a SEO guy, but due to finances I HAVE to be my own SEO guy...so. On the 1000 word debate...I added pages of studies to my site that support what I do. My ranking went up immediately, I doubt many people are reading all the studies from places like The Centers for Disease Control or the National Institute of Health, however, the meta crawlers (or whatever they are) must see them, and all the key words...long tails in them. Three sites, www.VirginityRocks.com, www.DefyConformity.com and www.Dontbullyonline.com
Surely the only reason that this Thinking Managers page was visited via over 10,000 keywords is due to the amount of links below the main article. The main article only contains about 200 words whereas the links entries below it contain just over 2000 words with the phrase 'business strategy' repeated in all of the link text. Apart from the 10,000 keyword bit the rest of your article was useful.
Mark. Great stuff. One thing I am uncertain about, as I have seen both. When doing PPC advertising, writing blogs, articles, etc. should we limit the keywords we use to say 10, or should we be using 50 or so. In search engines, do people use long tails, or shorter queries
James: sorry if it could have been clearer but have another look and you'll see that the page visited via over 10,000 keywords is not the one you describe. It is this page - a 2,500 word article on SWOT analysis.
I only picked the 'business strategy' page to illustrate on-page SEO because the optimization was tidier - making it easier to illustrate.
As it happens, the 'business strategy' page you describe does well too: 2,877 different keywords in the last month, 18,708 in the last 6 months.
They are different types of pages and they both do very well. A site with more than 100 pages will need both types of pages and will likely want others too. With SEO, our job is to get the most out of them all.
And the really interesting point here is that not only can you successfully target over 10,000 keywords with one page but that your site probably needs to target hundreds of thousands of different keywords. The only way to do that is to research, strategize and optimize for groups of keywords.
Kaye: As described, start with a couple of main target keywords and then use Wordtracker to see if any other related popular keywords can be naturally added (no specific number is required). Then write your quality content and the rest will happen - you will target many more keywords. But crucially, do this work after your keyword research and SEO strategy.
People use many different length queries in search engines. I have some figures from 2007:
Notice how that page from RankStat just earned itself a link for being useful.
Thanks Mark, for some reason I read straight past the first links going to the Swot analysis page...
i need help to promote this website.thank you for your assistance.
Well I guess it's not really so much about targeting 10,000 words but rather having the right content that may attract attention 10,000 ways.
Agreed, if you are going to write content, make sure that you are targeting related keywords and similar keywords as well as variations on those. Good solid content will gain links and even the varied anchor text can eventually be a traffic generating keyword.
Jeff: Start by learning about keywords and then follow the process of search engine optimization
Just read this interesting article and wondered if its actually possible to target that many keywords? Robert made a good point in that having the right content will attract attention in many different ways, so surely emphasis should be put on writing good content first? Would it not be better to write copy semantically engaging your target keywords and you will naturally rank for lots of other keywords too?
I would be interested to learn if the writer(s) of the article had in their mind, weaving in 10,000 keywords or whether the fact that so many people come to their site using so many different keywords is a consequence of writing a good natural article. Eddy
Thanks Mark,
Interesting article on what can be achieved by focusing on your primary and secondary keywords.
This could be the most valuable information I have ever seen on the topic. I have written articles on my own site that I subsequently submitted to article submission sites only to determine that I jumped the gun and submitted them before Google indexed them resulting in no content credit for my site.
What ultimately creates more value, local "on site" content (articles) or submitting to submission sites?
Thanks for your brilliant post. It has inspied me to become a Wordtracker customer.
Jack Durban
I am new to this whole scene. That is after three years of part time effort, I still feel like there is so much I am missing.
Your suggestions are great. I have really worked to use the highest KEI phrases and build my site around them. I have then added pages specifically SEO focused on other phrases. While I include the primay key word for my niche, I do not seem to be gaining ground. After reading your article, I see that I still a a lot of work to do.
Thank you.
Great article, reinforces what I have been working towards over the last few years.
Jack: On-site content first and then off-site. But widen your inbound link building tactics to go beyond article submission.
Eddy: It is possible to target 10,000 keywords with one page, those screen grabs are there to prove it and you can do it. I agree with you that “emphasis should be put on writing good content first”. The article in the example was written by a professional writer who knows nothing about SEO. Nobody can weave in 10,000 keywords. Just pick your subject with a primary and secondary keyword, write great content, optimize the metadata titles, etc. Importantly, place all this with an SEO strategy and the SEO process.
Hi, could you help me by giving a suggestive percentage of what the keywords should make up the rest of the page? Thanks Mally
Magazine: Don't count your keyword density, just make sure your copy is readable as you follow the process above.
Thank you for the article. More inspiration (and excuse) for me to use Wordtracker again and research mroe keywords. Which is addictive!
This is interesting. I had no idea that all the little words mattered. I will take this into consideration when creating my content from now on.
Thanks much.
Enjoyed the stats on query length for search engines. Keep those stats coming!
good tips man. good article. thx
Great reading thank you!
Interesting Article. The internet has become a competitive market place and SEO has now become THE thing to attract traffic. Thanks for this article...i am just fustrated to learn that building a website is no longer enough to be trendy.
Romain Gilet - CEO languagecoursecentre.com
Why only focus to only 2 keywords?Is there an explanation?Less is better?Can you repeat the primary keyword with another variation of secondary keyword?Very interetsing seo information.
Internet Money: Focus on two keywords, target 10,000. That requires you use variations on your 2 core keywords.