I got a friend who has a blog that hasn't been ranking well. I told him it could be his keywords. He asked me if there's an ideal time frame to "test" keywords, how many keywords to use, and when do you choose new keywords? Thought I'd ask you folks since you're a bit more experienced than me. Thanks for your responses.
Choosing new keywords for a blog
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Hi Ralph
First, it's really important to understand that if a blog or site is trying to rank for too generic - or popular - a keyword or phrase, then it's very, very difficult to achieve a good ranking.
For example, anyone who writes about travel and expects to rank for the keyword "travel" (and focuses on just that keyword) is going up against the biggest players out there - TripAdvisor, Travelocity, Orbits, etc - and they have whole teams of SEO experts on staff, and a budget that is bigger than some countries GNP.....
Since you don't mention what your friend's blog is, it's hard to say specifically what his problem is, or how to fix it, but in general if you focus on niche-based (long tail) phrases, it's easier to achieve some good ranking BUT you also have to make sure it's worth your time and effort to see if there are enough searchers on those phrases....
Which is WHY it's so important to take time to do some research first.....He should use Google's free keyword research tool and spend a few hours trying as many combinations of words and phrases related to his topic as he can come up with, making note of those that have a good amount of search traffic, and in another tab or window, search on those words & phrases to see who is already ranking for them, to assess his "competition".
The idea is to focus on those words/phrases where:
- There are a significant number of people searching for them on a monthly basis
- He can do a better job than the competition Google already has indexed/rankedSome things to keep in mind:
- Don't "change" keywords mid-stream, you'll just confuse Google.
- You should have a short list of "primary" keywords/phrases for the site (in general)
- You should have a VERY short list of keywords/phrases for EACH page/post but they should be the same or very similar to the site's keyword list - STAY FOCUSED ON YOUR NICHE
- DON'T overdo it with keyword use - Google does NOT like what it considers "keyword stuffing" so just use the phrase a few times throughout your content in a a natural manner, and use it to name and describe accompanying images.
This should help your friend rank better, but I'd love to hear back after a few weeks to see if this helps....
Posted 1 year ago #
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