How Specific Should Your Keyword Phrases Be?
Generally, when people talk about choosing keywords for a website, what they’re really talking about is choosing keyword phrases. With a few exceptions, singular keywords are just too general. They’re either not going to be precise enough to get any traction, or they’re going to be so over-used that it’s impossible to rank for them. For instance, using just the name of the city doesn’t go far enough, as people are generally going to search for what they want to find in that city, not just the name itself. Something else like the word “shoes” is going to be saturated and won’t really help, even if you do sell shoes.
To avoid these issues, you use keyword phrases. You add the words “Mexican restaurant” before the name of the city, for instance, or you add the words “entry-level running” in front of shoes. It all depends on what you’re selling and what audience you’re targeting, but you have to pick a handful of words that work together to attract the right viewers. People who search for these specific phrases are your target audience. Remember, there are three or more words in 58% of searches.
Can You Be Too Specific?
As you can see from the above, having only one word can make things too general. Someone looking for new running shoes doesn’t care about seeing all types of shoes. They want running shoes. But can you go too far in the other direction?
You could. If you add too many qualifiers, even if they do describe your product, you decrease the chances that someone is actually going to search for that phrase. For instance, something like “new size 10 men’s running shoes in blue and made from sustainable materials” is too long. You can get around this by breaking things up and using numerous keyword phrases on one page. You could use “new men’s running shoes” and “sustainable men’s shoes,” along with “sustainable running shoes” and “blue men’s running shoes.” In this case, you likely carry the same shoe in multiple sizes, so you don’t necessarily have to target that. The user can find the blue shoes that they like, made from the materials they prefer, and then choose the size that fits them.
That’s not to say that you should never include sizes or that it won’t be relevant in some cases. Every site has different needs and targets a unique audience. You could also create similar pages for all of the sizes you offer, if you want that information to be included. But it helps to show you how using numerous, fairly specific keywords is better than using something too generic or too specific, at least in most cases.
How Can We Help?
Here at Content Customs, our team has decades of combined SEO experience. We know how to create the content you need to get the web traffic you’re after. Get in touch with us today and we’d be happy to show you how we can help you achieve success.