Both alike in dignity, in fair content marketing, where we lay our scene.
Dramatic Romeo and Juliet references aside, this is a scenario that will come up – if it already hasn’t – when you’re targeting keywords in your content.
The question is, what do you do with closely related keyword terms? Do you keep them together? Or do you split them apart?
These are common questions for the SEO content marketer, and rightly so.
When you have two keyword terms that look very similar – either regarding wording or their underlying ideas – it can be hard to know what to do with them.
Here are some of the specific details you may be wondering:
“Should I create content for both keywords?”
“Can I target both keywords in the same piece?”
“How much content should I create for each keyword?”
Before we jump into the answers to these questions, we need to decide if the keywords in question are about the same topic or two different topics.
In other words, are they both Montagues? Or is one a Montague and one a Capulet?
This has everything to do with whether you’ll target them both in one shot, or separate them with your targeting.
Will you break up your two star-crossed keywords, or keep them together forever?
For Closely Related Keyword Terms, Divide (or Add) by Topic
Look at your keywords closely.
You’re probably rolling your eyes, thinking “I’ve already done that – that’s the problem,” but bear with me.
You need to do some research to determine whether they fall under the same topic. You can’t know this offhand; you need to go to the source to figure it out.
Let us hence, as Shakespeare would say. Open up Google. We’re going to follow a great strategy from Orbit Media.
[clickToTweet tweet=”How much content should you create when you have closely related keyword terms? @ExpWriters breaks it down!” quote=”How much content should you create when you have closely related keyword terms? @ExpWriters breaks it down!”]
1. Search for Both Keywords in Google and Compare the Results
Since Google is the main search engine we’re writing for, we need to see what Google says about the keywords in question.
If the related keywords are about the same topic, they will show similar results in Google. If they’re different, there won’t be much overlap at all.
Orbit Media compares “deck addition value” with “how much value does a deck add.” For our purposes, we’ll look at the differences (or similarities) in Google for the terms “how to make spaghetti” and “spaghetti Bolognese recipe.”
2. Check for Similarities or Differences in Results and Key Terms
Here are the results for “spaghetti Bolognese recipe”:
And here are the results for “how to make spaghetti”:
As you can see, although both key phrases have the same word in each, “spaghetti,” they have zero overlap in Google search results. These are two different topics, and we can create different content that targets each.
Simple, right?
But, what if your key phrases have lots of overlap? Take a look at this tweaked example using “how to make spaghetti” and “cook spaghetti.”
The “how to make spaghetti” results don’t change. Here are the results from “cook spaghetti.” I’ve highlighted the overlap between each keyword’s results:
There’s enough overlap to determine that Google sees these two keywords/phrases as belonging to similar topics.
With this information, we can skip creating content for each phrase.
Instead, we can target both keywords in the same piece of content. Here’s how.
How to Target Two Different Keywords in the Same Content Piece
We can create a blog or article that’s optimized for both “cook spaghetti” and “how to make spaghetti.” It’s a good strategy for killing two birds with one stone when you have two very closely related overlapping phrases about the same topic.
If the keywords share some main words, they’re perfect to target in the same content piece.
In our example, “how to make spaghetti” and “cook spaghetti” share a word.
If we wanted to make it even better, we could tweak the second keyword. “Cook spaghetti” could become “make spaghetti.” This way, we have two similar phrases representing broad and narrow ends of a spectrum.
2. Target Topics, Not Keywords
You have your keywords, but you shouldn’t be worrying about keyword density.
Instead, you should be aiming for a good overview of your topic. The keywords should come naturally and fit effortlessly into the flow of the text.
If you’re doing it the other way around and counting keywords, you’re doing it wrong.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Wondering how to target two different keywords in the same content piece? @ExpWriters has some advice!” quote=”Wondering how to target two different keywords in the same content piece? @ExpWriters has some advice!”]
3. Write Up Your Post with Good SEO Practices
That’s not to say you shouldn’t use good SEO when you’re writing about your topic.
Absolutely go ahead and use the great tips and tricks you know for boosting your content with search engine optimization. This should include strategic keyword placement in headers, the meta description, title tags, and in the body of your copy.
Use a primary keyword in the main header, meta description, and H2s. Use your secondary keyword in H2s and H3s.
I repeat: This is not about counting keywords. This is about the future of SEO, which is the semantic web. It’s about meaning, not about exact keyword-matching.
How Much Content Should You Create for Related Keywords?
Another great question about closely related keywords has to do with how much content you should produce for each (or either).
The content creation question has been much-discussed in the industry, in general. A couple of basic rules to follow have emerged from the conversation. These definitely apply to your related keywords.
1. Quality Trumps Quantity Every. Single. Time.
It’s better to have one exceptional piece of content for a keyword rather than dozens of sub par to downright-bad pieces.
In fact, Content Marketing Institute says your content should be “epic.” If you’re putting that much effort into each piece, your production volume will naturally go down.
Guess what? That’s fine. (Breathe a sigh of relief.)
Always focus on quality over quantity when you’re deciding how much content to create. In fact…
2. Don’t Focus on an Amount to Hit at All
Getting as many pieces of content targeting a keyword out there as possible is not the way to rank. The amount doesn’t matter as much as consistency.
As long as you’re continually updating your site with fresh content that’s high quality, you’re fine. The total amount you put out – whether it’s twice a week, once a week, or once every few weeks – won’t make a difference.
Steadily build your content volume – don’t flood the internet and people’s feeds in a short amount of time. Lots of content will help you, but only if each piece has great value.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. You can’t do that with your clout, either.
The Key for Similar Keywords? Common Sense Combined with Strategy
Now that you understand how to approach similar keywords, you can take that knowledge and run with it.
A couple of basic principles apply in every scenario. First, do your research – rely on Google to tell you what’s what. You can target keywords that fall under the same topic can in one piece. Keywords that end up being about two different topics can each get their own limelight.
Second, remember, for your content creation to go anywhere, you have to set up a balance of quality and quantity.
The amount of content you produce for closely related keywords doesn’t matter as much as what you produce. You need strong, epic posts that strive to be the best on the internet for that topic.
A few epic posts are worth more than tens of lazy, filler posts that have little or no value for the user. Epic posts additionally don’t lean on keyword density. Instead, they use keywords naturally and smoothly with some strategic placement as the cherry on top.
Finally, don’t expect magic overnight. Building your presence and rankings takes time, effort, patience, and determination.
It can be hard to create epic content that uses keywords the right way. That’s what Express Writers is here for. We take care of the work so you can soar.
Like Scrooge’s ghost of Christmas past, the keyword rich anchor text, once a very much alive and powerful way to get backlinks, has completely gone out of style. It’s no longer a useful tactic for SEO web content. Whether in your blogs, guest blog content, web content or any content published online, it’s good sense to avoid exact match keyword anchor texts.
Let’s explore just why this good old precept is now an outdated no-no.
There was a recent fiasco with Google approaching one of SEO’s biggest blogs in the community, Moz.com. One of the red-flagged items they sent to Moz in a warning email was about spammy anchor text. Oops—to one of the biggest SEO agencies on the web!
We are going to take a look at how you can link in your content without doing too much, if any, keyword anchor texts, as well as just what keyword rich anchor text is.
What Is Keyword Rich Anchor Text?
It is very simple and something we are sure you have done at some point in your content writing. Let’s say you are writing a blog about vegetable hair dye and you link to your product page that is specifically vegetable hair dye; if you link the page to an anchor text of “vegetable hair dye” then you are utilizing keyword rich anchor text in your SEO web content. Easy, right? Well, know that we have cleared that up, you are probably wondering just how you can link people to your website without doing too much keyword linking.
Let’s take a look at a few steps that can help you out significantly when you are either writing anchor text or not.
How Do You Write With or Without Anchor Text?
The good news is it is not very difficult to utilize anchor text in your SEO content. We are going to give you some help when it comes to how to write without keyword anchor text. The steps are as follows:
1. When Using Anchor Text, Use It Once. You can still use anchor text in SEO web content, but it is important that you use it sparingly and do not focus on keyword heavy text. Many websites were going about utilizing keyword anchor text and linking to multiple pages all over their site; this caused problems with Google and was considered to be quite spammy. If the websites happened to use their keyword anchor text only once, linking to the most important page for that particular piece of content, they would have been fine. Because of their mistakes, exact keyword-matching anchor text is something to avoid. When using anchor text in your SEO content, you should always make sure you are making variations because if you use the same anchor text all the time, you will find that things will not really go your way. If you use keyword texts, consider making sure that you only use anchors about use anchors about thirty percent of the time.
2. When Linking Anchor Text, Link to the Proper Landing Page. Linking to a relevant landing page is important for any linking in any post, especially when utilizing anchor text. If you write something about vegetable hair dye, make sure you link people to vegetable hair dye, not brushes or hair dyeing utensils. This will not only look like spam, but will create some upset clients. If they believe you are linking to some spiffy vegetable hair dye, and you don’t, they will leave quickly. Customers never want to feel like they are being scammed into buying something they are not looking for. If you are not linking to a specific landing page, but just want to get people into a general area, then do not use keyword anchor text. Either way is a great recipe for proper linking to make sure you avoid upsetting the Google gods. This makes sure that you use the right amount of links and make sure you stay relevant to your audience. You will find that the more you follow this step, the happier your clients, and potential clients, will be.
3. Never Over-Saturate With Links. It wise to always avoid saturating your website and SEO content with too many anchor texts, especially if these links are not relevant to your SEO web content. This is considered black hat SEO; avoid it. This is similar to keyword stuffing – the more you utilize the links, the more likely Google can think you are spamming readers. It will also read as if you are writing predominately to rank and not for the human clientele you hope to reach. You may feel that it will come across natural, but if you are solely thinking about how to write specifically to rank, you will always forget how to write for humans. Write for a human audience and come up with an anchor text that will be perfectly natural in your sentences. (Just an extra tip: You will find that the most natural sounding anchor texts might be ones that are in the middle of a paragraph instead of at the beginning or end.)
4. Write As Naturally As Possible. As mentioned above, writing naturally is a perfect way to incorporate your anchor text without over-saturating or sounding like you are trying to sell something. This is something that is highly important in content writing whether it is simply writing up web content or if you are writing an anchor text within the SEO content. You do not want to incorporate the anchor text in your writing where it sounds stilted and forced; this is a red flag to readers and Google. Do you remember reading all of those blogs about writing naturally? Have you started to forget them? Well, you should begin to refresh your mind and make sure you incorporate natural writing at all times. This will help your link strategy and will ensure that readers will enjoy reading your material and will eventually become part of your client base.
5. Try Different Anchor Texts For A Landing Page. If you find that one type of anchor text is not really helping the current landing page you are promoting, then it might be a good idea to try out different anchor texts in your content. This is a great opportunity to not use keyword-specific anchors. You do not want to keep doing the same thing if it is not working out for you and your site. In fact, even if your page is successful, it might just be a good idea to change up the anchor text every now and then to keep the clicks fresh for specific landing pages. Make sure you use your analytics to see how different anchors are helping, or hindering, your views.
6. Consider Linking To Three Resources and Three Landing Pages, Maximum. Sometimes, you may find that you want to include multiple landing pages and resources. Consider using three different resources and landing pages throughout your text, but no more. This can help you have a decent amount of coverage, but not so much that you oversaturate your SEO web content. One thing to keep in mind is that the more links you have on a page, the lower your page rank will be. In addition, the more links you have in a post, the more likely your site is going to be considered spam. This goes for your blog posts and any links that are on each landing page. Make sure you do not have an overabundance of links. However, you should always keep in mind that if you make a claim about something, you should have information to back it up.
7. Make Sure You Have A Great Link Strategy In Mind. When it comes to using anchor text in your SEO content, it is important that you have a specific strategy in mind. This will help to make sure you use the right amount of links for your site and can help you adapt easily to any changes Google makes in the future. If you do not have a current link strategy, sit down and look over the various guidelines and suggestions out there. Mold a strategy and then watch it play out. If you find that the first strategy you came up with does not work, never fear, you can keep tweaking your strategy until you find one that works the best for you. This could mean that you make several tweaks before you find the best strategy, but once you do, you will see some amazing results. Again, remember always to pay attention to Google and see what changes are being made so that you can make sure your link strategies are constantly up-to-date.
Avoid Improper Linking… & Use Some Great Anchor Texts
If you follow some of the above tips and utilizing great anchor texts, you will find that you keep away from linking improperly and keep the hounds of Google at bay. A great thing to add to your link strategy is to make sure you incorporate a few great resource links to balance out your commercial links (links that sell one or several of your products). Again, always keep an eye on your analytics to make sure any anchors you have chosen are working. Following the above steps and keeping an eye on your analytics will help you have a tremendously successful link strategy, while keeping you away from bans or penalties. Exciting, isn’t it?
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