Should I focus on one main keyword or several smaller ones?

[bobrittany]

I have a website I've been working on for about a year, regularly adding new articles. I probably have about 150 different articles. I optimize each article that I write for a different, low competition keyword (still related to the same subject matter), in hopes that some of my articles will end up with high google rankings.

My question is this: I've been reading success stories on here about people who focus on just ONE keyword for their entire website, creating a small website with only 5-10 articles all optimized for that one keyword. Is doing that a better/more effective approach? I was using the approach of providing a lot of articles with helpful information about the subject but it isn't working very well for me (I'm not bringing in a lot of traffic or getting high rankings).

Would it help to create backlinks with the anchor text being the keyword of a specific article, wait until that article has moved up in the rankings, and then do the same for all my articles? Or is it hopeless and should I start over with a new, smaller, website that is more laser-focused to just one keyword?

Lots of my competitors are ranking high for the same keywords I'm using, and their entire website is not dedicated to those keywords. I'm confused!

I have a keyword density tool that measures the keyword density per article and for the entire site. Should my entire site be focused on one main keyword even if my individual articles are keyword optimized for unique low competition keywords?

[jlary]

In my opinion You should focus on several keywords in your overall niche. there could be a lot of factors of why you're not competing.

- Are you using duplicate content
- Is your site verified
- Do you have H1 and H2 tags in your articles
- Are there pictures in your articles
- Do you have a site map

If you have done all of these then, you should find where you are placed in the SE. I found that Social Media posting to be quite effective in getting good results fast.

Focus on the page(and keyword) that you'd want to rank for first. Submit articles and create blogs that compliment this page and point urls. from these spots back to your money page.

Keyword in title
keyword on all picture titles
keyword density
keyword H1 H2 tags
keyword underline at least once
keyword bolded at least once
keyword meta tags
create blogger account(actually create an everything google account-youtube, picasa,googleplaces etc)*
create flickr account
place articles on blogs*
pictures on blogs*
create videos(keywords in title, and in description page url in description)*

*Rinse and repeat. Create more blog accounts with different user names.

Good luck!

[eltonovereasy]

I'd agree. Multiple pages=multiple keywords, unless you're building pages to support your central keyword. Since you've already got 150 uniques, many smaller KWs is the way to go.

Since the site's already strongly targeted against specific KWs, I'd start to take measures to boost the site itself as a whole, and for a while, just grab any and all links that come to hand, whether they're anchor text or not, just to get some link power pouring into the site.

You may also want to take a look at how the links are structured internally on the site. If you're not distributing the links widely from the site's core pages to the articles, you'll see limited performance from the pages off of the beaten path, because the SEO weight of the site itself is not fully distributed.

A wide-spread tactic is definitely doable. You just have to treat the whole site at once, usually, and many rankings often start to register at the same time sitewide.

[Psykryph]

I have an e-commerce website with nearly 100,000 pages indexed in Google, unlike my competitors (even the top ones) who only have a few thousand. That doesn't mean anything in itself, but I would NEVER ever consider trying to optimize and build links to each one.

Although I believe in LSI, I do not recommend trying to rank for a ton of different keywords. Pick a main keyword and have several more that are slightly different from it and use those.

People think they are so smart when they get fast 1st Page/1st Place rankings for a low competition keyword. They are not. I've tried this and I have 1st place Google rankings for a medium-low competition keyword, and have had it for many months. It brings me very very little traffic. If you want low traffic, then by all means, take a shortcut and try to rank for low competition keywords...you only waste your own time in the long run.

[NastyBlast]

I agree with what people have said here

Additionally, you need to consider the logistics of your situation especially in content management. I have control over all my domains content easily. from a single control panel I can control the content on a theoretically infinite amount of domains. In my situation I can manage multiple themes and multiple keyword targets on a single domain or many domains.

You will get the fastest results by having fewer keyword targets per domain. However when it comes to the future you would need to deploy more domains to take more keyword terms. This can quickly spiral out of control which is the situation I ended up in until I established a multi-domain CMS ( content management system ).

so a lot of this depends on your resources both current and in the foreseeable future. If you're successful you may find yourself in an unmanageable content situation.

with that in mind the reason you might go with a single domain is to manage content easier. Our results will take longer. On the other side of the coin you would have to manage multiple domains and that can be quite time-consuming without a CMS that meets your needs.

[dburk]

Hi bobrittany,

You ask a good question, as it shows you are thinking strategically. There are many possible SEO strategies and each offers certain strengths and weaknesses. Whether you find one strategy superior to another, in part, depends on how well you execute that strategy.

Those building websites focused around a single keyword are usually trying to exploit the advantage of EMDs (Exact Match keyword Domain). It is a bit easier to rank EMDs due to the keyword always being included prominently in the URL. This seems to work for Exact Match keyword sub-domains as well, and to a lesser extent with keywords in directory and file names.

It is not necessary to create many different websites, it is just one strategy with certain advantages, as well as certain disadvantages. Another well chosen strategy might be even better.

Whichever strategy you do choose, be sure to maximize the advantages that strategy offers. A key principle is to choose a primary keyword for each page and to use keyword rich internal cross links to optimize each page for your targeted keyword.

First do your keyword research and find the keywords that have the most targeted traffic for purchasing products or services within your chosen niche. The highest trafficked keywords will generally be hardest to rank for since you will likely have more competition on those keywords. Don't let this deter you.

As you go for highly competitive keywords you can select slightly less competitive keyword phrases that include your primary targeted keyword within the phrase. This strategy will help you get quicker 1st page listings, resulting in a quicker build up of traffic, while simultaneously optimizing and promoting traffic for your primary targeted keyword.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by NastyBlast

I agree with what people have said here

Additionally, you need to consider the logistics of your situation especially in content management. I have control over all my domains content easily. from a single control panel I can control the content on a theoretically infinite amount of domains. In my situation I can manage multiple themes and multiple keyword targets on a single domain or many domains.

You will get the fastest results by having fewer keyword targets per domain. However when it comes to the future you would need to deploy more domains to take more keyword terms. This can quickly spiral out of control which is the situation I ended up in until I established a multi-domain CMS ( content management system ).

so a lot of this depends on your resources both current and in the foreseeable future. If you're successful you may find yourself in an unmanageable content situation.

with that in mind the reason you might go with a single domain is to manage content easier. Our results will take longer. On the other side of the coin you would have to manage multiple domains and that can be quite time-consuming without a CMS that meets your needs.

Hi NastyBlast,

Which multi-domain CMS platform did you choose and why? Did you test different platforms?

[kimseo]

Originally Posted by bobrittany

I have a website I've been working on for about a year, regularly adding new articles. I probably have about 150 different articles. I optimize each article that I write for a different, low competition keyword (still related to the same subject matter), in hopes that some of my articles will end up with high google rankings.

My question is this: I've been reading success stories on here about people who focus on just ONE keyword for their entire website, creating a small website with only 5-10 articles all optimized for that one keyword. Is doing that a better/more effective approach? I was using the approach of providing a lot of articles with helpful information about the subject but it isn't working very well for me (I'm not bringing in a lot of traffic or getting high rankings).

Would it help to create backlinks with the anchor text being the keyword of a specific article, wait until that article has moved up in the rankings, and then do the same for all my articles? Or is it hopeless and should I start over with a new, smaller, website that is more laser-focused to just one keyword?

Lots of my competitors are ranking high for the same keywords I'm using, and their entire website is not dedicated to those keywords. I'm confused!

I have a keyword density tool that measures the keyword density per article and for the entire site. Should my entire site be focused on one main keyword even if my individual articles are keyword optimized for unique low competition keywords?

If you are looking for quick return, It's better to focus on several low competitive keywords, Infact I would suggest you to work on your main site keyword and some low competitive keywords simultaneously

[yukon]

Why would anyone limit themselves on free traffic?

Create a new internal page per new keyword, rank the page/keyword & repeat...

[paul nicholls]

each of your internal pages should really be tackling a seperate keyword

why only go for 1 keyword when you can go for lots and it looks a lot more natural that way too

once you start building lots of internal pages and building links you will automatically start being found for some long tail searches anyway

it mainly depends on your competition as to how many links you need to build

if you go for failry low competition keywords then good content with some good on page seo and a little bit of social bookmarking can do wonders

hth

paul