Quick question about keyphrases

9 replies
Hi Guys

sorry if I've asked similar questions previously it's taking some getting my head around it. I understand about pillar posts, keeping main keyphrases/questions to 3 to 5ish, and internal linking back to those pillar posts from other posts with related keyphrases/questions.

It was explained to me that I shouldn't create 2 (or more) posts with the same keyphrases/questions, as then the 2 pages will be competing with each other on Google, and each additional post would dilute the rank juice instead of focusing it all on the 1 main pillar post.

So then presumably the same applies to all the secondary keyphrases/posts?

Does that not then limit the total number of posts I can create to how many keyphrases or questions I can find or think up? There isn't an infinite number of keyphrases or questions about something.

What would you do - would you create a post for every keyphrase you can think of/find, then start creating a load of general pages with lots of internal links? Or would you start reusing keyphrases?

It's probably a long way to ask the question, but basically I am not clear what to do when you've created a post for every keyphrase you can find/think of?

Sorry for stupid, and many thanks for any assistance
#keyphrases #question #quick
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    At some point you have to accept the answers and 'do your thing'. Nothing wrong (it's not stupid) with asking for clarification but you have to be wiling to accept the answers. You've had excellent advice but your response has been 'thanks but doesn't exactly answer my question'....maybe your already KNOW the answers and are looking for verification?

    When it comes to content, keywords and keyword phrases, site organization, link organization, etc....there is no one right way to do it. There are site styles and opinions and experts that disagree. Sort of like real life.

    My question to you is this? In the YEARS you've asked about keyword phrases and pillar structure - how many pages have you added to your site/blog? From your questions I don't understand if you are moving toward a goal or sitting still waiting to 'know more'. The linking strategies are dictated by the site organization you decided to use - and there are multiple expert sites and blogs detailing how to build silo or pillar sites.

    What is your goal? Are you trying to sell a specific product or offering a range of products? Are you trying to entertain visitors or educate them? Do you KNOW your target market and what they are looking for?


    What would you do - would you create a post for every keyphrase you can think of/find, then start creating a load of general pages with lots of internal links? Or would you start reusing keyphrases?

    When I was building sites my practice was to identify 20-30 keyword or keyword phrases - then create 3 titles for each and then write the articles. I did that each month for each site in development. I used "how to", "benefits of" but also used long tails so the titles were not identical. The meaning of a 'keyword phrase' is a WORD OR PHRASE INTERNET USERS SEARCH FOR TO FIND A PRODUCT OR SUBJECT MATTER. It's not magic - the keywords can change over time - it just gives you a target to aim for that will attract a certain market share.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gaia Media
      So what you are saying is, if e.g. there are a maximum possible 50 exact keyphrases - that you'd start spreading those keyphrases out by inserting them into long tail titles and such. Ok that makes sense. It's not as easy for us as we operate adult sites and Google etc block access to the keyphrases we use. Thanks for feedback.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Originally Posted by Gaia Media View Post

    It was explained to me that I shouldn't create 2 (or more) posts with the same keyphrases/questions, as then the 2 pages will be competing with each other on Google, and each additional post would dilute the rank juice instead of focusing it all on the 1 main pillar post.
    I have search terms that I have 6 of the 10 spots on Google - and we are talking like wordpress and woocommerce terms so its not that they are slouch way deep long tail terms either. So the advice given isnt so true.

    What gets interesting when your page Context ( content ) is super focused on a topic is in th beginning maybe your PA ( Page Authority ) or the ability for a page to rank may suffer a bit - MAYBE... but as time goes on and you are adding more content within the same context - your DA in theory will increase.

    Originally Posted by Gaia Media View Post

    So then presumably the same applies to all the secondary keyphrases/posts?
    You are way over thinking this

    Originally Posted by Gaia Media View Post

    Does that not then limit the total number of posts I can create to how many keyphrases or questions I can find or think up? There isn't an infinite number of keyphrases or questions about something.
    The short answer, NO . I personally to start will write an amount of content - usually 50 pages or so on the topic of my site keeping CONTEXT and INTENT in mind... BUT as proficient as you may think you are on a subject the next step will inevitably prove you wrong - YOUR next step is trying to figure out more terms... MY next step is Using Google Analytics and looking at where my traffic is landing and the terms they are using to get there. You are guessing, and I am using hard Data to determine what content to write next.

    Me, You and everyone else should only be creating an SEO list of terms in the very narrow beginning stages, and then converting our energy to REAL Data that our sites and Google Analytics provide


    Originally Posted by Gaia Media View Post

    What would you do - would you create a post for every keyphrase you can think of/find, then start creating a load of general pages with lots of internal links? Or would you start reusing keyphrases?
    Base content first, that guides your sites context. If you are selling something - or not actually... you have to understand the "Buyers Cycle"

    1) People just looking up the subject IE "Wedding Dress"
    2) People now getting more serious and looking deeper "Italian White wedding dress with Train"
    3) Then we get into comparison shopping "White cotton Wedding Dress vs Silk"
    4) Now is when things get exact... <insert Brand name> Silk Wedding Dress with 12 foot train and embellishment X
    5) The after purchase stage - "How to clean a silk wedding dress" or "How to store a silk wedding dress"

    Understanding the buyers cycle we can now start looking at the buyers ( visitors ) intent We can see at every step the inquiry gets longer and longer - more detailed... targeting a term such as "Wedding Dress" Yes may be high in traffic, but will be low on action. - and in this I am not saying dont target a primary term... because this goes back to developing a sites overall DA ( Domain Authority )

    With this in mind we can start linking within our site Based where they are dropping in... if the drop on a "Wedding Dress" entry page, we know that they will be asking questions like "how much does a wedding dress cost?" "How do you measure for a wedding dress" and so on and so on.

    In theory - and just to be clear I know about nothing about wedding dresses - you want write content within context to your site overall... you then want to understand the intent of your visitor based on what page they land on, what their next following question may be ( the intent ) and provide content based on that.

    Like I said in the beginning you can start looking at Google Analytics to figure out terms you may not be targeting specifically for that people are searching for. The quicker you can take YOU out of decision making process and replace YOU with DATA the better
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    • Profile picture of the author Gaia Media
      Thanks for your feedback Savidge - so what you are saying is it's ok to use the same broad terms if you mix them up in various different titles. Ok I can work with that. It's not so easy for us to search for questions and other search-intent specific stuff using the various tools, coz we have an adult site and Google and most others do not give us any data on our flavor of keyphrases. So a bit of guesswork is required unfortunately.
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by Gaia Media View Post

        Thanks for your feedback Savidge - so what you are saying is it's ok to use the same broad terms if you mix them up in various different titles. Ok I can work with that. It's not so easy for us to search for questions and other search-intent specific stuff using the various tools, coz we have an adult site and Google and most others do not give us any data on our flavor of keyphrases. So a bit of guesswork is required unfortunately.
        I personally do not have any adult websites... but with ALL of the websites i have - its more than a few - I can access this data in Google Analytics. Start by looking at this: ( https://datadrivenu.com/google-analytics-entrances/ ) and then goto the section "How to Find Entrances In Google Analytics 4?" ( just short of half way down the page ) THIS will allow you to see all points of entry AND see the "Query String" AKA the search term used to locate your page in the Serps.
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  • Originally Posted by Gaia Media View Post


    Sorry for stupid, and many thanks for any assistance
    What are people talkin' about?

    Where dothest the Zeitgeist explode mostest?

    Upon WHOSE lips is WHAT?

    See, bcs I holdin' a MASSIVE MASSIVE key here.

    Scrape away the rust, an' it says ETERNAL TREASURES SHALL BE THINE.

    If'n I could discovah the lock this baby snaps right open, likely delisho glories would be mine.

    Such are the smack-yusself-in-the-tits points between surefire access nirvana an' evolvin' whispahs on the breeze.

    Thing is, how does the plannit feel to you rn?

    What are people sayin'?

    What is the MOOD ... eithah evident or unspoken?

    Your keywords are always HERE.

    Bcs the voice of the planit happens in realah time than no kinda metric algoschwango.

    Evry Yogic filosofy gowin' observes the perpetyool & catalytic pulse of sensayshwaahn an' actschwaahn.

    So you LISSIN fore'n you SPEAK.

    (Plus also you don't evah fart out loud in groop class -- but this is a speshl rectal talent known only to the most undeniably hooman gooroos of soopreme bendiness.)

    You might also wish to considah why we gaht a speakable concept like KEYPHRASE anyways.

    Who tips these words 'pon yr lips, zackly?

    An' how do we end up stuck with the fkrs?

    So, next time you in yr favo coffee hangout, you must srsly ask yusself this:

    DO I FREQUENT THIS PLACE TO BONE UP ON KEYWORDS, OR ARE THEY NATCHRLLY SPEWIN' OUTTA HERE WHILE IMA ENJOYIN' MUSSELF?

    tbh the hugest prahblem evah we gaht with keywords is marketahs naht knowin' shit 'bout what they talkin' 'bout.

    "Let's float our next amazing concept onto this promising new audience. They will LOVE IT. Dig out the KEYWORDS and let's gooooo!"

    How spectacularly dumbass.

    How unobservant, how uttahly MORONZONE.

    Like Fred Astaire said, "you can't dance to the music unless you can hear the tune."

    (Keyword enthoosiasts will now no doubt'n Google this one to figure

    1) I made it up.

    2) If'n you exorcise the faux attrubutayshwaahn, it's necessarily troo.)

    We are such lipsy flapsy wanna wanna spielflippahs!

    So, yeah, we gaht KEYWORDS as a whole buncha stuck-togethah-stuffs occupyin' our attention rn.

    But do people talk this way?

    People you know?

    People you love?

    They do naht!
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  • Profile picture of the author deltahost
    Originally Posted by Gaia Media View Post

    Hi Guys
    It was explained to me that I shouldn't create 2 (or more) posts with the same keyphrases/questions, as then the 2 pages will be competing with each other on Google
    The principle is yes, but no one fully knows the exact criteria for evaluating content by a search engine, this is a big "secret", most likely it is a very complex formula with many variables... wording: identical phrases in page titles can be competitors in search results, this is true . Tested by experience. But in the correct site structure, pages containing a similar title have similar content and not a copy, 2nd factor - the system understands the hierarchy of pages, conclusion: the more similar they are, the more often they will displace each other in search results and vice versa
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  • Profile picture of the author Rully
    same thing here...
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    So, I am of the opinion that it benefits me enormously that I have pages from my sites in positions 1, 3, 4, 9 or 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.

    Yes, you want to be number one because number one gets about 30% of the traffic. But what's wrong with you getting the traffic from number 2 (12% of the traffic) and number 3 (10% of the traffic)?

    Me, I see nothing wrong in that. On the contrary, I see benefits.

    Savidge4 mentioned wedding dresses, and he's right. Tina Valerdi ballgown wedding dress and such are buying keywords.

    Tina Valerdi makes several ballgown wedding dresses every year. Which means, you could be writing several pages with the keyword Tina Valerdi ballgown wedding dresses and be providing new and useful info to your visitors.

    You could be writing about the Tina Valerdi ballgown wedding dresses with tulle skirt on one page, Tina Valerdi ballgown wedding dresses with off the shoulder... And of course, you can have a page for each name, like Tina Valerdi wedding dresses - Kelly (Kelly for those not in the business, is the name of one such dress).

    Since some of your visitors do not know which Tina Valerdi they want, they will click on several tabs... chose a finalist, then buy. What is wrong with all the semi-finalist tabs they click on being yours? When all the semi-finalists are yours, the finalist is yours too. And that is the goal of goals in this game, no?

    Once you start having visitors, you go, like Savidge4 says, to your analytics and see which keywords your visitors actually use to find your pages. And do not be afraid to pick keywords that make sense but have only a handful of visitors a month... Ten visitors a month per keyword, if you have 300 such keywords, adds up to real traffic.

    Have you noticed that I've basically said the same thing as Savidged? But not exactly the same and not thin (filler) content?

    Imagine my post and Savidge4's post came up in the SERP's as 1 and 2. Would both have been useful to you? Even if both me and Savidged used the same keyword to pop up in spots 1 and 2? Do you, as a visitor, even care about how we got to be in your results?

    Google is another thing, it cares. But it also cares that the posts provide different and not thin info.

    So, go for it, write as many useful posts on a keyword as you can... The key element is usefulness to your visitors.

    Let me show you the other side, the useless but correct grammatically content:
    "Mortgage loans, also called home loans, come in many forms and shapes. If you are shopping for one, the best thing to do is to talk to a loan originator. Loan originators help home buyers and people who want to refinance their home navigate the complicated mortgage field.

    There are many times of mortgage loans. There are mortgage loans for all types of income, for all types of properties. Each mortgage lender, though, makes up their own rules about who to lend and how to lend. That is why it is best you talk to a loan originator early. That gives you time to acquaint yourself with the mortgage field, learn what options you have available. Your mortgage loan originator will help you choose the best. one."

    The above is what Google calls thin content. You noticed, I hope, that in terms of grammar and spelling it's not bad. It just don't say a darn thing anybody can use. If your content is like this, or close to it, do not bother.

    The good side;
    "You're looking for a mortgage but your taxes say you made next to nothing last year? If you're self-employed or buying an investment property, there's still hope. There are mortgage programs that use bank statement deposits to qualify you, or the future net-rent income (for some, it can be negative), assets, or profit and loss statements. They are called non-qm loans in the industry. And, wonder of wonders, some of these loan programs allow for first-time home buyers!

    These are not loan products your bank offers, so your typical bank loan originator cannot help you. So go to a mortgage broker. Most have at least one source of non-qm loans.

    The interest rates are higher than those your bank (or any bank) will give you, the down-payment too. Also, they tend to have pre-payment penalties. But, hey, if you find a good deal and your taxes says you're broke, you still can get that deal.

    So, Google "non-qm mortgages" and find yourself a broker or loan originator that works for a broker and buy that sucker."

    The above content would help a subset of mortgage loan seekers, especially if every term in the list of alternative ways to qualify leads to a page that describes in detail that kind of loan program, no?

    I can easily imagine wanting to rank on page 1 for non-qm mortgage loans in Seattle(or Chicago, Reno or Boston).

    Seattle Mortgage Loans: Qualify Based on Assets Alone
    Seattle Mortgage Loans: Qualify Based on Profit and Loss Statements Alone
    Seattle Mortgage Loans: Qualify Based on DSCR (Debt-to-Service Ratio) Alone
    Seattle Mortgage Loans: Qualify Based on Bank Statements Alone.

    I can easily imagine me jumping with joy upon seeing my pages in Google's Serps for Seattle Mortgage Loans like this:
    1.Seattle Mortgage Loans: Qualify Based on Assets Alone
    2.Seattle Mortgage Loans
    3. Seattle Mortgage Loans: Qualify Based on Profit and Loss Statements Alone
    4.Seattle Mortgage Loans: Qualify Based on DSCR (Debt-to-Service Ratio) Alone
    5.Seattle Mortgage Loans: Qualify Based on Bank Statements Alone.

    That would mean I would get more than half the traffic for Seattle Mortgage Loans, a bunch of traffic for each way to qualify, and a bunch of visitors who typed in something like: Is a mortgage loan based on profit and loss a good idea for buying a 2-unit building for your mother-in-law and a bunch who would throw in qualifiers like: best, lowest interest rate, compare, first-time homebuyer, condo, as an investment, etc.

    Short of it: whoever''s been telling you to not compete with yourself does not know what they're talking about nor have they given this any thought.

    Originally Posted by Gaia Media View Post

    Hi Guys

    sorry if I've asked similar questions previously it's taking some getting my head around it. I understand about pillar posts, keeping main keyphrases/questions to 3 to 5ish, and internal linking back to those pillar posts from other posts with related keyphrases/questions.

    It was explained to me that I shouldn't create 2 (or more) posts with the same keyphrases/questions, as then the 2 pages will be competing with each other on Google, and each additional post would dilute the rank juice instead of focusing it all on the 1 main pillar post.

    So then presumably the same applies to all the secondary keyphrases/posts?

    Does that not then limit the total number of posts I can create to how many keyphrases or questions I can find or think up? There isn't an infinite number of keyphrases or questions about something.

    What would you do - would you create a post for every keyphrase you can think of/find, then start creating a load of general pages with lots of internal links? Or would you start reusing keyphrases?

    It's probably a long way to ask the question, but basically I am not clear what to do when you've created a post for every keyphrase you can find/think of?

    Sorry for stupid, and many thanks for any assistance
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