Primary vs Secondary Keyword Relevance

16 replies
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Hi, i'm a tad confused on keyword research. Let me explain.

Lets say Im reviewing Barbeques.....BarbequeReviews.com is my dough-main

I suppose Barbeque Reviews is my primary keyword, yes?

Well lets say Barbeque Reviews gets 22,000 monthly searches, but is extremely competetive, Very Difficult according to Research Software and Google Top 10 Search.

Most guides ive read at this point would say pick another topic to affiliate.

However, what if my secondary keywords (individual product models) (the things that will lead to sales) are getting good searches with low competition?

ie... Hunts 2500LTE Barbeque = 2,400 monthly searches
ie... Hunts 2500LTE Barbeque review = 800 monthly searches
Competition = Relatively Easy


Would this still be bad to pursue creating “barbequereviews.com” ? While the primary or domain keyword is way too competitive. The secondary keywords or products, the bulk of the site are low competition.


Im confused on the relevance of the said “primary keyword” in this case. As, I was assuming a big chunk of traffic would come from “buyers keywords” (people who already want to buy, and just want that last review to “sell them”, ie JoeCreditCardoInHando, google searches, Hunts 994LS Elite Series Barbeque Review”). My site comes up… hxxwww.barbequereviews.com/hunts-994LS-Elite-Series-Barbeque-review


But everywhere I read seems to suggest otherwise. Arent the product searches more important than the primary?


Should barbequereviews.com still be pursued in this case?
#keyword #primary #relevance #secondary
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
    Your primary keyword for your domain name is good if you have one like barbequereviews dot com.

    It makes perfect sense to have pages on your site about different types of barbecues. Truthfully, exact match domain names are nice but don't give you the boost in rankings they used to. But if you have one that makes sense, then use it for sure.

    Part of the deal with most keyword search tools is that they attempt to sell you an exact match domain name through their affiliate link. Nothing wrong with that if you want a domain like that. But its not a big deal either unless your domain name is way out of line with your content.

    Like PinkPoodleSkirts dot com/ weber-A330-grill-review, but what you have is fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author JRJWrites
    Targeting a heavy-competition keyword like that is absolutely fine ... provided that you know what you're doing.

    In my opinion, go for it. I can't believe that nobody has snapped up that domain name yet!

    You should be able to rank relatively easy for the two secondary keywords you mentioned.

    As always, SEO questions are reserved for this forum: Adsense / PPC / SEO Discussion Forum
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  • Profile picture of the author LloydMS
    What you're doing is actually exactly what you should be doing.

    Target the hanging fruit, lower competition keywords, while building authority for your site. At some point, your site will be strong enough to start focusing on the more competitive keyword.

    If you haven't already, I'd suggest learning about building your site as a silo.

    In your case, you could have a silo page called gas bbq reviews, another called charcoal bbq reviews, etc. Not suggesting those words specifically but basically the major categories of bbqs.

    Then on each silo page you can link out to reviews on specific models.

    So now you can easily rank for the model reviews. Go after reviews of the major types of bbqs. And ultimately go after bbq reviews in general.
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  • Profile picture of the author affilliate-script
    Originally Posted by AffiliatingAlan View Post

    Hi, i'm a tad confused on keyword research. Let me explain.

    Lets say Im reviewing Barbeques.....BarbequeReviews.com is my dough-main

    I suppose Barbeque Reviews is my primary keyword, yes?

    Well lets say Barbeque Reviews gets 22,000 monthly searches, but is extremely competetive, Very Difficult according to Research Software and Google Top 10 Search.

    Most guides ive read at this point would say pick another topic to affiliate.

    However, what if my secondary keywords (individual product models) (the things that will lead to sales) are getting good searches with low competition?

    ie... Hunts 2500LTE Barbeque = 2,400 monthly searches
    ie... Hunts 2500LTE Barbeque review = 800 monthly searches
    Competition = Relatively Easy


    Would this still be bad to pursue creating "barbequereviews.com" ? While the primary or domain keyword is way too competitive. The secondary keywords or products, the bulk of the site are low competition.


    Im confused on the relevance of the said "primary keyword" in this case. As, I was assuming a big chunk of traffic would come from "buyers keywords" (people who already want to buy, and just want that last review to "sell them", ie JoeCreditCardoInHando, google searches, Hunts 994LS Elite Series Barbeque Review"). My site comes up... hxxp://www.barbequereviews.com/hunts-994LS-Elite-Series-Barbeque-review


    But everywhere I read seems to suggest otherwise. Arent the product searches more important than the primary?


    Should barbequereviews.com still be pursued in this case?

    Yes, I think you should go for it

    I agree with LloydMS - you should silo the site

    I'd silo on 3 levels:
    Level 1 - home page (primary keyword)
    Level 2 - silo landing pages (secondary keywords)
    Level 3 - article pages (tertiary keywords)

    If you build the silo structure correctly and use dynamic menu linking, then the "competition" largely becomes irrelevant
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    • Profile picture of the author AffiliatingAlan
      What exactly is a silo?

      I have my website set the front page is a feed, not a static page, of reviews set as post excerpts. So I really dont have a primary keyword.

      Each post is a review

      I was planning to use the about us page to target the "primary keyword" however, I was just going to make my primary keyword(s) "best barbeques" and "barbeque reviews". I assume I just stick those terms in there a couple of times, into an informative article?
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      • Profile picture of the author affilliate-script
        Originally Posted by AffiliatingAlan View Post

        What exactly is a silo?

        I have my website set the front page is a feed, not a static page, of reviews set as post excerpts. So I really dont have a primary keyword.

        Each post is a review

        I was planning to use the about us page to target the "primary keyword" however, I was just going to make my primary keyword(s) "best barbeques" and "barbeque reviews". I assume I just stick those terms in there a couple of times, into an informative article?

        Sorry - you're doomed to failure with that strategy
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        • Profile picture of the author AffiliatingAlan
          Originally Posted by affilliate-script View Post

          Sorry - you're doomed to failure with that strategy
          how?

          the only difference is a post feed instead of a static page
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          • Profile picture of the author affilliate-script
            Originally Posted by AffiliatingAlan View Post

            how?

            the only difference is a post feed instead of a static page

            Go to bloggingunderground.com and watch their free video "pages not posts" then you'll see why

            Using "about us" page to target your primary search phrase is just "lame" to put it politely
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            • Profile picture of the author AffiliatingAlan
              Originally Posted by affilliate-script View Post

              Go to bloggingunderground.com and watch their free video "pages not posts" then you'll see why

              Using "about us" page to target your primary search phrase is just "lame" to put it politely
              you are relentless
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              • Profile picture of the author affilliate-script
                Originally Posted by AffiliatingAlan View Post

                you are relentless

                I'm just getting started!

                I missed the "what is a silo" question - one-page explanation:
                content-pro.hubpages.com/hub/wordpress-silo-site-plugin-and-theme-packages
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                • Profile picture of the author fmolina2010
                  This is the strategy behind targeting your secondary keywords.

                  Since these secondary keywords usually have less competition, you can rank them faster. The faster you rank to first page, the more traffic you get. The more traffic you get, the better chances of making money.

                  Thus, ranking the secondary keywords first means you can start making money while you work on ranking your primary keywords which will obviously take more time to achieve.
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                  • Profile picture of the author AffiliatingAlan
                    Originally Posted by fmolina2010 View Post

                    This is the strategy behind targeting your secondary keywords.

                    Since these secondary keywords usually have less competition, you can rank them faster. The faster you rank to first page, the more traffic you get. The more traffic you get, the better chances of making money.

                    Thus, ranking the secondary keywords first means you can start making money while you work on ranking your primary keywords which will obviously take more time to achieve.

                    Right but what if your homepage is a blog type post feed, how do you rank your primary then? Since I have small excerpts of everything im posting, so the titles are all again the secondary keywords. Im assuming the primary would be "best (niche topic)" and "(niche topic) reviews". In which case I use my about us page for that. Essentially the about us page is the same paragraph most would have on the static front.

                    Is this bad? I cant see how as this is how every blog would be
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                    • Profile picture of the author affilliate-script
                      Originally Posted by AffiliatingAlan View Post

                      Right but what if your homepage is a blog type post feed, how do you rank your primary then? Since I have small excerpts of everything im posting, so the titles are all again the secondary keywords. Im assuming the primary would be "best (niche topic)" and "(niche topic) reviews". In which case I use my about us page for that. Essentially the about us page is the same paragraph most would have on the static front.

                      Is this bad? I cant see how as this is how every blog would be

                      Yes, it is bad

                      Yes, every "normal" blog is bad

                      You clearly don't get it - and I doubt that you even watched that "pages not posts" video - or you would not still be thinking yours is a good way to rank the site
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                      • Profile picture of the author AffiliatingAlan
                        Originally Posted by affilliate-script View Post

                        Yes, it is bad

                        Yes, every "normal" blog is bad

                        You clearly don't get it - and I doubt that you even watched that "pages not posts" video - or you would not still be thinking yours is a good way to rank the site
                        potato tomato
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  • Profile picture of the author hostdare
    First try to optimize your secondary keyword as soon as it will getting good rank then start optimization on your primary keyword.Because secondary keyword has less competition in comparison of your primary keyword.Its easy to rank....as soon as your site got visible then start work on primary keyword
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    • Profile picture of the author AffiliatingAlan
      Originally Posted by nipon View Post

      First try to optimize your secondary keyword as soon as it will getting good rank then start optimization on your primary keyword.Because secondary keyword has less competition in comparison of your primary keyword.Its easy to rank....as soon as your site got visible then start work on primary keyword
      How do you optimize your secondary keyword then primary?

      I thought the concept of on page seo was just:

      target keyword and related keywords within article, title
      1% density
      add some related keywords
      keyword in meta title, description, tag
      keyword in images

      Or when you say seo do you mean backlinks?
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