The importance of on-page keyword focus

Published by ndixon on November 27th, 2008

Those of us from the "old school" of SEO will remember the technique of multiple doorway pages, and I still come across this being implemented here and there to target keyword variations and different search engines. These days, the technique is almost always detrimental.

Doorway pages existed because of the diverse way in which the various search engines handled their ranking algorithms differently. On-page optimisation would be tweaked slightly differently for each engine, for each keyword, and so multiple pages with similar content appeared on a site, each one attempting to flirt with a specific search engine. Pages even went so far as to include the search engine name in the page URL!

If you are still tempted to use such a technique, either for attracting different search engines, appearing to be an authority site on a particular keyword, or split testing content and on-page SEO, there are two primary negative aspects of multiple doorway pages that you must consider.

A single target for your keyword

Let’s imagine a scenario where both pageA and pageB are optimised for a particular keyword, each with slightly different content, but very similar URLs, page titles, and other on-page optimised elements.

Search engines will discover and index both pages, but do not generally want to provide more than one result to the searcher, particularly when the content on both is very similar.

They need to make a decision about which one is the originating, authoritative page for that particular keyword. Due to the number of ranking factors used in search engine calculations, they may select the wrong one!

Duplicate content

Much is discussed - and misunderstood - regarding duplicate content, but the key issue is similar to above. If two pages (defined as two web pages reachable by unique URLs) have substantially similar or identical content, a search engine will not display both pages in results for a particular search. It will decide on the authoritative page for that content and filter the other out of the search results.

How do you target more than one keyword on a single page?

Simply: research and strategy.

Each individual page must be focused around a specific set of keywords, with a single keyword - or “key-phrase” of course - as the primary focus. Keyword selection is a whole other discussion, but it is important to isolate what is th most important keyword for that page and optimise for that.

The additional keywords in the selection should then be used within the page content as they will be seen as associated terms and will be found in context - an increasingly important consideration.

Getting the balance right

Keyword research is everything in determining the most effective focus for a page. Balancing potential traffic volume against how difficult it might be to rank for a keyword is critical in determining the choice of primary keyword over the additional, secondary terms.

There is no hard and fast rule; it all depends on the broader range of of keywords within your niche - the “keyword space”.

For example, KeywordA may potentially generate the most traffic, but could also be the term for which most of your competition are fighting. Ranking well for KeywordB might prove far more lucrative in traffic generation than ranking poorly for KeywordA - this is very often the case where KeywordA is a broad, generic term. Because KeywordA and KeywordB are associated with each other, ranking well - becoming an authority - for KeywordB may also help to drive some traffic for KeywordA.

Focus on the most effective

A single web page that is optimised around a single, primary target keyword, will stand a much better chance of becoming an authority for that keyword.

Choose carefully how to split primary keywords between different pages.

Take care in not focusing more than one page on very similar terms.

Be strategic in page/keyword selection so that each individual page contains absolute minimal references to keywords you are targeting on other pages.

Tags: Keywords, on-page seo, research
Posted in Keywords, Optimisation |