Multiple KW's , on-page and anchor text

[ShaneO]

Hello,

For each page on my site, I've targeted one primary keyword and three to four secondary keywords. All of the keywords variants are tightly themed. With some on-page, I've ranked page two or three for all of the keywords and many are starting to convert based on Analytics data.

Each page scores an "A" using the SEOmoz KW targeting tool for the "primary keyword only". For secondary keywords, I've only included words but not the complete keyword. For example, if the primary keyword is "blue green widgets" and the secondary keyword is "get blue green widgets", I've included the word "get" throughout the copy to target the secondary keyword.

My questions are...

1. Should I include each secondary keyword once in the copy and not just the word "get" for example? Just wondering if there is a better approach to target all of the keywords via on-page.
2. When getting links to each page, how would you vary the anchor text to target all of the keywords, primary and secondary?

Thanks!

[DonnieCooper]

Howdy Shane,

#1. Here's a great moz post about targeting multiple phrases

I think you should use the variations normally throughout the copy. Of course, you want make sure each are used in some way. What I like to do, is break the secondary target keywords into h2's and paragraphs. So for example...

why you should get blue green widgets sooner rather than later

blah blah blah get blue green widgets blah blah blah  blah.....

how to buy blue green widgets for cheap

blah blah blah buy blue green widgets blah blah blah  blah.....

#2. Here's a WBF video from Cyrus about using partial match and exact match anchor text. Also, here's a bangup post about varying anchor text distributions with pretty charts and stuff.

Simply put, build links for all of them, but naturally (IE also get some branded terms, domain anchor text, 'website', etc, etc.)

I'd also check out your ranking competitors and determine the anchor text distributions of their pages, to make sure you beat them, but aren't too much of an outlier

Does this help Shane?

[JGar-28032]

Hey ShaneO,

You say your rankings have increased, and you're getting an 'A' in the seomoz tool. If you've grouped your targetted keywords like you're describing, I'm gonna say you're good to go on that front.

1. On-page SEO tools are awesome, and I'm sure most others around will agree that these are some of the best (why else would we pay for it, yeah?). But it's also important to take a step back and read it without "SEO eyes." If you have your primary keyword in there, and variations could be easily found contextually, and it doesn't read like it was written by a robot; then I think you're good to go.

2. The answer to this could get a bit in-depth but I'll take a stab at it. Once you've begun to analyze your competition and are on the lookout for link opportunities, you'll get an idea for how much you'll be able to control in regard to anchor text (some sites will force only the domain name, some will allow your input).

The first bit of advice is to try an keep it natural looking. I even go so far as to throw a few completely-off-kw-focus anchors if I think I'm getting too many "good" ones.

Other than that, start with your primary keyword (assumed to be the most competitive and the most beneficial) and build those. When I'm building for variations, I don't build for each of the various keywords for which I'm targetting, I literally try to just mix it up as best I can while keeping the KW focus.

So if I'm going after"blue widgets, red widgets" I'll get a bunch for each if I can, then work out some of the like:

• "some widgets in blue"
• "red and blue widgets"
• "red ones" <- so I would try to get a blogger to put this into a semantically relevant sentence
• "the blue types are nice" <- same as above

Remember that the anchor is a big factor, but so is the context of the surrounding text. Getting a link with the best anchor from a completely unrelated article, from an even more unrelated/focused site won't help too much (with a few "super high quality" site exceptions).

On the other hand, if you can get a halfyway decent anchor on an article about "blue widgets" specifically, on a blog written by the foremost expert in "blue widgetry" then you'll reap more benefits.

Like I said, it's a complex subject sometimes...and I ramble. Let me know if any of that didn't make sense.

[ShaneO]

Thanks guys. Some great info!