Are the on page report cards graded according to the keywords associated with your campaign only?

[leslieevarts]

One of the key phrases I have associated with my campaign is Las Vegas wedding venues. I have an on-page report card grade D for a page I am optimizing for the long tail key phrase outdoor wedding venues in Las Vegas.

Some of the issues I am being asked to fix are:
1. Broad Keyword Usage in Page Title: Employ the keyword in the page title, preferably as the first words in the element.
2. Keyword Usage in URL
3. Appropriate Keyword Usage in H1 Tag

Should I disregard these fixes because Moz.com is running these report as if I am optimizing for Las Vegas wedding venues as oppose to outdoor wedding venues in Las Vegas?

All help is appreciated!! Thank you so much

[Mike_Davis]

I will preface this answer by saying that I love Moz...like seriously love it.  Like I am a total fan boy and spend entirely way too much time on it.  Like if I could take Moz out for a first date, I wouldn't even try to get fresh with it (now the second date on the other hand).  I      LOVE     MOZ!

That being said.  The On-Page report tool is pure garbage.  I don't even look at it.  Pages that rank in position 1 or 2 for certain keywords get D's and F's on the tool. Just remember that if you are ranking well for a certain keyword, don't sweat what the tool says.  Don't chase that A+.  Chase traffic and sale.  The recommendations are good, but use the tool as a reference.

[Davenport-Tractor]

Mike may be right, I see that same thing all the time, however MOZ isn't in the business of making work for themselves, by producing pages that don't mean anything. They try and anticipate what the search engines may look at.

Yes we have competitors that outrank us, that get an F in the on-page report. However I suspect the out ranking is due to other factors, such as inbound links, or website age.

I have to go back to what Google keeps saying to us. Good Links, Relevant content, Page Speed.

Besides learning how to construct a great page comes in handy the next time you want to build a new one, rather than trying to go back and fix one that is questionable.

As far as your question about how to fashion the keyword your optimizing for? I subscribe to simpler is better, web searches are preformed by folks that want to optimize their time, otherwise a Iowa couple would order a phone book for Las Vegas and look up the information that way. Perhaps you use both keywords, and cast a wider net. You never know what your customer is going to search for.

[Linda-Vassily]

The report cards are generated for your keywords (the ones associated with your campaign) that rank in the top 50 positions in the SERPs; the page that is graded is the page that resulted in that term being in that position.

In other words, the fact that you have a report card for a page means that page is already ranking in the top 50 for the term associated with the report.

So if you got a report card for the page that you are optimizing for the phrase "outdoor wedding venues in Las Vegas" and it was associated with the phrase "Las Vegas wedding venues" it means that page is currently ranking in the top 50 for "Las Vegas wedding venues". Even if that isn't the phrase you are specifically trying for, it can be a good thing when a page can rank for multiple variants.

What I like about these reports is that they enable me to see which pages are actually performing for my keywords (sometimes, not the ones I'd expect).

[leslieevarts]

Thank you Mike!!

[courtneydavis]

I work on the Product team at Moz, and really appreciate this feedback! It's important to us to improve your experiences using our tools. The On-Page Optimization tool is best for identifying low hanging fruit. Say you're showing up on page 2 in Google for a keyword you really care about, and your On-Page Grade for that keyword is a D. Optimizing your page with On-Page report suggestions may just give you that push to page 1. That said, if you're already ranking #3 and receiving a B grade, bumping it up to an A+ might not be the best use of your time. We're working on ways to visualize the sweet spot of opportunities in future versions of Moz Analytics.

[Miranda.Rensch]

Hi Leslie! Do you have the phrase "outdoor wedding venues in Las Vegas" also added as a tracked keyword? If you add that as a tracked keyword, then go to the grade report card page for that keyword, you can actually change the URL to the URL that you actually want to grade the page for here: http://screencast.com/t/2sfQGA0Amyx

Hope that helps! We are working on making the process of selecting which keyword and URL combinations you want graded to be more clear in our new Moz Analytics product. Thanks!

[leslieevarts]

Hi!

Thank you for the further insight. I do not have that particular phrase as one of my campaign keywords. I thought I was only able to have 5 keywords so I stayed away from long tail key phrases that are not as lucrative for us.

I have a better understanding of the on-page report cards now so I should be able to disregard grades as needed and gain insight where it is due.

Again, thank you so much!