How would you target three synonymous phrases for the same product?

[CaddisInteractive]

I have a site that I'm working on that sells waste oil heaters, and I'm beginning to run into an issue. As one would assume, our primary keyword phrase is "waste oil heaters" for which we're doing rather well. The issue is that there are two other phrases that are directly synonymous to our primary term that users are actively searching for (i.e. the product can accurate be called three different things). Phrases are listed below w/ phrase match search volumes

"waste oil heater" - 6600

"waste oil burner" - 2400

"waste oil furnace" - 1900

I'm not one who likes to engage in trying to "trick" anything, so I'm fairly opposed to listing all three of these in the title tag or something similar. This is being done by our competitors, but only one outranks us as this point for the primary phrase.

My initial thoughts are that we should be targeting our home page and category page for "waste oil heater(s)", and then lightly pepper our content with the use of these synonyms.  Then from there we can focus on other term variations w/ our blog posts and try to vary up the anchor text coming into the site when we launch link building.

What do you guys think?  Have you guys been a situation like this with three phrases describing the same product?  I appreciate any feedback or advice.

Thanks guys!

[LynnPatchett]

Hi Jesse,

Depends a bit on the competition and where you are already for those phrases but if you are pretty well placed then I would be inclined to approach it as you describe. Google highlights all three words when searching so they know there is a relationship there anyway. Seems to me that the heater/burner results are very similar, the furnace ones a bit different so maybe it is worth considering a title like 'waste oil heaters & furnaces' if it makes sense. Beyond that, if there are potentially small conceptual differences between the words then those sound like good fodder for blog posts which should help.

[BryanCasson]

What you need is a content strategy for your website. One post and one set of titles for a word just does cut it. You need to write some valuable content on a regular basis. In some of your articles mention "waste oil burner" and in others mention your primary and "waste oil furnace". As long as your anchor text and menu's keep your primary keyword you should not lose rank on your primary. Be creative and maybe come up with topics such as:

• Use A Waste Oil Furnace to Generate Free Heat Through Recycling
• Safely Create A Homemade Waste Oil Burner

etc etc.  By producing content for both the users and the search bot your website can only grow in value and ranking.

[CaddisInteractive]

We are already developing a content strategy. That isn't the issue. We know the types of content that resonate with our audience and plan on doing that. The issue is more that we're trying to determine how to target synonyms across the domain and I'm looking for feedback from folks who may have had a similar situation. Trust me, I'm not looking for some magic bullet, "one-page-fix-all" solution. If you'd read my question you would see that.  Thanks.

[EGOL]

If you ask me....   Waste Oil Heater is going to be used by most people for a small portable device.... Waste Oil Furnace is a larger device used to heat a structure.... Waste Oil Burner is a component part of a Waste Oil Furnace.

You could make unique photos, instructions, articles and diagrams for each.  Some people will use these terms interchangeably but I view them as distinct.