I have 2 keywords I want to target, should I make one page for both keywords or two separate pages?

[VanMaster]

My team sells sailboats and pontoon boats all over the country. So while they are both boats, the target market is two different types of people...

I want to make a landing page for each state so if someone types in "Pontoon Boats for sale in Michigan" or "Pontoon boats for sale in Tennessee," my website will come up. But I also want to come up if someone is searching for sailboats for sale in Michigan or Tennessee (or any other state for that matter).

So my question is, should I make 1 page for each state that targets both pontoon boats and sailboats (total of 50 landing pages), or should I make two pages for each state, one targeting pontoon boats and the other sailboats (total of 100 landing pages).

My team has seen success targeting each state individually for a single keyword, but have not had a situation like this come up yet.

[RyanPurkey]

Hi Sherry. Have you been running any paid campaigns targeting these specific differences? They can be very useful in getting some quick testing in place before deciding on changes like these.

It's a bit harder to parse without specific examples, because if you had distributors or a physical presence in each of these states, then you'd definitely want to have content relating to both boats in each location, plus you'd want to be using local optimization tools as well for the brick and mortar locations.

Still, if the site is purely online--like a craigslist or boat trader or the like--and is a focus point for boat sellers within each state then creating the always present categorical versions like you talk about is beneficial as well (both for attracting buyers and sellers).

In any event, there's a lot of content that can be localized on pages like these--fishing spots, lakes, rivers, races--that then fold into the pontoon designs for some, and the sail designs for others.  Cheers!

[VanMaster]

We are a single location that will sell and deliver all over the country. In these pages I am always careful not to imply that we are located in a state that we are not actually in. I simply say we sell and deliver to your state (whichever state it may be).

I did start a paid campaign for keyword research just this morning. Even with the results, I still won't know whether to make one page per state targeting both keywords, or two pages per state.

For example: should I make a page titled: "Pontoon Boat and Sailboat Sales in Michigan"

or should I make two pages titled:"Pontoon Boat Sales in Michigan" and "Sailboat sales in Michigan"

I am leaning toward one page per state simply for the reason that I would rather have only 50 pages of similar content rather than 100 pages (with half of them being almost identical content). However, my colleges feel that having two primary keywords (Sailboats and pontoon boats) on one page will diminish the value of both of those keywords on that page.

Any thoughts?

[RyanPurkey]

Excellent. Thanks for the clarifications. Within your paid campaign you can split test two or three different landing pages to see which ones convert the best and that might further inform your decision as to what you want to do.  I think it's mostly a user experience question than one for SEO as Google has gotten better and better at sending multiple keyword results to pages that have clustered semantic relevance; meaning, a page can talk about boat sales in Michigan, focusing on pontoon and sail boats, seasonal watersport recreation unique to Michigan, other localized events, etc and see strong results in each, all delivered to the same page.

Now that you have the campaign running though, work on some landing pages to split test as that would give you some of your best insights.  Cheers!

[VanMaster]

Thanks for the input. I have never done split testing in Google Adwords, but maybe now is a good time to start.

"...Google has gotten better and better at sending multiple keyword results to pages that have clustered semantic relevance; meaning, a page can talk about boat sales in Michigan, focusing on pontoon and sail boats, seasonal watersport recreation unique to Michigan, other localized events, etc and see strong results in each, all delivered to the same page."

I agree with you there. A few years ago, I would say we need to build two separate pages, but now I don't think it is necessary.

Thanks again!