Yoast focus keywords for portfolio post types in WordPress

[donsilvernail]

This one is for the WordPress optimization crowd!

Portfolios are used to display work. I have a question about best seo optimization techniques.

1. Portfolios can be used to display many different types of work, for me it either original web designs from scratch, WordPress redesigns, or importing a current website into WordPress. What is the best practice for keywords for  multiple portfolios that are in one category. for instance WordPress Redesign. If I have 5 WordPress redesign portfolio posts is it good practice to use WordPress redesign for all 5 portfolios or should they use variations? Yoast gets angry when the same focus keyword is used multiple times.

2. Should portfolios even be indexed? Since this is how I attract new customers I would think yes but am I giving too much exposure to my client and not enough to my business. I guess this will depend on titles and meta descriptions.

A discussion on best practices here is what I am really looking for. What is your advice and opinion on the matter.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

You want to showcase your work and versatility as a web designer and developer, so yes, you want those pages indexed. Keep in mind - people aren't on your site to buy products from your clients, that's not your site's purpose; they are there to view your work and see how you can help them.

If for some reason users are coming to your site to view your client's sites for window shopping purposes, something is very wrong somewhere.

If you have multiple portfolio types, use keywords relevant to those portfolios, as well as the industries your client's are in - "auto website design" / "ecommerce web design" / "sports web development" - be natural, be authentic, be honest with your tags. Make sure your on-site SEO is spot on when it comes to the content that is contained in your site. Talk about what your clients wanted, how you helped them, and the results that came from it - you're selling people on buying from you as a web designer/developer - it's your time to shine and brag!

There's a great guide from Yoast on SEO with their product, please read it.

This is my two cents on the topic - hope it helps a bit! Good luck!

[donsilvernail]

Your focus keywords I think are right on! I was stuck on the path of what type of design i did technically and not thought about breaking it up into genres. Duh! why was that not on the top of my list

I have read Yoast's guide and bought their two e-books as well. Problem is they leave out specifics regarding their plugin. Try to find a tutorial written by yoast about best practices to set up and utilize their plugin. They will not give you this as they want to sell their personalized service and set the plugin up for you. I don't blame them however it would be nice to see how they set up title tags and not spend $600 bucks for it

What do you think about testimonial post types?

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Testimonials are great - they help build trust in your brand and work from a user standpoint, and can also help bring in search traffic by mentioning specific development, design, or industry elements in their critique.

You can also use these testimonials to develop case study or white paper content to showcase more benefits of using your business or your competition.

Hope this helps - good luck!