On Page Reports for Long-Tail Keywords?

[AmericomMarketing]

First Q&A here, so take it easy on me. Hopefully this is not a dumb question.

99% of the on page reports I look at are for local keywords. I'm finding that some of the page reports get and F where they should be receiving A's. I noticed if I manage a long-tail keyword like "books in houston tx"  that I get a grade based on the exact phrase as opposed to a combination of the keywords. So when I have text in the body saying "books in the Houston area" or "Houston Books" for example, instead of using my exact managed keyword, it will tell me that the keyword is not mentioned in the body anywhere. When it is, it's just not in the exact order... I'm trying to write my pages for users and I don't think the users want to hear "books in houston tx" several times.

If I do a report on the same page for the keyword "books" I get an A. So this is where it gets a little in the grey area for me. I need a solid on page report for local long-tail search terms. Anyone have any advice? Is there a way I could be using this tool to better suit my needs?

[Chris.Menke]

I think that with the understanding you have, you're already beyond the report's capabilities to instruct you--fundamentally, it's a fairly simple tool.  At this point, you don't need a report to help you further, you need to interpret your real-world results to make decisions that will let you tweak your pages in the right direction.

Ultimately, SEO is not about following a strict set of guidelines--it's about having a well-founded knowledge level and then leveraging that knowledge in unique ways in order to gain an advantage over your competitors.

In other words, it may be time to use the force, Luke.  That's what we all used to do before such reports were available.

[MoosaHemani]

Highly agree!

Golden Words!

...Ultimately, SEO is not about following a strict set of guidelines--it's about having a well-founded knowledge level and then leveraging that knowledge in unique ways in order to gain an advantage over your competitors....