Double Listing

[RyanKent]

Your keywords do not need to be "totally" different, just have some difference. Any variation is fine.

If you have a page for "blue widgets", then that page could be optimized for "blue widget" and "blue widgets". Your home page would not specifically be optimized for those two terms, but could use a term that includes them.

If you can share your site's URL or a page you are considering, a more specific example can be used.

[EGOL]

On a site like this I would have several pages about "brass widgets".  Maybe news, history, sales, styles, manufacturing....  Each of those pages would have a "brass widgets" menu that links to all other brass widgets pages.

[KeriMorgret]

SEObook also had a recent posting (June on "Super Size Your Listing" at http://www.seobook.com/how-super-size-your-listings-google.

[selcor]

This is my understanding of how it works...  you need a "main page" keyword with a link to a 2nd page for the term you want to rank for.  Then page #2 must also have an text link back to "main page" with same keyword.  Then you need backlinks to both pages for keyword-- once both pages get on page 1 of google, google automatically gives you the famous "double listing"...

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Harry,

Have you had this work for you personally, or can you give us some more information? This seems to be counter to what most people are saying in the thread, so it'd be interesting to hear more about your experiences.

Thanks!

[selcor]

yes i have had this work for me before... however it was a blackhat guru that i learned it from.

[azguy]

Well is there anyone in the golf niche I need to be worried about in regards to exposing my site?

[EGOL]

Think very very carefully about exposing a site - especially if it is a good one making money.  Lots of young testosterone and old weasels hang out in SEO forums just looking for opportunity.

Your most dangerous competitor is the one who has not yet arrived.  A lot of people could put a few pages of new content on their website tonight and be at the top of your SERPs by morning.

Dropping by just two positions could cost you a pile of dough - every month.

[RyanKent]

I see your point EGOL. But our websites are already exposed to the world. When a user comes to this Q&A, there choices are:

• generic Q&A which often does not reveal the true issues on their site

• share their site and receive targeted, specific information related to their site

• hire a SEO

If a site is making good money, clearly the right choice is to hire a SEO. Otherwise users are stuck between the first two options. I recognize your concerns are legitimate, but have you ever heard of that happening this year on SEOmoz?

[EGOL]

If a site is making good money, clearly the right choice is to hire a SEO.

I agree.

I recognize your concerns are legitimate, but have you ever heard of that happening this year on SEOmoz?

No, not this year on SEOmoz.  But I know for a fact that forum posts sometimes attract very strong competitors and very aggressive scrapers.  And, I know for a fact how badly your income can be damaged.

[RyanKent]

Very good point. I often find SEOmoz Q&A results on the first page of Google SERPs.

[destdigi]

another factor that we need to be aware is "the competitiveness" of the keyword.  In a low competitive market, this has workd for me, but at higher, needs some good quality external links coming in.

cheers!

[NickEubanks]

There are a lot of great responses here.

I personally am a huge proponent of architecture (IA), between both URL's and content. If you construct your site the right way you should be able (to EGOL's point) to rank highly for your individual product terms and then have additional results listed underneath such as your homepage and potentially a news or archive page.

For example lets say you sell brass, silver, and gold widgets. You would want to set the site up so you have a trickle down hierarchy with implied relevance, i.e. homepage/product-category/product-name. This will allow you to build authority at all three directory levels and rank your category landing or product detail pages for your product queries as well as your homepage further down the results.

[Joe.Robison]

I agree with EGOL's answer - right on.

I was trained in theory in my early days that you should NEVER have two pages targeting the same keyword, similar to Ryan's first answer about Google getting "confused" about both pages and ranking neither. I've now seen in practice over the years that this isn't true and that double listings from the 1&2 or even 2-4 positions are very possible, especially for "chunky middle" and long-tail terms.

Similar to how Rand and many others have been saying over the years, you do want to create the perfectly optimized page for your main keywords, fully of great content, rich media, focused CTA's, etc. But there is also a natural use of certain keywords throughout your site that occurs. There are similar but not exact pages that just happen to target the same keywords - and these often create the double listings. So following the advice from others above, what I've seen work well for double listings is to choose a primary keyword for each of your main pages, but don't worry about overlapping certain keywords among your pages - this happens naturally and you can get double listings as a result.