Multiple Keywords for a site

[lkilera]

I have a client that is OBSESSED with KWP ranking (don't go there...I know)

This client offers multiple services, dog boarding, dog grooming, dog training, dog daycare and dog walking. Essentially these are our focus.  She ranks on page one for all of these words (locally of course) BUT she wants to rank in positions 1 and 2 for all of these words.

Here's my rub, with her limited budget, we focus on 1 word (and associated long tails like "dog boarding in the south loop) and it takes a couple of months to zoom up to positions 1 or 2 (not counting map pack....she wants ORGANIC) While we're focusing on this 1 word, the others maintain their ranking or slip a few spots (like from 6 to

Conversions average about about 1 a day, organic traffic is roughly 1000 hits a month.

In your opinion is it better  to split this focus between the 5 target words every month, more slowly building ranking, but maintaining it for longer periods of time.  Or do it the way we have been chase dog boarding, then chase training, and so on. It just seems like we are CONSTANTLY chasing something while something else falls.

Thanks

Tracy

[ClaytonJ]

I am not going to answer your question directly, leave that to others. On the pages that slip, that suggests to me the domain authority is not strong enough yet for the website. Do you have a strong backlink program? If not, I would explain to her the importance of backlinks and anchor text, educate her and tell her to go earn some backlinks.

Make her part of the solution, rather than being a problem. Make her work!  ps on question would do the latter...  if time and dollar poor

[Bill.Sebald]

"Make her part of the solution, rather than being a problem."  I like that a lot.

She needs to understand that focusing solely on one (or a few) keywords is chasing your tail. Google makes hundreds of changes a year - she's going to get knocked down, it's part of the game. I always prefer to win more keywords by doing broader work. Focus on the traffic from all your terms, than the rankings of one.

I've been there tons of times.  Try a sit-down with her, talk about the change of focus and expectations. Show her analytics reports to back up a new direction.  Create new KPIs. Try to get her excited about a new definition of success.  That's what I would do

Make her part of the solution, rather than being a problem.

[MattRoney]

The tough thing here is that you're basically asking which is the less bad of two bad options. That's rough; I feel for you. Personally, I'd advocate taking an approach like the topic-focused one in Cyrus Shepard's "Keywords to Concepts":

https://moz.com/blog/keywords-to-concepts

I know it's hard, but you'll be doing a great service to your client by educating her on why her tail-chasing approach is a waste of time. Otherwise, the two approaches you've described are pretty much equally ineffective, so flip a coin, my friend.