Onpage Optimisation Changes
-
Hi Guys,
I love the SEO world I really do, but sometimes it can be quite confusing and even after 11 years and a few clients under my belt, I still have head-scratching days and this week has been one of them.
It seem the rules surrounding onpage optimisation of keywords have changed quite a lot this year. Whilst, I understand blatantly sticking to a 3% keyword density rate for your keywords, hasn't been good practice for a while, and with RankBrain and machine learning, we have to pay attention to semantic words and phrases but it seems there is a new set of rules I haven't learnt yet.
For example I had a client I was working on and we we noticed although they were ranking quite high for a keyword phrase, it wasn't actually mentioned in the text at all and so by adding it in a place it made sense, we should lift this and other keywords. Here is what happened, within a week their main keyword moved down from 1 to about 6 and the keyword that wasn't added moved from 4th to 23rd. After scratching my head and then going to full panic mode, I calmed down and looked at competitors, they didn't mention the word in the content either and so I decided to remove the one word we added to the text. The rankings came back overnight (well after doing a fetch as Google and getting to reindex). So if keyword density now is clearly NOT a metric to go on, how do we know the sweet spot? Do we use something like Ryte and make sure we using semantics and keywords within the average of the top ten? Does what Google deems important depend on the niche?
Not a right or wrong answer here, just interested in your thoughts
Regards
Neil
-
Hi All,
I will just give you all a quick update. I am more confused then when I first started!! I am telling my team from now if it's on the first page already we don't touch the keyword. Of course other keywords may also be trying to rank for the same page on page 2, so it's going to be a tricky one,
I have just done a quick experiment on a ecommerce page the keyword was on page 6, the changes I did yesterday made it go to page 7, further tweaks made it go to page 9!! This is mental! I am using Ryte to make sure semantics are mentioned, maybe using this tool and getting the averages that each keyword and related keyword is mentioned, is not the best idea. But without a guide how do we know what to optimise for?
I will give it a week as Nigel above said and see what happens. At least I know resetting to their original values before we started for any keywords that have declined will work.
Regards
Neil
-
No problem Neil, on-site SEO often makes me feel the same! It's easy to go from "following best SEO practices" to "over-optimization", and constant testing, checking results, and striving to always be learning what works today is essential. Best of success!
-
Hi Neil
That's really interesting and I have seen similar things happen. Google is determining user intent from each keyword and phrase typed into search, so the results will vary considerably with each semantic search. There is also a possible a stuffing issue, not just between identical keywords but semantics that we may need to consider. If adding that single word overplayed the whole piece, then the probability is that you were trying just that bit too hard. The whole thing has become very flaky and I have seen wild movements up and down which then appear to find a level after a week or even two.
For some clients I have seen wild movements for pages I haven't even touched - literally from position 5 to 83 and then back again within a week. Whatever Google is doing is unsettling - wrong even. It's hard enough for experienced SEOs but if you are a website owner with no experience of SEO it must be rather disheartening to experience the madness and start scratching your head looking for an explanation when there really isn't one.
-
Wow, so what you're suggesting is not only does keyword density seem to be applicable, but that it varies depending upon the specific keyword?
Wow! If that indeed turns out to be true after the conclusion of your further analysis, that's sounding to potentially be a headache for the SEO world when it comes to onsite lol!
-
Hi Nicholas,
Thank you for making me feel like I’m not going completely mad! I’m running an experiment now on a client site looking at a mixture of average keyword density of top ten for a keyword + searcher intent using sematic words that are in common with the top ten.
Remeber the days, you did the onpage month 1 and then built 300 ba each month! No skill, but easier times!! Haha!!
Regards
Neil
-
Very interesting situation Neil, it sounds like you did the right thing with looking at what the competition was doing, and then just making one change at a time, while using the Fetch & Render tool in GSC to see results faster.
While keyword density is a factor, Google is constantly trying to figure out the "searcher intent", and it is possible that adding this keyword in that seemed like a no-brainer changed Google's perspective of the page's "searcher intent". Just spitballing here of course, as there a ton of potential on-site factors at play. It sounds like you are on the right mindset though and I wouldn't totally throw keyword density out, just focus more on "content depth" and helping solve the searcher intent.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Taking more than a day to index after the content changed
Hi everyone, As i got stuck with the confusion that - one of our website pages for the business located in Sharjah contents has been moderated and inspected the URL to google for index with new tags and contents. This is the URL which made the changes: https://www.socprollect-mea.com/sharjah-free-zone-company-registration/ and As i came to know that our page reflecting an issue "Valid items with warnings" once after inspecting the URL in the search console. Something which seems interesting and never experienced before - which is showing: "Products"warning - something like that. I came to know that - Missing field "Brand" and showing no global identifier. Does anybody know what it is and can u able to rectify this concern and get me a solution to index our URL faster on Google search. please?
On-Page Optimization | | nazfazy0 -
How many pages should we optimise?
I have more than 250 pages on my site including my products. Is it a good idea to optimise each page with a unique keyword or is there a limit to the number of pages we should aim for?
On-Page Optimization | | Timberwink0 -
Optimising a page for multiple key phrases?
Is there a technique to optimising for multiple key phrases? In the "old days", we'd have written doorway pages targeted at different key phrases, or just written a landing page for each key phrase. Now we're told that more is better and having all the info about a topic in one place will get you better SEO outcomes. But that means pages must be optimised for multiple key phrases. For example, I currently have three pages that are related topically: Bangkok Skytrain (Guide to BTS and MRT Lines) - this page is a description of the metro train system in Bangkok and how to use it. Gets traffic from key phrases like "bangkok BTS line", "bangkok commuter trains", "BTS and MRT lines". Attractions near the Bangkok Skytrain - this page has a map for each major skytrain station and details of nearby attractions including hotels and restaurants. Gets traffic from phrases like "bangkok mrt and bts map", "bangkok rail link map", "how to get to siam on MRT" and "bangkok airport rail link map" (so mostly gets key phrases with "map" in them). Best shopping from the Bangkok Skytrain - this page talks about the shopping centres in easy walking distance of each skytrain station. Doesn't really get a lot of traffic and probably pulls that from the other two. Ideally, I probably should combine all of these into one page now. But how to optimise for all those key phrases? Should I just optimise within each Heading 2 as I would within a page? Does that risk confusing the overall page SEO?
On-Page Optimization | | Gavin.Atkinson0 -
Will changing order of bullet points in product descriptions add some uniqueness?
We write our own unique product descriptions and have a unique product video for each color variation and multiple unique product images and display seperate user reviews per color variation. We prefer to have seperate product pages for each color variation for several reasons (targeting color searches and user experience seeing all color variations when browsing category pages). Product descriptions of color variations are quite similar.
On-Page Optimization | | lcourse
I was thinking about spinning dynamically order how bullet points of product descriptions are presented to add some more uniqueness. I am not expecting a massive impact, but do you think this increases a bit googles perception of page uniqueness?0 -
Old landing page modifications - should I change the content?
One of our most popular landing page is starting to be a little bit out dated, should I keep the old content and update with newer text or is it safe to completely replace the old content with the new content without losing our organic traffic on this page?
On-Page Optimization | | rusted880 -
If Google still shows my old title in the search results then there is no way my title change could have changed my ranking yet right?
If Google still shows my old title in the search results then there is no way my title change could have changed my ranking yet right? In other words if I changed from TItleA to TitleB but search results and cache still show TitleA then any SERP drops or increases would still be entirely based on titleA right? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | Rezo0 -
What is the best way to optimise a site that wants to target one service in multiple locations?
Hello! I would like to get some opinions about the best way to optimise a site/pages/URL's for a client that offers one service in multiple locations. The client has done work in various areas of the UK and wants to be found for these locations. They don't have addresses in these locations. What would be the best way to set up the pages/URLs for each location? Is there any reason why I can't have, for example, a main Portfolio page which has content about the service and a link to each portfolio in the different locations, e.g. /portfolio/london, /portfolio/hampstead, portfolio/kensington. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks Kerry
On-Page Optimization | | Kerry_Jones1 -
Onpage optimization different outcomes for keyword with or without accent
I am a little bit confused with the results of the onpage analysis. I am trying onpage optimization for a spanish word which has an accent.. The results differ from Grade A, if i use the keyword with an accent, e.g. ropa premamá (the spanish word for maternity wear) to Grade C if I run the report without the accent ropa premama. I assume that most users will rather search for the keyword without accent. Would this mean that I need to change my keyword to non-accent or doesn´t it matter?
On-Page Optimization | | svenmu0