You’ve done your due diligence and researched possible keywords for your new webpage or blog. And with that research, you’ve found a list of multiple keyword strings that could work. So do you go the old-school SEO route and create one page for every keyword you wish to target or do you create one webpage and try targeting multiple keywords?
The answer rests in user experience – not search engine optimization – and it is often best to think in terms of sets of keywords rather than individual long-tail searches. To help you determine the best method for targeting, answer these two questions about how your audience is searching and what you’d like them to do next.
What is the searcher looking to answer?
Is the searcher looking to answer a specific question? Are they looking for a particular product or service? For instance, you might have a landscaping company that provides multiple services under one umbrella (lawn mowing, planting, tree trimming, etc.). In this case, there is a good chance someone will be doing a local search based on a specific service, e.g. “tree trimming Denver,” but they might also be looking for something more general like “top lawn care companies in Denver.”
Because of this, I would suggest creating multiple webpages to target both general and specific searches. The page that would ideally rank for “tree trimming Denver” would also rank for other terms like “tree branch removal Denver,” “Denver pruning trees,” and “Denver tree service.” There is no reason to make multiple pages for each keyword since the webpage copy would be the same or very similar for all. The page targeting the higher competition keyword “top lawn care companies in Denver” would not be written and optimized to also target “top tree pruning companies in Denver” because the two searches are not necessarily related.
What do you want the user to do next?
When you’re considering what keyword(s) to target on a page, consider the question “what do you want visitors from this keyword search to do next?” If the answer is not the same for all keywords you plan to target on one page, make another landing page with a different call-to-action. For example, you might have a special going on for tree branch removal services for the month of June and you want to only offer this discount to new customers looking for tree branch removal. You wouldn’t want this offer to be seen on the landing page for “tree trimming Denver” so you would leave it off of the page targeting this term and create a new page specifically targeting “tree branch removal Denver” which includes this offer.
Hopefully this sheds more light on the subject of using multiple keywords. While it is no longer necessary to go through the painstaking process of creating a unique webpage for each string, you should always consider your audience. Giving web visitors the best experience possible will always trump SEO best practices.
