Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Exact keyword match for meta title and h1 what is best practice?
-
How exact should my meta titles and H1 one be compare to the keyword you wish to rank on.
Eksample. When I do a research with google AdWords the keyword tool shows me:
260 monthly searches for house for rent Hua Hin
140 monthly searches for Hua Hin house for rent
70 monthly searches for House for rent in Hua Hin
The first two includes the exact same 5 words while the last one includes the stopword "in".
That google have different search volumens for these very smilair search queries tells me that small differences matters. So how does that effect the way i shoulf write my:
a)meta titles
b)H1
I feel I get better sentences often by reordering the keywords etc.
“Top tips on how to rent house in Hua Hin” Instead of “Top tips if you want a house for rent in Hua Hin”
Do you use stop words like “in” hua hin. (only used in 25% of the searches queries)?
Also would it matter if i write a plural form of a keyword instead of a singular etc propeties and sted of property?
My goal is to write easy to read and unique content but i feel i can make exact matches if required with out compromising to much.
-
I agree with you Massimiliano,
Overall that is a great strategy and yes, just because they get more volume does not mean they are the best keywords. Different keywords are used at different stages of the buying cycles. In this case I was just telling Tamir how I would choose the order from those specific combinations of the same 5 words. Assuming he has done his research and those are the keywords he is going to target.
Getting traffic is one step in the game, converting the traffic is another important step as well.
Best Regards,
Joe
-
targeting the keywords with the highest volume can be misleading, they are not necessary the best converting keywords, and since usually everyone prefer to shot at the biggest target competition is fierce
I am not saying it's wrong, but I would be more selective and choose keywords on the base of a variety of factors.
-
Hello Tamir,
Realistically to write great content you want to use them all in different variations, singular. plural ect. I would pick the highest volume order of the keywords, in your case: 260 monthly searches for house for rent Hua Hin.
I would use this combination as the url, Begining of description as well as the H1 tag. I would then write some very thoughtful and informative content and add those other variations on the page in a natural flowing conversational way that sounds like natural talk when you read it out loud to yourself. You want to focus on the highest volume words and also build the others in as well so you may rank well for more than 1 combination of those keywords.
Here is the link to rand
s very informative article about keyword targeting: A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page SEO. It
s a must read for sure !http://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization
Hope that helps,
Joe
-
I have seen google algo rank the same page for very similar phrases where the keywords where just changing places, but it's not "always" doing it. You can help him learn that page is a good fit for both queries with the copy of the page.
google knows about synonyms and does often show same or very similar SERP for different keywords which are considered to have the same "exact" meaning and usage in language. But in my experience does treat plurals in a different way.
I would use exact match for title and exact match for h1 if it make sense, but avoiding using unnatural language.
Unfortunatelly SEO is a land where certainity is scarce, and I would recommend testing different versions to find out what works best in your case.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
H1 tag- on home page - what is it best to include
is it best to have in the H1 tag 1. just our website address 2. combination of website address followed by short keywords about our website
On-Page Optimization | | CostumeD0 -
Page Title (Meta descriptions) length... how strict are you?
I have just had a conversation with a client... the gist was this... Is it more important to stay under the 55-60 characters OR go over a bit and have the page title make sense and include the clients company name. The same argument for meta description. I have a client insisting on 55-60 length but the keywords are long and if we use the primary keyword phrase the length is 44 if we use the keyword phrase and add the company name it becomes 64. This is with us trimming it a bit. Anyone else discussed this before?
On-Page Optimization | | JohnW-UK1 -
Different title tags and meta descriptions for desktop and mobile?
Is it possible to use different title tags and meta descriptions for mobile users? For Example: In the SERP for desktop you'll see the desktop title tags and meta descriptions, but in the SERP for mobile you'll the mobile versions of the webpage.
On-Page Optimization | | alex19780 -
Best practice for Portfolio Links
I have a client with a really large project portfolio (over 500 project images), which causes their portfolio page to have well over the 100 links that are recommended. How can I reduce this without reducing the number of photos they can upload?
On-Page Optimization | | HochKaren0 -
Is it better to include the secondary keyword or site name in a title tag?
When I add a site name to my title tag with long-tailed primary and secondary keywords the title tag is longer than 70 characters. I need to include all three parts, so what should I do? At 70 characters the site name is usually partially cut off. I do not want to get penalized by Google, but I need to include the site name to have consistency. I am using the format Primary Keyword-Secondary Keyword | Site name
On-Page Optimization | | lwilkins0 -
Title tag for category page
I'd like to know your views on the best approach for title tags for category pages for ecommerce sites. 3 examples A) Category name | Free delivery on $50 purchase | Brand name B) Discover best "category name" on brand name C) Category Name | 1st Keyword, 2nd keyword | Brand name Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | walidalsaqqaf0 -
Using commas in the title tag?
Is there a disadvantage/advantage to using commas to separate words in the title tag. Which will be more effective as a title tag: "keyword1 keyword2 - Brand" OR "keyword1, keyword2 - Brand"?
On-Page Optimization | | Audiohype0 -
Best SEO structure for blog
What is the best SEO page/link structure for a blog with, say 100 posts that grows at a rate of 4 per month? Each post is 500+ words with charts/graphics; they're not simple one paragraph postings. Rather than use a CMS I have a hand crafted HTML/CSS blog (for tighter integration with the parent site, some dynamic data effects, and in general to have total control). I have a sidebar with headlines from all prior posts, and my blog home page is a 1 line summary of each article. I feel that after 100 articles the sidebar and home page have too many links on them. What is the optimal way to split them up? They are all covering the same niche topic that my site is about. I thought of making the side bar and home page only have the most recent 25 postings, and then create an archive directory for older posts. But categorizing by time doesn't really help someone looking for a specific topic. I could tag each entry with 2-3 keywords and then make the sidebar a sorted list of tags. Clicking on a tag would then show an intermediate index of all articles that have that tag, and then you could click on an article title to read the whole article. Or is there some other strategy that is optimal for SEO and the indexing robots? Is it bad to have a blog that is too heirarchical (where articles are 3 levels down from the root domain) or too flat (if there are 100s of entries)? Thanks for any thoughts or pointers.
On-Page Optimization | | scanlin0