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That's probably because there are not so many pages which have the exact phrase on the page while there are tons of pages which have the seperate words in them in a different order or scattered over the page.
Ditto for title and other tags and for anchor text.
Please be careful with specifics like search phrases. These are not allowed.
Consider these as you develop keywords and keyword phrases:
specific special occasion = ______ _____ ______
item(s) = _____________ ____ _____ ____
descriptive terms for item(s): _____ _____ _____ _____
receiver = ____________ _____ _____ _____ _____
To fill in the blanks, consider what words or phrases sam or sue surfer is likely to plug into a search box to find X for person Y in relation to the specific occasion.
Then work those terms into your content and existing, and new, pages.
It's hard to go wrong when you focus on content, and use terms that the surfers will likely be using. Ranking #2 for a phrase that's never used won't bring many visitors.
Thanks a lot for that explanation. Most people hardly use quotes when searching. Which means very few visitors to my site. Next action is to have all the different variations of the keyword phrase and words throughout my page. Right?
Not 100% accurate but a very good approach to save time rather than extended competitive analysis (many sites) -- which means you start implementing slower and later.
Another quick guage - pages with the most internal inbound links (which should all indicate that pages topic(s) in some way) are more likely to produce fruition faster than pages with few internal inbound links. (external links are also a consideration).
I think it's best if you optimise your site for the various phrases you have in mind. Concentrate on one phrase per page if you're in a high competition area, on 2 or even 3 (partially overlapping) phrases when less competing.
Use the phrases througout the page, including title, meta's, alts, <h9> etc. Don't forget anchor text in inbound hyperlinks.
And keep learning from Webmasterworld :)
I have two clients that are complaining that their pages are not ranking well enough when not using the quotes around their phrases. They say no one uses quotes and they want me to get their pages ranking better.
Is everyone doing it this way? Meaning when you discuss this with a prospective client, are you telling them you'll optimize for a specific exact match phrase and that the searcher must type in the quotes, or do you leave it somewhat ambiguous?
Even though I explain it to my clients I feel like they don't understand until afterward, and then I feel as though I'm disappointing them.
> I have two clients that are complaining that their pages are not ranking well enough when not using the quotes around their phrases. They say no one uses quotes and they want me to get their pages ranking better.
They're right - no-one uses quotes, except for very savvy searchers looking for academic papers & such.
I don't work in "ultra-competitive" areas, but the sites I have worked on will pop up with a page ranked at or very near the top for almost any two-or-more-word phrase related to the owner's businesses. With single words, it's a lot tougher, but you can often get on the top half of the first page with some serious study and work. All without quotes... and my "white hat" has nary a smudge on it.
Find the words that people use to search for your client's products or services. Then work them into pages as HitProf describes above.
Also, use the WebmasterWorld site search (link at top of this window) to look for "Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone" - A great post.
Jim
There are definitely phrases that come up well, but they're not usually the primary phase. I use WordTracker to find the best phrase and then focus on one primary phrase per page with 2-5 secondary ones.
Why is HitProf suggesting H9, won't H1 do? Wasn't aware of the inbound anchor text.
-Leslie
I suspect "h9" was a typo - or has some special meaning old guys aren't aware of.
Incoming link text - the elixir of Google!
Also try a WebmasterWorld site search for "Brett's quick rank - good" - It contains various very-educated guesses as to the "weight" given to on- and off-page factors.
The site search will pick up on the cited threads, as well as various continuations and tangents - all worth a read... Free advice from some of the best.
Jim
Sorry I didn't notice your questions earlier.
>Why is HitProf suggesting H9, won't H1 do?
H9 as in any H you get your hands on: H1, H2, H3...
The more competition there is for a phrase, the more you need to do to make it to the top and the fewer phrases you can target on one page.
About the quotes: I'm afraid you can't tell your clients that the user must use quotes as most users don't and you don't have control over them.
Wordtracker can be a good start for keyphrase ideas but your clients logs are a lot better. Have you tried those? Good luck.
