How to rank same website on different keywords

[member22]

Hello,

I am trying to figure out how I can rank on different keywords / search terms. I have some competitors that do manage with the same website to rank on totally different terms and I can't figure out how they do this ?

Thank you,
Mike

[tedster]

Are you trying to rank the same page for totally different keywords? Sometimes it's better to get a different page to rank, when the term is "totally" different.

[edited by: tedster at 11:58 pm (utc) on Aug. 2, 2009]

[HuskyPup]

how I can rank on different keywords / search terms.

Are you referring to a widget that may have several synonyms?

[member22]

I am refering to two phrases that have different text strings, but there is a semantic relationship between them. So what I am trying to understand is how I should design my site to be able to show my homepage in the search results with different text strings ?

Should I create a 2 or 3 line of text at the bottom of my homepage with the other keywords I want to rank on like some site do to rank ?

In order to rank on those different text strings should I include them in my homepage text or is in subpages enough ? or does google really want it on the homepage and also does it need it in the title and description too or is text enough ?

Finaly I am running into a little issue with my current ranking on my current keyword. I use the keywork I want to rank on thoughout my website and mainely though my homepage and on that specific keyword I rank on page 10 of google whereas with the synonym for that keyword I rank on page one of google and don't use the keyword anywhere on my homepage ?

I am just wondering why on the word I use through my site I rank on page 10 and why with its synonym I rank on page one ?

( on thing to notice about that last comment i switched servers about 3 month ago i went from swiss to the usa and i do rank on the second page of google in switzerland but on the 10 th page in the usa )

Thanks,

[Robert Charlton]

I am just wondering why on the word I use through my site I rank on page 10 and why with its synonym I rank on page one?

Some phrases are more competitive than others.

Also, it's impossible to optimize a whole site for one word or phrase, and it's not wise to try.

Search engines basically rank pages, not sites, and there are hundreds of factors that affect the rankings of each page. On each page, the title element and page content are important factors. You can't simply add some lines of text with keywords to your page and expect it to rank well.

While links from your home page are helpful to rank a deeper page, you can only use a limited number of links from home before the linking effect becomes diluted and confused.

To oversimplify greatly, the best strategy is to put your most competitive phrases on pages closer to home, with pages targeting your less competitive phrases deeper in your site structure. Your structure will depend on the nature of your material and how large your site is.

I find that the more I try to describe how a site should be structured, the more I've come to believe that Google rewards a user-friendly structure with excellent content, content that's so good that people want to link to it.

It's not easy to describe how to build such a structure, or how to create such content. I'd recommend that you do a lot of reading in all of forums on WebmasterWorld. The forum libraries are a good place to start.

[MLHmptn]

Are you using the same "worn out" inbound anchor and if so does your site navigation anchors use that same "worn-out" keyword/anchor? If so I'd suggest using the synonym as well on your inbound anchors. Maybe your also suffering from OOP (Over Optimization Penalty).

Robert Charlton also has given you great advise, please heed his words. There is plenty to divulge on WebmasterWorld.

[member22]

I agree with you about maybe the "worn out" inbound anchor ( that is one possibility ) I might not have varied the terms enough and will work on that. However as far as the OOP ( Over Optimisation Penalty ) I am not sure and here is the reason why :

when I look for the term I tried to optimize the most on my homepage and through my site I am located on the 15 th page of google ( but only if I connect myself from the USA ) USA Proxy

if I look for the same term with a Swiss Proxy I am located on the 2 nd page of google for the same term ? ( have in mid that my site is located on usa servers )

So how could one country consider me over optimized and the other one not over optimized ? ( maybe it is due to an update in servers see that I just moved my site to a server in the usa 3 months ago ?

However one other thing is bizzard.

For the synonym of the term I tried to optimize through my homepage and most of my site ( which is only written once or twice written in my homepage / title and description ) I rank in the USA and switzerland on the first page of google for that term...

So what my issue is that I have 2 conflicting situations one that tells me it is over optimized the other one that tells me it is not ?

So what should I do ?

Thank you,

[bekyed]

Hello,
I am trying to figure out how I can rank on different keywords / search terms. I have some competitors that do manage with the same website to rank on totally different terms and I can't figure out how they do this ?

You could build landing pages and position these at the bottom of your site like navigational links. The pages links will be on the homepage so will get crawled quicker, they will be highly optimised for those search terms and look exactly like your pages on the site, this is effective as this will not dilute the homepage and may make it more relevant to the search too, thi is effective for geographical SEO too.
Bek.