Planning to rank for specific keyword phrase, suggestions?

[limoshawn]

We are planning to rank well for "key key keyword" (a three word phrase).

So far we have:
1. purchased KeyKeyKeyword.com
2. title: "Key Key Keyword | blah blah blah blah blah" (61 characters total, 1 key phrase mention)
3. description: "a key key keyword blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. A key key keyword blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. (38 words, 207 characters, 2 key phrase mentions)
4. Static keyphrase related text content on homepage.
5. List (title and snippet) of 10 most current articles related to keyphrase that we have on site listed below static content. links to full article (onsite content think blog type CMS)
6. Adding keyphrase related original content daily.

Next: inbound links, what else?

[tedster]

This is the kind of plan that might have been generated any time over many past years. And it's still OK, as kind of a starting framework. However, Google today has become much more complex. Some would say "nuanced", and others might use some purple prose ;)

So be prepared to launch your initiative and then learn, and most likely iterate, in various areas of your strategy.

The biggest challenge I foresee would depend on how competitive the phrase is. If you jump up fast in the rankings on a competitive phrase, you're likely to get a manual look and then human judgment and subjectivity comes into the picture.

[limoshawn]

Thanks for the feedback Tedster! we welcome the "manual review", nothing would make me happier than to jump to the top so quickly that we trigger the review! We've been in this particular niche for over 10 years now, this site is new because we are targeting a specific keyword phrase. Very straight forward informational/direct purchase of our own product website. no advertising/adwords/affiliate stuff whatsoever so we should do well with a manual review once we get to that point.

[tedster]

Here's one subtlety you may find useful. Be willing to expand the content's vocabulary to include related terms. Not just synonyms or stemmed variations (although that's good) but things like using "the office nurse-receptionist" on a page about "getting a doctor's prescription".

In other words, take off the old-skool restraints on the copy. Rather than focusing only on just the target keywords, have the copy range very naturally around related ideas.

[limoshawn]

That's a good thought Tedster, added it to the white-board list.

[jimbeetle]

(61 characters total, 1 key phrase mention)...(38 words, 207 characters, 2 key phrase mentions)

Character count is really old school. The focus here should be on what the visitor sees and whether it is enticing enough to "get the click."

In other words, take off the old-skool restraints on the copy. Rather than focusing only on just the target keywords, have the copy range very naturally around related ideas.

This has been becoming more and more important over the past few years. I'm old school, so the phrase "target keywords" is kind of hard to keep out of my vocabulary. But I've changed what it actually means when I develop content. Now when I create a page I tend more to think in terms of "themes" and "topics." And I find more and more that I develop a group of themed pages that each address mutually-supporting topics.

And as we see in today's SERPs it's becoming harder and harder to get Google to return results for some [specific searches]. It's relying much more on the relationships of words and meanings and not always the words themselves.

As Ted says, mix it up, though naturally speaking.

[limoshawn]

thanks for the feedback Jim!

enticing enough to "get the click."

I feel that we're doing a pretty good job with the "blah blah blah" part of the title to "get the click", got lots of practice (and data) with titles from adwords. Also, if Google uses our description for the snippet we should be in even better shape.

still loving the idea of concentrating on "themes" and "topics" instead of being laser focused on a keyword phrase although it's probably quadrupled the workload for this site!