Master Your Per-page Keyphrase Strategy in 6 Easy Steps

Hey there and welcome back! As foretold, today’s post is about strategizing our per-page keyphrase research choices, and what’s more, we’re going to do this in six – yes, six -easy steps!  You’ve all worked very hard, and you had a lot to digest from last week’s post, so here is your well-deserved, simple 6-step how-to reward!

1. Review the site section you focused on for the keyphrase research and choose a page.

2.Place the URL of the page in the URL column of your keyphrase strategy workbook.

3. Check out the theme and intent of the page:

• Is it to sell a product or service? (If so, refer to your product-level keyphase tab.)
• Is it a subcategory page?  (If so, check out your subcategory keyphrases.)
• Does the page include any brand-related terms?  (Look at your brand keyphrase list.)

4.Choose two to three keyphrases from your keyphrase strategy workbook that relate to the page (excluding misspellings or grammatically incorrect keyphrases).These would go to your keyphrase column.

5.If there are few more keyphrases that could work for the page, include them on your list.  Just know that you’ll eventually focus on two to three when you start writing.*

6.Now, spend the time you need to do it right, but don’t waste hours agonizing over each and every keyphrase choice.You have the option of using a different keyphrase later (see step #5) if the one you’re hung up on just doesn’t flow or fit with the writing, or if another keyphrase strikes you as more appropriate.

*An important note and caveat: I mention two to three keyphrases for a given page as a most general guideline:  it isn’t written in stone or meant to be”the formula.”  As stressed time and again, where and how often you massage your keyphrases into your content depends on the page’s theme and intent. There are no absolutes and no substitutes for your own good judgment and discretion!  Listen to your own inner copywriter’s voice!

The obvious question that arises with per-page keyphrase strategy is:can you overlap keyphrases and put one keyphrase on two (or more) pages?  The answer: yes, absolutely!

For instance, let’s say you were working on a “personal fitness training” subcategory page, and also had a FAQ page about the benefits of personal fitness training. You can optimize for “personal fitness training” on both pages, since the keyphrase is a natural fit for both.

Completing your per-page keyphrase strategy document is an incredibly powerful planning tool.  Your keyphrase strategy list immediately demonstrates what keyphrases you’re focusing on and what keyphrases may be underrepresented. And just like your keyphrase research list, your strategy document is a living document  you’ll want to refer to it and update it often as you add new pages, or anticipate keyphrase seasonality.

Another great advantage of completing your keyphrase strategy document is ensuring consistency among multiple writers: having a per-page strategy in place makes it easy for you to assign work and streamline your efforts, knowing that your writers are focusing on the “right” keyphrases in support of your overall SEO project.

Hang on to your SEO hats, as next week we’ll be pulling all your research together and launch into the meat of the matter: how to write and edit powerful SEO content that converts like crazy!