Broad keyword usage vs appropriate keyword usage
-
May I ask what is the difference between "broad keyword usage" and "appropriate keyword usage" that is included on the on-page reports? thank you!
-
As with most of our Crawl Diagnostics recommendations, using the keyword around 4 times is like the Pirate's Code: It's more of a guideline than a rule. That's, in part, why we chose to call it "appropriate" keyword usage rather than "correct." In general my rule of thumb is "use the keyword when it makes sense to use it, without so much that it sounds crazy" which in a standard-size web document of 300 words or more is going to be around 4 times. Including synonyms and other semantically related terms is also good to do, and should be pretty easy if you've chosen a good topic for your keyword. I hope that helps!
-
Does the 4 keyword usage still apply considering the Google Penguin update? I've read that you can now actually get penalised for doing so and that's it's better to include niche keywords (synonyms) that all relate to the subject matter rather than repetitive keywords/phrases.
-
Thanks Miranda, Liked that last tenni shoe paragraph, very interesting.
-
Hello! Sorry about the confusion here.
Essentially, the "broad" factor tells you if you've used the keyword in the document text at least once and the "appropriate" factor tells you how many times out of four that you've used the keyword (we recommend using it at least four times in the document text).
As you can tell, these are a bit redundant at the moment, but this is so that they can be broken out by importance. Using the keyword at least once in the document text is a critical factor. Using it four times isn't quite critical, but its still pretty important.
As far as the difference between "exact keyword usage in document" and "broad keyword usage in document", this refers to broad and exact in a way similar to how adwords thinks of a broad match and exact match for keywords.
So if your keyword was "tennis shoes", we'd say you satisfied the broad match requirement by using the word "shoes" and "tennis" in the document text within five words of each other. You would only satisfy the exact match requirement by using the words "tennis shoes" together in the document text.
I hope that answers your question. Thanks!
Miranda
-
Egle,
I think you may be on to something
-
Thanks Robert!
Yes, it seems that "broad" refers to a generic usage of the keywords throughout the page (document elements & body text).
And for "appropriate" and "exact", here is what I was able to figure out so far, not sure if it is true yet
The "appropriate" refers to keyword usage (not in exact fashion as the keyword phrase) within the document elements such as H1, page title, etc
And "exact keywords" refers to exact keyword usage within the body text.
-
Egle
As it is used within the on-page report card, it is a bit confusing. I looked at the use of Broad for Page Title, Document, and then the various uses of Appropriate. Interestingly, every time appropriate is used, there is a number associated with it. So appropriate/document - use it at least 4 times, H1 - 2 or less, title tag length - 66 char. Only for Characters in URL did appropriate not have a number.
For Broad, it appears the word is being used globally(the whole page) to point to a specific place: Broad usage - Document, broad usage - title tag. Appropriate seems to define a number range as it is used here. (I do not think it is an appropriate use of the word.)
I can't wait to see the mozzanswer.
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
-
Confusion on keyword cannibalization ?
Hi I know that targeting more than one keyword per page in a website leads to keyword cannibalization. But for example, if I am into a "CRM" business, I write blogs on CRM every day with various topics like: 1. How can a CRM help your small business? 2. Steps to follow in buying a CRM. 3. How to does CRM help in your customer relationship. It means that I am concentrating the keyword "CRM" in multiple blogs. What should I do in this case? Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | sandeep.clickdesk1 -
I have seen zero movement in my Google keyword rankings.
I have seen zero movement in my Google keyword rankings, but I have seen movement on the other search engines. I must be doing something wrong. Any tips?
On-Page Optimization | | LindaWolfe0 -
Subdomain vs subdirectory for store
Hello, The following services site nlpca.com has a store at shop.nlpca.com Would the store be stronger if it was at nlpca.com/store (in a subfolder) and included in the main navigation? The moz bar suggests not but I just want to make sure. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW1 -
301 vs 302 redirect
Hello Mozers, I have a website which offers subscriptions on a monthly basis, when one profile expires the link of the profile gets a 301 redirect to the main category, just that if the member chooses to come back after a while he can reactivate the profile and the link will work again and the 301 will disappear, Should I be doing 302 redirect, as from this point of view it's only a temporarily redirect ? Thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | asmedia0 -
Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical
I have encountered problems regarding rel canonical. When I ran On-Page Report Card it says **Error: ** Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical Canonical URL: "http://www.sourcedental.createmyid.net/teeth-whitening/" Explanation: If the canonical tag is pointing to a different URL, engines will not count this page as the reference resource and thus, it won't have an opportunity to rank. Make sure you're targeting the right page (if this isn't it, you can reset the target above) and then change the canonical tag to reference that URL. Recommendation We check to make sure that IF you use canonical URL tags, it points to the right page. If the canonical tag points to a different URL, engines will not count this page as the reference resource and thus, it won't have an opportunity to rank. If you've not made this page the rel=canonical target, change the reference to this URL. NOTE: For pages not employing canonical URL tags, this factor does not apply." I just don't know how to fix this. I am using Wordpress SEO by Yoast but I haven't change any settings regarding rel canonical. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | projectassistant0 -
KeyWord Density?
What is an acceptable density for a keyword? It's wise to push it as close to spam without sacrificing user experience, correct? I read an article on SeoMoz (outdated I think) that mentioned 6%. If it's a keyword phrase, do you have to make sure you don't go over the density level of a particular word in the phrase. If it's a three word phrase, do you have to not use any one word more than X% or just monitor the exact keyword.
On-Page Optimization | | JML11791 -
Dealing with thin content/95% duplicate content - canonical vs 301 vs noindex
My client's got 14 physical locations around the country but has a webpage for each "service area" they operate in. They have a Croydon location. But a separate page for London, Croydon, Essex, Luton, Stevenage and many other places (areas near Croydon) that the Croydon location serves. Each of these pages is a near duplicate of the Croydon page with the word Croydon swapped for the area. I'm told this was a SEO tactic circa 2001. Obviously this is an issue. So the question - should I 301 redirect each of the links to the Croydon page? Or (what I believe to be the best answer) set a rel=canonical tag on the duplicate pages). Creating "real and meaningful content" on each page isn't quite an option, sorry!
On-Page Optimization | | JamesFx0 -
Keyword Self- Cannibalization
I have a question about Keyword Self Cannibalization. I have a web page which is targeting the main keyword as "sarees". But this same page has internal linking from the keywords Benarasi Silk Sarees, Silk Saree, Traditional Sarees, cotton sarees,etc to their respectve pages. We are optimizing those pages separately for their respective keywords as well. When I run on-page report card for these web page from seomoz tool, I got an error says "Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization". Is this due to the internal linking from these keywords? Can anybody recommend a solution for this problem?
On-Page Optimization | | semvibe1