Targeting two search terms with same intent - one or more pages for SEO benefits?

[Jseddon92]

I'd like some professional opinions on this topic. I'm looking after the SEO for my friends site, and there are two main search terms we are looking to boost in search engines. The company sells Billboard advertising space to businesses in the UK. Here are the two search terms we're looking to target:

• Billboard Advertising - 880 searches P/M
• Outdoor Advertising - 720 searches P/M

It would usually make sense to make a separate page to target the keyword "billboard advertising" on its own fully optimised landing page with more information on the topic and with a targeted URL: www.website.com/billboard-advertising/ and the homepage to target "outdoor advertising" as it's an outdoor advertising agency.

But there's a problem, as both search terms are highly related and have the same intent, I'm worried that if we create a separate page to target the billboard advertising, it will conflict with the homepage targeting outdoor advertising.

Also, the main competitors who are currently ranked position 1-3, are ranking with their home pages and not optimised landing pages to target the exact search term "billboard advertising".

Any advice on this?

[DonnaDuncan]

My first reaction was to suggest you go ahead and optimize separate pages for each of the two terms, outdoor advertising and billboard advertising. Then I read your comment "the company only offers billboards". Now I agree with Erika that it makes sense to optimize the home page for the overarching brand offering / message (billboard advertising). It would be misleading to do otherwise and you'd be setting yourself up for high bounce rates, low time on page, and disappointed visitors.

You also said your main competitors have not optimized pages specifically for billboard advertising. That might work to your advantage.

[erikabarbosa]

Yes, it makes sense to optimize the homepage for their overarching brand offering/message. The subsequent pages should be supporting pages such as product pages, informative posts and other topics that support the business.

[Jseddon92]

Yeah, we was going to build a fully optimised page with different content to the homepage. But the company only offers billboards so I think the better solution would be to optimise the homepage for the billboard advertising search and not to build another page that targets that particular search term.

It's sometimes difficult to decide whether to optimise the homepage or a separate landing page to target their main service search term. It's much easier to gain links to the homepage than a service page.

[erikabarbosa]

Do you have different content that offers value without being redundant? I would say it comes down to what you say about the topics. Unless you have content that isn’t synonymous, I recommend selecting one phrase and naturally weave in the other term where it makes sense.

Google is getting better at understanding natural language so you don’t want to force separate target keywords for the sake of keywords and not the users.

Hope this helps.