The question for today’s Ask an SEO comes from Emmanuel in London, who asks:
“How do I drive traffic to my key landing pages when it’s being distributed to other informational pages?
I am trying to effectively implement more keywords on my home page to drive more traffic there, as opposed to where the traffic is mainly leading to.
Do I remove the content on that page and paste it onto the home page, or do should I shape those pages to match my needs?”
Emmanuel, the scenario you described is not uncommon, and it appears that the keywords used on those pages, as well as the associated search intent, are what is causing you to see those results.
There are a few things you can do to increase traffic to your key landing pages.
First, I’d like to respond to your comment about including more keywords on your home page.
While your home page is likely to be your most authoritative page, I prefer to focus on other landing pages in addition to the home page. I would also advise against removing content from ranking pages and pasting it onto the home page.
In other words, rather than attempting to optimize the home page for all of my important keywords, I would much rather optimize landing pages for specific topics, keywords, and intent.
With that in mind, let’s go over some strategies for improving your traffic situation.
1. Examine Rankings And Queries On A Page-By-Page Basis
You must determine what each page ranks for, as well as the queries Google has associated with it.
If you haven’t already, use an SEO tool to track your rankings, such as Semrush, SpyFu, SE Ranking, Rank Ranger, Moz, and so on (there are a ton of great tools).
Don’t just look at the ranking overview; instead, dig deeper into what each page ranks for.
Use Google Search Console to determine the queries for each page as well.
When you’re in Google Search Console, go to Performance and select a timeframe. I would recommend viewing the most recent three months of data and filtering by page, as shown below.
This analysis will help you understand how Google perceives the content on your page.
Check to see if any queries are a good match but aren’t ranking well for the key landing pages you’re trying to drive more traffic to. Then, look for ways to improve the page’s optimization.
For example, you could consider updating your page title and H1 to include those queries and/or ensuring they are used throughout the page’s content.
However, you must first conduct additional research to determine the intent behind those search queries, which leads to the next point.
2. Determine the Searcher’s Intention
I recently identified searcher intent as one of the most important factors to consider when planning for the future of SEO (read more here: How Can We Prepare for What SEO May Look Like in the Future?).
It’s not a new concept, but it seems to be growing in importance.
So, how do you determine searcher intent? It’s not that difficult.
Once you’ve identified the queries/keywords you’d like to better target for the page, conduct additional research to determine what Google considers to be the intent behind each of those keywords.
This is where SEO tools come into play.
The majority of tools will display the top-ranked pages in search results for each keyword. Examine the top ten to determine the purpose of those pages.
Are they educational?
Are they product pages or shopping pages?
Check that the page you’re attempting to optimize matches that intent. For instance, if you are targeting a keyword and the top-ranking pages are all informational, your page should be as well (and vice versa with shopping pages).
What should you do if you want to rank a product category page instead of an informational page?
Consider including a FAQ section on the page with frequently asked questions about that category and information-rich answers.
This is also an opportunity to incorporate more keywords.
3. Update Internal Links
One last thing to think about is how you’re linking internally.
Are you linking to internal pages with keyword-rich anchor text?
This method will assist you in creating a clear structure within your site as well as authority for the topics you are targeting with your landing pages.
After you’ve completed these steps, keep an eye on each page’s rankings, as well as clicks and queries, in Google Search Console.
You may need to make additional changes to get that targeted traffic to your key landing pages.
Need help with our free SEO tools? Try our free Link Analyzer, Website Links Count Checker, Link Price Calculator.
Learn more from Content Marketing and read 6 Factors That Will Affect Your SEO in 2021.
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