Online Marketing Today

“Okay, Duncan, here’s a less-asked question.  Does getting onto Google page one for one long tail keyword make it any easier to get onto page one for a different but related long tail keyword? Or does each page one listing stand on its own entirely, with no linkage to other top listings from that same domain?  For example, if a site appears on page 1 for “Ontario Christian online high school”, does that increase the likelihood it will be on page 1 for “Ontario home schooling” or “accredited Ontario online high school”?” ~ Gary Harvey

Hi Gary,

The short answer is no.

That means that each page stands on its own merit entirely when you’re talking about different “but related” keyword terms.

However your example keyword terms are a little muddled, as we have one that is related, but two that are true “longer tailed” variations of the same core term.

Without trying to confuse things too much, the answer becomes yes when you’re talking about “longer tailed variations” of the same core keyword phrase.

In your example you use…

“Ontario Home Schooling”

…that is “related” to “Ontario Online High School” simply through the use of “Ontario”, but it’s not a longer tailed keyword term variation. As a result it would require additional supporting incoming links and probably a higher density of the keyword term in the content to rank well.

However if we assume that you have a number 1 rank for the term “Ontario Online High School” then that page is already seen as the most relevant by Google for the topic.

Creating a new page called “Accredited Ontario Online High School” would mean it would stand a very good chance of ranking well because you’re already ranking well for the core term “Ontario Online High School”.

Google thinks that page (your website) is one of the most relevant on the internet already for that core term, so adding an additional well optimized page called “Accredited Ontario Online High School” is likely to be all that is needed to have it rank under it’s own weight.

Of course you would have to link to that page from somewhere, and the place that would produce the biggest impact would be from the “Ontario Online High School” page on your own site.

However additional links might also be required depending on how competitive the term actually is. Sometimes certain longer tailed keyword terms are actually quite competitive, particularly brand and product names etc.

So top search engine rankings for one keyword phrase are going to help rankings for all longer tailed variations of that keyword term. However this is NOT because you already have a top ranking – it’s because Google already recognizes your website (that specific page or section of your website) as being highly relevant to the core keyword term.

So it’s more about theme relevancy.

You can then use that theme relevancy to your own advantage by manipulating it around your website and expanding with additional pages of keyword rich content to increase exposure.

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