I've been trying to target some keywords for a little while now, and it is for my web design company in San Jose, CA and the bay area. My original keyword phrase was this, "San Jose Bay Area web design company" however after asking around family and friends it seemed the more natural search string would be this, "web design San Jose, CA" or "web design Bay Area." I checked the google keyword tools and found that "web design San Jose" had the same monthly average as, "San Jose web design." This was the same for Bay Area. So should I not worry about changing my current phrase, "San Jose Bay Area web design company" because it has all the same words, just in another order? Or is it better to target the order, "web design San Jose" because it is a more likely search term? Despite it having the same monthly average when typed the other way around? Thanks.
Not necessarily. However, just to be clear, that search volume is likely all those web firms looking for themselves. I did not delve to deep into it would seem you really don't need to spend alot of time on said term per say. It would sort of be beneficial to be well ranked in the local serps for that but not really any more than being listed in the phone book apparently. Nigel You know, I will look into this a bit more. I am running on virtually no sleep and I did that by the seat of pants. Part of my reasoning was, back in the day before I knew what I was doing, I spent a fair amount of time working on my own demographic. My town is considerably smaller to say the least.
"San Jose Web Design" sounds the most suitable for the title tag, but you can target both variations in the anchor text links pointing to the website.
Thanks Nigel. Yes I figured I would start off by trying to rank for my local serps, mainly because the competition will be less. Then perhaps work my way up to to tougher keywords like "Web design." Do you mean I should go with that phrase rather than, "San Jose Bay Area web design company" even those the later contains all the keywords, plus those you mentioned? Thanks again to you all.
^^ I mean use what I mentioned for the title tag. You suggestion includes the same words but they are not exact match.
Does it matter if I leave it as "San Jose Bay Area web design company" since it has all the words in it? I guess the one thing I don't quite understand about optimization is if key phrases need to be exactly the same as you are hoping people will search for, or if they can contain all the keywords even if they aren't in the exact order someone might search them.
If it all possible, exact match is best. You can include less searched keyphrases in copy and backlinks. Because they're so longtail you will rank for them easily without the need to include them in the title tag. Plus, why limit yourself to the Bay Area. If you want local clients why not all of San Jose?
By "copy" do you mean the text content on the site? In fact, the Bay Area covers more than just San Jose. The Bay Area would include San Francisco and several cities in between down to San Jose. Now what about phrases that are reversed? So if my title tag says "San Jose web design" but someone searches for the term "web design San Jose" will I still benefit from that term? Sorry for trying to get all this free advice, I'm watching some Lynda videos and reading up on more SEO stuff, so hopefully I'll get better at targeting certain keywords. Thanks again.
Yes, you would still benefit if the words are reversed, but not as much as exact match. And as I previously suggested, include keyword variations in backlinks so you can still target them.
While researching my keywords, I noticed that in Google when I type in the search term, "web design san jose" the results on the first page do not even use that phrase in that exact order in their title tags. They mostly all say, "san jose web design." Does this mean if I use "web design san jose" in my title tags, I have a better chance of showing up higher for the exact term, "web design san jose" or does it not matter since these other sites already have a higher rep?