Website owners usually create a website that consists of many pages and yet they focus 90% of their SEO efforts on that one page … the home page. They write down 4-10 of their best keywords and try to optimize their home page for them. This is called the “Shotgun SEO”

My friend … do not forget that Google and other search engines rank web-pages … not websites. Yes, they care if you have a content heavy, 200+ page website. Nevertheless, when displaying search results for the keywords people type, search engines display PAGES … not Sites.

OK, here is what I mean and here is the “Sniper SEO” tactic.

Instead of trying to optimize your home page for 5+ keyword phrases, it is best to pick your best keywords and create separate pages for them. No, I do not suggest creating duplicate content (changing only the keyword) nor do I suggest (writing worthless copy).

If done properly, most of the sites can have different content for different set of keywords.

I once worked with a site that tried to optimize for 6 keyword phrases all on their home page. Rankings were somewhat OK…… average rank of #9 on Google. What we did is … we took 2 set of keywords and created a separate page for them focusing on that specific aspect of the product. Results were surprisingly quick. That page ranked #5 in 3 weeks.

Note that … we did link to that separate page from the Home Page with a keyword anchor text (important not to leave out). But hey … common sense here … we’re telling Google what we call that page by.

The “Sniper SEO” approach is not new … and yet, many websites are still running with the shotgun, trying to target and optimize only their home page.

Imagine this …… your website sells widget A, B and C. All three are talked about on one page (home page) and there are no pages directly devoted to Widget A, Widget B and Widget C.

Your competitor on the other hand also sells these 3 widgets. Unlike you … besides talking about these 3 items on the home page, he has created 3 different web pages for each one of them.

Your “future” customer goes on Google and searches for Widget B. Now Google must decide if showing your home page that talks about A, B and C is better than showing your competitor’s page entirely devoted to Widget B (just what the prospect is searching for).

Enough said.

P.S. Not only is this approach great for SEO, it also makes sense for usability and conversion. We create landing pages for our PPC campaigns (hopefully), so why not make sure that what our organically referred customers see is also presented with the words they use.

P.P.S. My sniper picture looks more like a car wheel on a Google search results page.