Ron McCoy October 10th, 2010
For many websites there are a few pages (often including the home page) that have earned the most Google PageRank. Pages with higher authority via PageRank are the best bets for competing on more popular keywords. Selecting and targeting keywords is an art that’s often developed through successful (and less-than-successful) attempts to achieve Google first page organic ranking.
It’s a shame to waste PageRank so it’s arguably especially important to choose target keywords wisely on URLs with existing PageRank. Internet marketers will almost always look at traffic numbers associated with keywords to make keyword selection. Usually they’ll take stock of the level of competition that exists for gaining attention on a particular keyword or phrase. Additionally, it’s also important to consider the PageRank of URLs that currently rank on organic searches associated with the keyword.
For example let’s say your site’s home page has a Google toolbar PageRank of 3, and you’ve identified a keyword/phrase of interest. There’s significant traffic on the keyword and there’s not an excessive level of competition surrounding it. You might say great … we’ve got an opportunity here. But go one step further. Do a search on the keyword and look at the PageRank associated with all the sites with a first page position. If those site URLs have a PageRank of 5 or 6 then it will be hard to overtake them based solely on on-page optimization. You’re going to need more work on off-page optimization to effectively compete on that keyword. However, if there are ranking sites with a PageRank of 3 or 4, and especially if on-page optimization is not apparent, you might be able to compete.
The main point here is to include an evaluation of competing sites’ PageRank in the process of selecting target keywords. Now White House departed Rahm Emanuel is famous for saying “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” We say PageRank is a terrible thing to waste by unwise choices in keyword targeting.
