Every website is aiming at something. The question is how tightly you aim, and when.
Over many years of doing this, I have found that the best keyword strategies are not a choice between two approaches, but a sequence of them. I call them the ‘’scatter gun’’ approach and the ‘’sniper’’ approach. One can comes first, the other can follow, or you can do the simultaneously. Knowing how to move from one to the other is one of the things that separate a strategy from a guess.
The scatter gun approach
The scatter gun approach can work across your whole site, not a single page. Instead of betting everything on one or two carefully chosen terms, you build out multiple pages, each targeting different keywords across your subject area.
Take “SEO” as an example. Rather than pouring all your effort into one page chasing that single word, a scatter gun strategy would create a spread of pages targeting terms such as:
- SEO
- SEO services
- Search engine optimisation services
- SEO agency
- SEO consultant
- SEO company
- SEO expert
- SEO guru
- Professional SEO
- SEO companies
- Technical SEO audits
- Local SEO
- Google SEO
- SEO London
Each page has its own target unless a clear cross over like ‘seo services’ and ‘search engine optimisation services’. Together, they cast a wide net across the landscape of terms your audience might be searching. You are not trying to predict the winners at this stage. You are giving Google plenty to work with, and giving yourself plenty to measure.
This works well when:
- You are starting out, or entering a new topic area, and do not yet know which terms your site can realistically compete for
- The subject has many related terms with distinct intents, each deserving its own page
- You want real ranking data to guide your strategy, rather than assumptions
The risk is thinness. Scatter gunning is not an excuse to churn out dozens of shallow pages. Every page still needs to be genuinely useful and properly built. Spread yourself too thin, and you end up with a site full of pages that rank for nothing, which tells you nothing. When you have the page that targets ‘seo company’ you research further into variations that relate.
- Seo company
- Seo agency
- Seo firm
- Seo company uk
- Seo firms uk
- Seo companies
List these terms tactfully so not to over optimise for one single phrase such as ‘seo company’ – this is a tactful approach to target relative variations. This is part sniper and part scatter.
The sniper approach
The sniper approach comes second deliberately, and it is where the real gains are made.
Once your scatter gun pages have been live long enough to settle, look at the results. Which pages are ranking in the top four pages of Google for their target keywords? What key-phrases are generating impressions in GSC? Those are your signals. Google is telling you where your site has genuine authority and a realistic chance of climbing.
Those are the pages you snipe. You take each page showing promise and go all in on it. Every heading, every paragraph, every internal link is refined to reinforce that single target. You strengthen the content, build internal links towards it, point external links at it, and give it everything it needs to move from page three to page one.
This works well when:
- You have ranking data showing which pages are within striking distance
- The term is high value, and a concentrated push could turn a page-three ranking into a page-one result
- You want to spend your effort where it will actually pay off, rather than spreading it evenly across pages that are going nowhere
The risk is sniping too early. Pull the trigger before your pages have had time to settle in the rankings, and you are aiming at noise, not signal. Give the scatter gun phase time to produce meaningful data before you commit which I estimate at 4 – 7 weeks.
How the two work together
This is not a choice between one or the other. It is a sequence.
Scatter gun first: build out multiple well-made pages targeting different terms across your subject, and let them find their level. Then sniper: identify the pages ranking in the top four pages of Google for their keywords, and concentrate your effort on pushing those up. Pages that fail to gain any traction can be reworked, retargeted, or folded into stronger ones.
The mistake I see most often is doing neither properly. Sites that scatter gun forever, endlessly publishing new pages without ever reviewing what is ranking and doubling down on it, Or sites that snipe blind, pouring months of effort into one term chosen on a hunch, with no data suggesting they can ever compete for it. That is not a strategy. That is a lack of one.
Cast the net wide, see what bites, then aim. Sniper shot!
Graig Upton
Graig Upton is a UK SEO and Google Ads consultant with 23 years of hands-on digital marketing experience. Google certified in Ads, Analytics and Conversions, he has helped businesses ranging from local providers to national brands — including Nando's and Investors Chronicle — dominate search and scale their leads. Based in Preston, working with clients across the UK.