On Saturday, I was having some technical trouble with one of my Linux web servers. After scouring the web for an answer with no solution in sight, I decided to call in reinforcements and ask a question over at Web Hosting Talk. Being ever persistent, I went back and started toying with my server some more. Then my computer-nerd-ADD set in, and I decide to go back to Google and type in the specific error code I was getting, just in case I missed it the last 20 times I did a search. As my eyes scanned the SERPs, my heart leapt when I saw my exact error code nice and bold. But wait, this link points to Web Hosting Talk forums. I read the blurb a little further and realize that it’s my post! In less than 10 minutes Google had spidered WHT and indexed it.

So what exactly is the significance? When it comes to established web sites that have a certain amount of authority, the big G won’t hesitate to snap up new pages and pop them into the index. I know what you’re thinking, "Yeah, that’s great Glenn, but we already know about the Google Sandbox and trusted authority sites.” My point is I think the speed at which new pages can be spidered and indexed has far been underestimated. Instead of waiting a day or two to see pages in the SERPs, it’s actually possible for them to appear in a matter of minutes. That’s one Speedy Spider!

When it comes to SEO, everyone wants to rank in the top 10 for their keyword. As a Phoenix SEO, that is the reason people hire me. But what a lot of people don’t understand is the value of key word phrases. Today’s search engine users are getting more and more sophisticated. Back in the early days, people would type in their keyword and up would pop results.  Often those results did not return exactly what they are looking for. While most of the major search engines have been good about improving their results, users have learned to narrow their search by performing searches for phrases instead of individual words. For instance, someone looking for “cars” would get millions of results, only some of which are actually useful. So to improve those results, people perform more specific searches like “used cars” or “Honda used cars.” We in the SEO industry refer to hits for these phrases as the “long tail.”

I’ll let you folks in on a little secret. Sometimes the amount of traffic coming from long tail phrases is greater than the traffic from one strong keyword. I know it sounds crazy, but looking at my personal sites and those of my clients I’ve seen this distinct pattern emerge time after time. While one or two key words will get thousands of hits, these phrases may get 10 or 20. But there are hundreds of phrases contained in a site.

The long tail is your friend for two distinct reasons. Number one: you are getting traffic and from my perspective, all traffic is good. Number two: your visitors are getting a better search experience because they are more than likely to find exactly what they are looking for on your site. A happy targeted surfer is more likely to convert to a sale.

So should you be targeting long tail terms? Of course! When I plan a SEO campaign, I’ll pop open a spread sheet and type all my key words in one column. In the next column I’ll put in all the modifiers, i.e. the stuff that makes up the phrases. Going back to my previous example, I’ll put “cars, automobile, and autos” in column one. In the next column, I’ll put in “Honda, Toyota, and Chevy.” In the next column I’ll put in “new, used, and previously owned.” Now comes  the fun part, mixing and matching. Start making phrases with all your words. Mix and match is the name of the game. When you’re done, take your combinations and pop them into your favorite search engines. See if there is actually any competition for those phrases. Once you’ve done that, use a tool like WordTracker or Overture’s free tool to see how often people actually search for those phrases. When you find a combination that has few competitors and a high number of searches you’ve got a winning phrase that should get you some nice long tail traffic.

Now that you’ve got your list of phrases, make sure to incorporate them into your SEO friendly ad copy. You need to be smart, and write it so it’s as appealing to people as it is to a search engine spider. I guarantee when you start consciously targeting the long-tail phrases you’ll get more target traffic to your site.

Ask yourself this question, “Who buys products on your site? Search Engines or people?” Obviously, the answer is people.  So why are you writing your sales text for search engine spiders? I know, you’ve read online that you have to stuff your pages with relevant keywords so the engines will love you and rank your site in the top 10 in the search engines. But, when you write your text solely for the purpose of search engine spiders, your message may fall flat with consumers. For example:

“Our mega store has NFL footballs for sale at low prices. NFL Footballs are a great gift for children of all ages. Buy our NFL footballs on line right now.”

As you can see, it is clearly written for the key words “NFL Footballs.” I know you’re thinking that I wrote that terribly to prove my point, but no.   I’ve found text that bad on a client’s site. Granted, it does have a high density for the keyword phrase, but stuffing your phrase into every sentence is not going to win you any points with search engines. More than likely, you’re going to get hit with an over optimization penalty, and, even worse, potential customers are going to walk away with a negative impression of your business. Take a look at the same pitch only rewritten:

“We have the best prices on NFL footballs in Minnesota. Made from premium quality leather our footballs are built to take NFL-style punishment and come out shiny and new. Whether your athlete is in high-school, college, or pee wee league, these pro NFL footballs are perfect for any age.”

This new pitch still mentions NFL footballs as often as the last one, but it presents it in a much more natural sales-oriented way. Not to mention, we are going to grab some long tail terms by seeding the text with keywords that pertain to the target market (high-school, pee wee, etc.) and it even mentions the geographic location: Minnesota. If you were a consumer, which pitch do you find more appealing?

Writing proper ad copy is both an art and a science. Just practice a bit and you’ll find that you’ll start writing SEO friendly ad copy. So in conclusion, write for people first, search engines second.