September 18 2008
Rotate your keywords
If you read the Webalizer configuration article on SEO Theory, you’ll know that you can capture a lot of search referral data. Of course, you can also get this data from programs like Google Analytics.
Search referral data shows you which long tail queries your site is relevant to. Now, if you’re trying to build a query space, staying on top of your long tail referrals is important. It essentially defines your query space for you (call it a virtual query space, since no site is likely to capture traffic for every query in a very active query space).
As you add content to your site (over some period of time), rotate your use of keywords from the referral data. Go back and reuse older expressions but gradually introduce new expressions. Track your results by expression.
The idea is to identify which queries will produce the most traffic for you as you strengthen your relevance for each query. They’ll all be related or similar queries so you’ll improve your ability to write using the idiom (the expressions) that searchers employ to find content like you.
The more you write like people search, the easier it becomes to rank for people’s searches. As you become comfortable with creating content around search referral strings, you can become experimental and start integrating multiple expressions into your content.
You should do this with any type of content: picture galleries, staff bios, product descriptions, marketing blurbs for new specials, press releases, etc. Don’t limit your creativity by thinking this only works for certain types of content. It works for EVERYTHING.
Written by Michael Martinez
