Search Engine Friendly Site
Long Tail Queries
Recently Google announced that they will change their algorithm to benefit “long tail queries”. Long tail queries use more specific keywords in the search phrase. Long tail queries are the opposite of “head” terms, which are more popular or more frequently searched. For example, “sports” is a head term, while “Sports scores from the ACC” is a long tail keyword.
Google indicated that “long tail” search terms need to be supported by page content and not just head keyword tags. This change implies that sites built to match head keywords will still be indexed, but searches using “long tail queries” will be ranked differently than searches for head terms. Hence, Google’s comments confirm this change impacts “long tail queries” only. Long tail queries are a much more specific search and higher quality search traffic.
The Long Tail algorithms have been changed by Google already and the results being obtained today are different than 6 months ago. This change will impact large sites with similar pages utilizing the small content. Shopping carts are a prime example, particularly where individual product pages contain content imported from other resources and in many cases duplicated. Google change is forcing larger sites to use canonical scripts which point Google Bots to the preferred page about each product on a shopping cart.
What’s a site owner to do? MVI advised our clients to post original content specific to that web page title. That content includes the title line or header of that web page but also includes additional content that matches the preferred prospect long tail search. Google seeks content that matches the title and the long tail search queries. So if your Title reads —“Selling Cars in Florida” and your content reads—“Selling Ford Automobiles in Fort Lauderdale Florida” and if the long tail search query is— “Who Sells Ford Automobiles in Fort Lauderdale Florida” your site will likely rank high.
Amazon.com is an example of a site that has done a fairly good job of making individual item pages with duplicated content about products unique and compelling by the addition of content like– user reviews, articles and product information. Amazon has set up a robust internal linking structure with links to recommended items and informational pages. And Amazon attracts external links with features such as “my favorites”.
For Google, this is a long-term change so if your site has been impacted, you’ll want to do some creative thinking about how you can make pages more valuable. The best match for long tail queries is to use the exact content on your page that your prime prospect would use to find your site.
Bottom Line- To succeed with your website this change by Google is forcing the site owner to rewrite content on the site that match the keywords in the long tail query or lose traffic to competitors.
How To Grow Site Traffic
An industry specific news feed is an automatically updated digital presentation of the latest news. For instance, the news feed on any Web site will usually be related to the subject of whatever the industry that business represents.
Other than being a modern digital update to place on your Web site, News feeds are also really great traffic boosters. Not only do they make your Web site more attractive to the all-important Web spiders out crawling the Web, but News feeds also inspire visitors to come back to your site for fresh news.
So the benefits are two:
- Improving content freshness factors (SEO)
- Attract new visitors, and return visitors
The news is published all over the world at the same time, as syndicated content. Google knows that some news content is white hat and very safe. Please keep in mind there are a few things you need to do to see benefits from the news:
- Choose a topic of specifically related interest- a subject of interest to your specific audience. Latest news on your industry. You are creating a forum where your target market can see industry information.
- There are news aggregator’s providing news feeds of various pieces of information on your industry.
- Regularly updating news will attract traffic and, as more people come to the site, you’ll produce
- Over the years I’ve found the best way to drive traffic to a site is through article writing and distribution. It’s like an instant shot in the arm for quality traffic.
- Utilizing news resources to make the news feed work for both you and your target audience is smart business.
- You should really be publishing your own news stories too, through a press release service like PRweb.com.
Creating a good news release requires Who, What, Where, When, Why and Who Cares…
- Who is the story about
- What happened
- Where everything occurred
- When it occurred
- Why it occurred
- Who cares
In your story, find an angle that gives you the opportunity for Who cares. Don’t be surprised if you get a call from a newspaper or maybe even a talk radio show to tell your story to even greater crowds.
For years, I’ve noticed many SEOs tend to try to write content and optimize at the same time, which often does not result in the highest quality article. Taking it in two steps tends to allow you to write a much more engaging article.