5 replies to this topic

[Mike Levin]

Hi, I'm a new member here, but old member of the SEO community. Abiding by the rules, I won't link-drop, but my primary motivation for reaching out to the SEO community again is to look for beta testers for a new tool that helps you write for the long tail of search. Many SEOs are already doing it today, extracting the words from log files and analytics, and making their word selection in a variety of ways. This simplifies the process so a wider array of folks (less technical) can use the same technique. If there's any interest, let me know. If this is considered drive-by, I'd understand. Hopefully, it is viewed as a discussion of SEO techniques rather than a particular tool.

[Michael Martinez]

Your name looks familiar to me, but I'm not placing your face. Where were you active in the past?

[mal4mac]

Put the brakes on Mike!

I use Wordtracker to look for long tail phrases. I define these as phrases with little or no competition. The great thing aboout them is that you do not need to do any SEO to achieve success - just use the phrase and you should be on page 1.

Does anyone else have tips for exploiting the long tail?

[qwerty]

Look for phrases that are bringing in a little traffic, but for which you aren't ranking very well (or for which you're ranking, but not in all the majors). Those are keyphrases that are important enough for people to search beyond the first page of results. Optimize for those terms, get onto the top ten, and that traffic should increase significantly.

[Mike Levin]

Look for phrases that are bringing in a little traffic, but for which you aren't ranking very well (or for which you're ranking, but not in all the majors). Those are keyphrases that are important enough for people to search beyond the first page of results. Optimize for those terms, get onto the top ten, and that traffic should increase significantly.

Wow, qwerty, you took the words right out of my mouth. This "almost performing for you" concept is what makes this tool different. It basically is a timesaver, doing what a lot of more technical folks are doing these days with log files. We're striving to make it braindead simple, totally non-technical, and let people focus on the writing as soon as possible.

The way its different from WordTracker (and all the suggestion tools) is that those tools provide the same data to everyone. It's not as competitive as looking at the data from your own site, finding what's almost working, and focusing on that. Using your own site's data to fuel keyword suggestion sort of rigs the process in your favor. Your long tail writing process uses the best possible starting points.

Michael, I'm from the way, way back on Jim Wilson's forums. My most active period was 1999 through 2001, when I posted as both miklevin and Mike-Levin.com. For two of those years, I was a moderator. Many of the big-time SEO folks were around on that forum at the time (the only game in town). I think Jill W. may have been there, but I'm not sure. But I sure remember you, Michael. One of the few others proud to post with their real-world identity, and I've read a bit of your stuff over the years.

Edited by Mike Levin, 12 June 2006 - 06:50 PM.

[Jill]

Moved this to contracting/subcontracting.

If anyone would like to beta test the tool in question, please contact the poster directly.