Web News Hits - March 31, 2008 - Your Daily Source Of Web 2.0 Links

Hello and welcome to HitTail's "Web News Hits" where we provide you with a selection of some of the most interesting posts on Web 2.0 and online marketing. Topics of interest to "Web News Hits" include:

* Blogging
* Optimizing your site for search engines using targeted keywords (search engine optimization or "SEO")
* Social media like Facebook, Digg, Wikipedia, and YouTube
* Content management
* eCommerce systems
* General online news and views

I hope you will join us every day for this new feature. And if you have any suggestions for articles and posts we might have missed -- let us know!

Search Engine Land's Jill Whalen explains her four reasons why "We Don't Need SEO Standards"

Yahoo has launched a new online magazine for women: Shine. Is the launch of Shine an attempt -- among other cool features and services that have cropped up as of late -- by the company to boost their value in the wake of the Microsoft takeover bid?

Conversation Marketing provides a list of the "49 Things You Are Doing That You Probably Shouldn't" in Internet Marketing

Here's an interesting post from BlogStorm: "Linkbait In Difficult Industries." The reader who inspired the post asks:

"For example, SEO for a funeral directors? Or kitchen fitters? I can think of a few funny videos that would go great on a funeral site, but I don’t think the client would find them suitable!"

Wikipedia celebrates over 10 million articles!

Mike Jones at Search Engine Watch explains the role of branding in social media marketing:

"Many brands are wary of exposing themselves on social media sites, but as anyone who's been involved in social media for more than five minutes knows, they're too late. Their brands are already exposed, and the community is talking about them, whether they choose to get involved or not. Rather than trying to avoid the conversation, brand marketers need to create a strategy to engage online influencers and social media users who have the power to make or break their brand."

Facebook in China? David Snyder, guest-blogging for Marketing Pilgrim, has a report.


Check out the 96 Women Bloggers to watch for!

Value of Long Tail Keywords

The value of long tail keywords is sometimes overlooked by marketers that are just getting started with SEO. It is natural to want to go after highly sought after terms, but it is often unrealistic for new sites to rank well for those keywords. With more companies getting into SEO & SEM, the value of less popular keywords will be on the rise.

If you're a small business or eCommerce site with a limited budget, the most profitable strategy is to go after keywords in the "long tail" which convert at a much higher rate than the generic two word combinations that may bring a lot of visitors to your site, but very few customers. Go after these competitive terms after you have demonstrated success ranking for the long tail keywords.

Not all traffic is equal

What's better, making 2 or 3 sales from 1,000 visitors who found your website searching on the term "car insurance", or 20 sales from 40 visitors who searched for "car insurance quote Brooklyn, New York"? The answer depends on if you are monetizing your site with advertising or if you are an eCommerce site looking for more sales online.

Visitors that come to your site, leave, and never come back are not as valuable as a few qualified visitors that make (repeat) purchases on your site

Don't be fooled by estimates that show these long tail phrases with very low search volumes. When it comes to making money online, you need to know which types of phrases will lead to conversions and sales, not just traffic to your site.

Long tail keyword searches are conducted by people who are often ready to make a purchase

Jennifer Laycock, Editor of Search Engine Guide, has written extensively about the Search Buying Cycle.

Here are some examples of phrases that show the difference between research and intent to purchase:

Research:"High definition TVs"
Intent to purchase:"Sony Bravia 52 inch HDTV price"

Research:"luxury apartments"
Intent to purchase:"Chicago 1 bedroom luxury apartment"

Using HitTail along with blogging software is a great way to get started going after the long tail. HitTail doesn't show you generic terms that everyone in your industry will compete for. It's suggesting terms that you know your site has the ability to rank for if you deliberately target them. It saves you time that would have been spent on keyword research and allows you to focus that time on writing.

Don't have the time to write about long tail topics? Try using a ghost article writing service like Content Spooling Network.

If you think it's inefficient to go after these terms one by one, then consider an automated approach to take advantage of the long tail based on your existing content/database assets. This system will create highly targeted search-friendly pages that can be justified from an editorial standpoint. Contact Connors for more information about our enterprise SEO and strategic writing services.