Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz is an extraordinarily talented SEO pro. I had the pleasure of meeting Rand when I spoke at High Rankings Search Marketing Seminar is Seattle, Washington in 2005. He was kind enough to pick up Scottie Claiborne and me from the airport and show us around his wonderful city (including taking us for a scrumptious lunch!). Thanks again, Rand!
I found a post he’d written about strategies of optimizing with multiple word order phrases. You know… ones like [restaurant reviews Seattle], [reviews Seattle restaurant] and [Seattle restaurant reviews]. No, these are not all the same phrase. Each one brings about different results when you search for it.
Google makes extensive use of word proximity in its ranking algorithm meaning that it takes into consideration what order the words fall in as well as how close they are to one another. This is why you need to ensure you use most search terms as-is when writing SEO copy.
Rand gives some excellent information in his post about developing a strategy to determine which terms should be used in your copy. One thing he didn’t go into detail about was working with awkward terms such as [reviews Seattle restaurant]. Rand suggested tucking these away in less conspicuous places. But if that happens to be a term you want or need to optimize for, don’t be afraid of it just because it’s a difficult phrase.
For example:
You’d be amazed to see all the wonderful reviews. Seattle restaurant owner, John Doe, says the reason is simple: Quality.
Or
This is the place to come for reviews. Seattle restaurant categories include casual, fast food, fine dining and seafood.
Combine this strategy with Rand’s excellent advice and you should have no problem!
Karon’s ebook, Writing With Keywords, also gives excellent help in getting keyphrases into your copy in natural-sounding ways. Get the latest edition at http://www.WritingWithKeywords.com. Subscribe to Karon’s copywriting blog at https://blog.marketingwords.com.
