Targeting search engine crawlers vs. human readers on your blog
My last post on this blog was a bit out of the ordinary. I’m sure if I had a large subscriber base, I would be getting tons of emails asking what the deal was. I wrote an entire post on one very simple thing: how to check which version of WordPress you are using. That little piece of information is probably not useful for any subscriber base. After all, most WordPress users who happened to be subscribed to my blog either already know which version they are running or don’t have a particular need to find out.
So why did I create the post?
The answer starts with a G and ends with an E. Yup, you guessed it: Google.
Yesterday, while I was tweaking the custom theme I built (which is almost ready) for this site, I had to find out which version of WordPress I was using to determine whether or not a PHP function would work on my blog.
After about 20 seconds of looking for the version number in my admin cp and not having any luck, I decided to type my query into Google. Unfortunately, none of the top search results gave me an answer. The results were all semi-related but not exactly what I was looking for.
When I finally did find the answer (which was quite obvious by the way), I resolved to target the key phrase how to find what version of wordpress you are using and related. Not only would that make it easier for the next guy who uses that search term (the answer would be in the top results) but it also might provide me with some decent traffic.
Using the Google AdWords Keyword tool to find untapped keywords/keyphrases
Instead of hastily creating a blog post to target the specific search term I used, I first typed the term into the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. The tool not only gives you global/local traffic data but also gives suggestions for related and synonymous keywords.
I use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool for all of my keyword research. The way I see it, there is no point in buying a fancy expensive keyword research tool like WordTracker if Google provides one for free. After all, Google should be able to provide better analysis of their own search engine than third party companies.
After entering “wordpress version” into Google’s keyword tool (you have to be crafty with choosing the words you enter in), I discovered two terms that had considerable traffic.
By achieving top ranking for the two key phrases how to find wordpress version and how to check wordpress version, I figured I could bring in a combined 250 visitors per month. That statistic only applies to broad searches (which includes Google’s estimate of related long-tail keyword traffic) but still represents a considerable amount of traffic. At that point, I knew exactly which keywords to target in my post.
The consequences of targeting search engine traffic
Some believe it is foolish to intentionally write content for search engines. Others only focus on writing SEO friendly content and essentially ignore the human factor. I tend to stand in the middle.
Because this blog is so new, the only sources of stable traffic will be from Google. Once this blog is established in its niche, more opportunities for receiving traffic will present themselves. The more subscribers I get, the less often I will focus on targeting search engine traffic and the more often I will focus entirely on human readers. In any circumstance, I plan on never ignoring one of the two sources of traffic.
When targeting search engine traffic, I still find motivation to write appealing content to the human reader. Once a visitor arrives at my blog from a search engine, I have the opportunity to capture that visitor and turn him/her into a permanent subscriber. That is why it is always best to always write content for both search engine crawlers and human visitors. Ignore one or the other, and you may be missing out on enormous amounts of traffic.
Tags: blog seo, content, google, traffic
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i dont care that you writing for “engine crawlers”, you have to make money for your time, but definetly reaching “human visitors”, i lost the # of your post i been reading, even though i was researching on one specific question.
Thanks a million!!!