While there's no denying the power of the long tail when it comes to search traffic, the fact remains that a site can really only be properly optimized for a couple of phrases per page. For a small business with an equally small web site, it can be frustrating to feel the limitations of how many phrases they can realistically target. While an obvious (and important) solution is to add more content, Bill Slawski offers up another solution. Optimize those overlooked pages.

Bill asks:

How hard are your everyday pages working for you? How well are they acting as evangelists for what you have to offer?

Site designers often refer to "secondary navigation." These are the information links like your contact page, about us page, frequently asked questions, directions and your privacy policy. They tend to be viewed as throwaway pages in terms of search engine marketing. Site owners and even marketing firms figure there's no use optimizing them and simply throw some standard text up.

While there's been a recent reminder that well written directions can help draw some traffic for local search terms, Bill points out the need to focus on each of these pages as a chance to rank organically.

Often, these pages are sadly underutilized from a search engine optimization perspective, with such imaginative titles as "Contact", "About Us," "Terms of Service" and "Privacy Policy." I've also see "Glossary," "Directions," and "Frequently Asked Questions," or "FAQ." Considering that a page title is one of the most important elements of a page for SEO, chances are that these pages were overlooked as a possible entryway into those sites from search engines.

Compare for instance, a contact page where you're told, "Please use the form below to contact us," with the following:

Jones Virginia Ham Emporium is a family run business, entering its fourth generation of offering fine quality Virginia baked hams. The secret to our success is our belief that the customer is always right, from the quality of our customer service, to the speed of our shipping, to the taste of our Virginia baked hams. We'd love to hear from you. Please use the form below to get in touch, and let us know what you are thinking. We'd really like to hear from you.

Everyday pages don't have to be boring. Try kicking up your content and you may find that both your customers and the search engines reward you for it.

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