Benefits From the Long Tail of Search

For example, a couple years ago I wrote a two part newsletter called "Web design tips for the print designer." I also broke this article up into multiple pages (See "Search Engine Optimization Strategy" April 2004, for more information on index pages). One of the index pages was titled "Common Web Design Mistakes." This particular index page gets lots of traffic from search engines. When I began to notice this trend, I thought about how visitors were coming to this particular page. Because I knew the phrase they used, and the page they landed on, I could presume a bit about them and what they needed. I presumed that visitors coming to this page were likely to be strong prospects for our agency partnership. Therefore, I decided to place our agency partnership graphic with our mission statement on that page along with a few other pertinent links.

In another example, I deliberately created subpages designed to be the first page for very specific visitors with specific needs. Our case study index pages contain a few case studies pages about sites we've built for venture capital companies. I used the phrase "early stage venture capital websites" for one of these index/case study pages. The logic behind this strategy is to intentionally create a subpage to function as a landing page for visitors looking specifically for a site for a venture capital company. Knowing that I expect these pages to be the first impression from this kind of visit, I pre-think the next bits of information that such a visitor might want, and lead them to this related content. In this example, I used an overview of how our particular services, methodology, and capabilities fit the needs of venture capital and start-up VC funded companies to follow up the strategic index page.


Well in a sense, any of your pages can be the first page a visitor sees, and thus be their "homepage." It takes some extra work to think about your website in non-linear ways. But if we can break out of our book-oriented, outside-in way of thinking, we can make indirect traffic work powerfully to our advantage.