Will Longer Keyphrases Hinder the Effectiveness of Your Copy?

Article by: Karon Thackston

The length of search phrases continues to grow. Back when the

Internet was just an upstart, single keywords were the only
thing you needed. But in recent years we've seen the number of
words used in search phrases triple and quadruple. Rather than
a single keyword, searchers who live in countries where English
is the primary language are now using three- and four-word
phrases as a standard, according to Web analytics company,
OneStat.com.

While the worldwide average is two words per search phrase, the
USA, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia all show that
searchers prefer the use of three- or four-word terms. What does
this mean from a copywriting standpoint? Writing with a single
keyword in mind is relatively easy. Using two-word terms is a
bit more of a challenge. But when you get to three- and
four-word phrases, your risk of sounding stiff and awkward
increases substantially.

Why Longer Phrases?

Longer search phrases are the natural progression of the
Internet population boom. As more and more information is
placed online, it becomes increasingly difficult to find exactly
what you're looking for. When there were only a few thousand
sites, entering the word "marketing" into a search engine would
bring up a handful of sites for you to choose from.

Now, however, you find hundreds of thousands of sites dealing
with everything from marketing plans to marketing jobs to
university curriculums for marketing degrees. The natural action
for copywriters is to follow the search trend of the target
audience and use the keyphrases that they use.

That leads us back to our original question. how?

Tips for Writing With Keyphrases

The biggest mistake I find search engine optimization (SEO)
copywriters making is attempting to substitute a generic term
for a specific keyphrase. For example:

At our Mexico cruise vacation site we offer the best rates on
Mexico cruise vacation packages to the most exciting Mexico
cruise vacation destinations. Visit our Mexico cruise vacation
specials page for deep discounts today!

Or

Welcome to our Chicago web design firm site. If you're looking
for innovative and creative Chicago web design firm, you've come
to the right place. No other Chicago web design firm has the
talent or technological skills to develop the type of high-end
sites we do. When you're ready for a truly professional Chicago
web design firm, contact us today.

Oh please! My 10-year-old nephew could write better copy than
that. When you substitute generic terms (in this case: site,
packages, vacation destinations, vacation specials, etc.) with
the specific search phrase, you get a bunch of repetitive,
awkward babble. The longer the keyphrases are, the more clunky
the copy will sound.

The best advice I can give is to break up some of the mentions
of longer keyphrases. Yes, you do need to keep the words of the
phrase in the same order most of the time. However by using
punctuation and other elements you can still make the phrase
appear less obtrusive.

For example, let's look at our Mexico cruise vacation site
again. Rather than using that bunch of fluff written above, try
this instead:

Long stretches of sunny beaches, delightful fiestas filled with
lively bands and some of the most delicious fresh seafood you've
ever tasted. Where can you find it? In Mexico! Cruise vacation
destinations from Cancun to Cozumel offer some of the most
exciting adventures and beautiful scenery found in Mexico.
Cruise vacation specials make these remarkable getaways even
more affordable than you might think - etc., etc.

Do you see what was done? Using punctuation, the phrase "Mexico
cruise vacation" was broken up between sentences. Because the
search engines all but ignore punctuation, they see the phrase
as one term. However, the site visitor doesn't. They don't
notice that the phrase is being repeated because it spans two
sentences.

If the trend continues as it has in the past, search phrases
will get even longer in the not-so-distant future. However,
when you get creative with keyphrase use in your copy, you'll
find longer search terms are not a problem to work with.

About the author: Be sure to also check out
Karon's report "How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without
Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.