How smart are SE's?

[eitemiller]

First time poster - your forums have really helped me see the light of SEO - thanks for all the info. This question has me stumped...

My site is about outdoor recreation. Most of my users will initially enter my site through backdoors by typing in the exact name of a trail/campground/state park, etc., such as "Mesquite Campground" into a SE. What I want to know is this - do the SE's treat a search on "Prescott, AZ" just the same as "Prescott, Arizona"? Do I need to make both "Arizona" and "AZ" keywords on the pages that are in Arizona? I tried to use the tool at Bruce Clay (http://www.bruceclay.com) to see how many people search for both "Prescott, AZ" and "Prescott, Arizona" and both came up with the same figure. Most of my pages do not have enough content to support optimizing for both "AZ" and "Arizona", so as you can see, I am in a bit of a bind here.

Even if you don't know, but feel you have an idea, guess, or suggestion - I would appreciate it. Thanks!

[Incubator]

My site is about outdoor recreation. Most of my users will initially enter my site through backdoors by typing in the exact name of a trail/campground/state park, etc., such as "Mesquite Campground" into a SE. !
Sounds like you got a good start on your links then :)


What I want to know is this - do the SE's treat a search on "Prescott, AZ" just the same as "Prescott, Arizona"?!
short answer ...no. As you look at Prescott, AZ" the "AZ" alone will pull another type of response "AZ" itself
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22AZ%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N

All random variations of your main targeted keyword/kephrases should be spread across the website in your content


Most of my pages do not have enough content to support optimizing for both "AZ" and "Arizona", so as you can see, !
Can you get anymore content on the site ? are you allowed to ?

Cheers

WC

[eitemiller]

Can you get anymore content on the site ? are you allowed to ?

Sure, I am allowed to, but the problem is - there is only so much I can say about one campground, or one trail, etc - know what I mean? Unfortunatly, I have pages about trails where there is only maybe 50 words of text on the page. I know that is incredibly hard to do any SEO on a page like that, but at times, that is what I have to deal with. Other pages, such as the page for the Grand Canyon - no problem there for optimizing for both, AZ and Arizona. But on maybe half of my "attractions" - I am looking at optimizing the attraction name, city, and state. If I have to optimize for both AZ and Arizona, I am a hurting unit .

With that in mind, any suggestions on what to optimize for, the state name, or abbreivation? Some might work themselves out - take Alaska for example. When I do an attraction in alaska, I can always srpinkle in more words with the letters "ak" such as "Take this road to get to this attraction" (let me know if I am crazy there. But with a state such as Massechuests (sp?) - how will I handle that? Optimize for that crazy spelled state name, or just the abbreviation?

SEO - fun stuff, eh? :)

[Robert_Charlton]

Most of my users will initially enter my site through backdoors by typing in the exact name of a trail/campground/state park, etc., such as "Mesquite Campground" into a SE. What I want to know is this - do the SE's treat a search on "Prescott, AZ" just the same as "Prescott, Arizona"

Can't tell from your question whether you're trying to optimize for just "Prescott Arizona" (or "Prescott AZ"), or whether you're trying to optimize for "Mesquite Campground Prescott Arizona" (or AZ). If the latter, I would think that just putting "AZ" somewhere on your page would suffice, since it's probably not a very competitive search. You might just include "Prescott Arizona/AZ" somewhere once, and that would be enough.

When you're optimizing for "keyword placename placemodifier", it's always best to include all the location modifiers and variants you can think of at least once on the page (they don't all have to be in the title), just in case someone uses them in a search.

The extra modifiers you include won't hurt you, so long as you can make the page read OK. If you're well optimized for your core phrase, by including the modifiers you will generally be also ranking on longer queries that contain them. If you leave them out, you won't be satisfying these queries.

On the other hand, if you're trying to optimize for "Prescott Arizona" all by itself on the other hand, I would think you'd have a hard time ranking with or without the AZ, just because of all the sites and organizations with Prescott in their names that would naturally rank before you (because of inbound links). Again, though, I think if you managed to rank on "Prescott Arizona," you could probably also rank on "Prescott AZ" by including it on the page... and then getting inbound links containing each combination.

[Marcia]

>>include all the location modifiers and variants you can think of at least once on the page (they don't all have to be in the title), just in case someone uses them in a search.

You can also help it along quite legitimately using internal navigation right on the site itself and through use of quality, relevant outbound location-specific links right on the page itself.

[eitemiller]

Those are both excellant ideas, I appreciate the help.

Just to clarify, I will be optimizing for the name of the attraction (Mequite Campground), then the city and state. I am not sure if I can actually put "Arizona/AZ" and make it look decent, but what I am thinking about doing it starting the diections from a state highway. Then I can say "To reach Mesquite Campground from AZ State Highway 89..." - That way i will be able to sneak the state abbreviation in there. The pages are already optimized for the state name, and attraction name, I just need to tweak the directions to include the state abbreviation.

Thanks for the help, I better get on it...