Why build links to non-converting “fly-over” pages was written by David Leonhardt, THGM professional SEO consultant.
What is a fly-over state, and what does it have to do with SEO?
You might have heard the term “fly-over”, referring to Utah and Wyoming and Colorado and Kansas and Nebraska. It refers to those states that the politicians and business travellers rarely visit, but often fly over on their trips between east coast and west coast.
I like to think the same of New Brunswick – I have been in the province three times, twice driving through ( a “drive-thru province”?) and once to actually visit, and I have flown over it four additional time to get to the east coast.
Fly-over states get ignored.
Your website might have some fly-over pages, which might also get ignored. But some of them are worth a second look.
I was looking through Google Analytics, and noticed a couple pages for one of my websites was getting a surprising amount of traffic. The pages were describing very specific aspects related to the site’s topic. Looking at the search terms that were bringing most of the visitors there, it was clear that these visitors were researchers, perhaps doing term papers or just curious. These were NOT customers. These are NOT buyers.
Aargh. What a waste.
Or not?
Turning fly-over pages into landing pages
Not. Here are five reasons to feed your fly-over pages, to build internal links to those pages and to build deep links from other pages on the web when you get the chance. (Here is a guide to building deep links.) In other words, why you should help build the ranking of these fly-over pages so that more people land on them.
- If people like the information on the pages, some of them will social share them on places like FaceBook and twitter and Google Plus. And that gives your entire domain credibility with the search engines. Tip: Make sure those pages are definitive sources of information, quotable and share-worthy.
- The more people visit, the better your Alexa Rank on Compete score, and that does count for something in many cases (like selling your site or seeking online partnerships).
- Some of those researchers might be bloggers, who will build links into the page and maybe also to your home page. Either way, every link into your domain helps the entire domain – including your money pages.
- Some of the researchers might be journalists. As long as the topic is related to your main site topic, it is to your advantage to be quoted in the media; don’t forget that offline media can drive customers, too.
- And you never know when a researcher might actually be interested in your product or pass your site on to someone they know who is interested.
Time to review your fly-over pages and see if any of them are worth turning into landing pages. Your whole website could benefit from the valuable content on those pages.
