Roller Derby Drafting

The Biggest Loser TV Show recently ran a segment that showcased one of their sponsor’s product that looked like a heart rate monitor. I was in the market for a heart rate monitor and was searching around the Web and discovered this Biggest Loser diet story. I did a search on “biggest loser heart rate monitor” and saw that an article from Numetrex.com entitled “The Biggest Loser: A Heart Rate Monitor Can Have Incredible Impact on Fitness and Health” ranked near the top for the search.

So what does this have to do with your little local site?

The technique Numetrex used is what I like to call “SEO drafting” – the art of associating your business with current events (or other popular search terms) to take advantage of high volume searches that you can rank for. While Numetrex was not a sponsor of The Biggest Loser they had a product similar to the sponsor’s. And when short attention span jokers like me start searching that thing we heard about on the show we search generically (because who can remember brands these days?) for terms like “Biggest Loser heart rate monitor”. Numetrex’s post enabled them to rank for this kind of search and show up instead of the sponsor.

So how can a local business use SEO drafting?

If you were a store in Pleasanton that sells heart rate monitors you could have posted a similar article and possibly shown up for these kinds of searches. Of course it may not have done you much good unless the searcher was in your service area.

So maybe Project Runway is featuring a dress similar to one you sell in your shop or maybe another business down the street is running some big promotion that you can imitate or at least mention on your site. Start drafting and start selling…

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12 Response Comments

  • SEO Pune  December 11, 2007 at 11:54 pm

    It totally makes sense , if you want actual users (not SEO people and spiders) searching for something which is available on your site , i think it is very important to maintain focus on current events which are relevant to your website.

  • Andrew Shotland  December 23, 2007 at 9:06 pm

    Thanks for stopping by Mike. Merry Xmas and all that…

  • Dudeftw  February 7, 2008 at 5:07 am

    Thanks for the tip, that makes sense, to capitalise on keywords that are close to non-existent so that you become the first of its kind to write about it.

  • Dimension X Media  March 2, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    This method could also be easily applied to PPC (pay per click – e.g. Google adwords) or Affiliate Network traffic (commission junction for example) where ads are placed on high volume traffic sites and text ads / banners are displayed.

    If you are a local shop you could geo-target using these two methods… Of course you would have to pay for this traffic but it does mean you could target traffic temporally too. FOr example you could turn your ‘Biggest Loser heart rate monitor’ PPC campaign on for a couple of hours after the Biggest loser airs on tv.

  • Captain Jizz  March 2, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    This is a great tip.

    I’d also add that it’s important to ensure you check out the current search results before you start writing this sort of content and trying to poach some from the sponsors.

    CJ

  • BLB  December 1, 2008 at 8:57 pm

    I have never thought about doing anything like that. That would have worked great on my blog, especially since people who watch the show visit my site. I need to start paying more attention to the show to get more ideas on what to promote.

  • Bonnie  January 23, 2009 at 12:24 am

    So what IS the heart rate monitor used by Biggest Loser? I’m trying to find out.

  • James  November 15, 2010 at 10:12 pm

    very interesting, if its something current and matches with your website then why not. Really nice tip, thanks

  • Heart Rate For Fat Burning  February 22, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    This absolutely makes sense. You are entering the conversation in the heads of your potential customers and meeting them where they are, not where you would like them to be. Nice article.

  • Andrew Shotland  February 22, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    Thanks HRFFB, nice comment spamming 🙂

  • InfoNib  March 11, 2011 at 8:48 pm

    Hey Andrew,

    I liked when you said “SEO drafting” – the art of associating your business with current events (or other popular search terms) to take advantage of high volume searches that you can rank for.

    Rather than concentrating on how to get indexed for keywords with high CPC, it’s always the best to link your business with the current events by making use of the same SEO tactics that we use in other areas. 🙂

    Mohamed
    Infonib.com