I Was Drunk The Day My Mom Got Out of Prison

Last night, I was sharing a Guiness with one of my co-workers at a pub in Downtown Phoenix, when David Allen Coe came over the jukebox with the song "You Never Even Called Me By My Name." Andrew is just a couple of years younger than me, but had never heard the song himself, so I explained.

I only had one beer, but I've only slept about 12 hours in three days, so I think I slurred when I told him:

"See kid. This is the ultimate country song. He talks about trucks, and trains, and mama, and prison, and gettin' drunk. All of the best country music concepts into one perfect country-western song!"

So Andrew listens for a few seconds and he says:

"It's like David Allen Coe is a really good SEO."

Damn. I'm supposed to have all of the good ideas.

But Andrew was on to something there, and I thought it would make a fun blog.

David Allen Coe didn't actually write the song, but his version is probably the most famous. Watch how he packs as many country western cliches into one great song:

I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison (drinking, mama and prison in one line!)

And I went to pick her up in the rain (it's always raining down south, ain't it?)

But before I could get to the station in my pick-up truck (mentions the train station, and of course, pick-up trucks)

She got runned over by a damned old train! (misery and trains- they just go together)

How is this Good SEO?

I googled the following phrases, and found references on page one of Google for David Allen Coe's song.

Perfect Country Western Song -- #1 in Google

Country western song about prison -- #6 in Google

Country western song about rain -- #2 in Google

County western song about trains -- #2 in Google

Don't Say in 10 Articles, What You Can Say in One

Oftentimes, when we hear that "content is king", we think that means: Write as much content as you can, over and over and over again, about the same things.

Pretending that David Allen Coe is a Realtor and not a singer, I would use this song as the front page content. Then, I would link- from that content- to a page about trains, another pages about prison, another page about getting drunk, a page about "the rain", and finally a page about mama.

The front page ties it all in nicely, and then guides the visitors to far more detailed pages about the individual cliches, or in the case of Realtors, individual neighborhoods. If you "silo" your content the way that the big real estate syndicates do, you'll have a better chance of competing. But it has to be well written and make sense to search engines and humans. Just like David Allen Coe.

Does this make sense? It did to me over beer last night. While I was thinkin' about mama. And trains. And gettin' drunk...

Enjoy!

*Picture of David Allen Coe, courtesy of Matthew Woitunski