I have one site that does not seem to lend itself to many variations in search terms. Offhand, I can think of three or four variations of anchor text that would make sense to use when acquiring backlinks. Although this particular site is fairly new, it already ranks well in MSN (no big surprise there), so traffic is coming each day. Looking through the logfiles revealed that there were over 500 search phrases that were used to bring visitors to the site! Over 500! And all I could think of was three or four.
So how can I use this newfound information? Well, I can certainly use it to create new content that centers around search terms that I had never thought of before, and this is a common use of logfile search terms in an SEO campaign. However, I plan to also use this list to help me come up with a few more phrases that I can use when requesting anchor text for backlinks. Since these phrases have actually been used by searchers, using them as anchor text will make for a nice, natural-looking spread for my backlinks. I will, of course, continue to use my main keyword phrase more often than any other, but now I have the data I need to vary the text whenever I feel it is necessary.
Never underestimate the usefulness of actual logfile data.