Increasing Site Traffic - Targeting Long-Tail Key Phrases

Tip 13: Long Key Tail What?

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Focus on long-tail key phrases, not just keywords.

Oftentimes it's hard to rank high for specific keywords, especially if there are many sites competing against yours. But remember: Most people type phrases in Google, not single words.

Long-tail keywords are phrases that are three, four, five, or six words long that people will type into the Google search box. Use the long-tail keywords in your title, in your h1 tag, in your content, and in your footer.

Be sure you use the phrase exactly the same way - all the words in the same order - several times throughout the page.

Example:

Let's pretend I have a site that has automobile reviews. Should you target the word cars? How about automobile reviews? How about car models? Of course not! You haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of getting to the top of the Google rankings for those words and phrases.

Instead focus on key phrases that people will be searching for and choose key phrases that your competitors will not be using much.

I might specific target phrases like:

Toyota Camry vs Chevy Malibu
2009 Dodge Dakota Performance Reviews
Best Used Car Models from 1977
Chevrolet V6 3.1 Engine Reviews

These are phrases that 1. people might search for and 2. you can realistically get ranked for near the top of Google search results.

Increasing Web Traffic - Key phrases