Although a top 10 ranking may sound out of your ballpark, using Long Tail keywords is your ticket to reaching great search engine placement with half the effort. The following post will help you understand what Long Tail keywords are, how to correctly identify and use them and what more you’ll need to do afterwards to make sure you reach your goal of a Google top 10 ranking.

What is a Long Tail Keyword?

Long Tail keywords, as detailed by Chris Anderson in his remarkable 2004 Wired post (http://www.thelongtail.com/), is a search engine strategy to target less competitive keywords instead of highly competitive ones. The theory behind the Long Tail is that web users have begun to learn how to narrow their search results by asking questions and phrases, rather than using broad and generic terms. An example of a Long Tail keyword would be “Apple Macbook” in comparison to simply, “Apple”.

The importance of using Long Tail keywords to reach a top 10 ranking is that the less competition you have, the easier you will find yourself reaching top search engine placement. Although these Long Tail searches do not have nearly the amount of search results as broad terms, users searching on Long Tail keywords are highly focused.

Research Your Keywords!

To begin your journey to reach a Google top 10 ranking, you must first do a bit of research into what your audience is looking for. Smart website owners keep track of analytics to point out what terms visitors are searching on and what drove them to their websites. Although analytics is only one of the many tools used for keyword research, perhaps be best are the following tools:

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool
• Google Suggest

Let’s take a moment to break down the benefits of each of these and how one would use them to find long tail keywords for their goals of top 10 rankings.

Google AdWords is perhaps one of the easiest and most relevant keyword tools you can freely find. Everyday millions of dollars are spent on competitive keywords to drive visitors to one’s website; using AdWords will give you a clear understanding of what keywords are hot while also giving you great ideas and results about Long Tail keywords. Google AdWords keyword tool is available at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Finally, one of the best ways to find a relevant Long Tail keyword for top 10 ranking content is Google Suggest. Next time you begin to type in a search phrase or keyword, allow the search box to idle and you will be displayed the top search engine phrases people are using to find information.

Create and Dominate

Now that you know how to find your Long Tail keywords, it’s time to put them to good use in getting you that elusive Google top 10 ranking.

Even with all the keywords in the world, you still won’t be able to achieve a top 10 ranking without great content. When developing your content, using a Long Tail keyword within the title tag, post text and URL is the best possible strategy to gain that top Google result.

Think of it as if you overheard someone ask a question and you immediately have the answer. This person would fall over themselves to find their answer and needs from your website if you nail the content right on the head.

As a quick example, if you found that people were actively searching for “How To Ride a Mountain Bike”, your post should be accurately titled something similar if not exactly the same. Next, your content should be full of great information and facts for your visitor to read. Finally, use an appropriate URL such as the title of the post, further setting the content focus in stone.

Dos and Don’ts of Long Tail Keywords

• Do use long search phrases
• Don’t use generic, everyday terms
• Do write the way you talk
• Don’t write like a robot

As you continue to add additional content to your website based on Long Tail keywords, you will definitely see a rise in relevant visitors. With a highly focused page of content, after doing your research, you WILL receive a Google top 10 ranking, sending thousands of new visitors to your website.

Promote, Promote, Promote!

After you’ve done your research and crafted your content based around these highly targeted and relevant Long Tail keywords, do as you would normally do with your website, get out there and promote!

Jump on websites such as Digg to submit your story, Twitter to talk about your new post and Facebook to tell your friends about what the amazing new article you wrote. As more people flood and help promote your pages, you will see a general rise in your quest for a top 10 ranking.

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, your page will shoot straight to the top, because of the lack of competition amongst other things. Other times, it may take you a while to finally see that Google top 10 ranking, but give it enough time and it will soon reach the goal. As long as you continue to promote and talk about the pages, you will soon see the day.

All in All…

Even though you’ve come all this way, trying to get your top 10 ranking, it still may seem just out of grasp. Sometimes many Long Tail keywords are hard to gain a top 10 result just on the mere fact that a website has just too much relevance and history behind it (such as Wikipedia). The important thing is to try, try again, using different Long Tail keywords.

You will soon see yourself developing a knack finding great subjects and titles based on the Long Tail. Your skills will become sharp; your website full of relevant and highly targeted content and you’ll soon dominate Google’s top 10 rankings.