Targetting Longtail Keywords For SEO

[kjb1891]

Does anyone know of a good way to target low competition longtail keywords for SEO? Can you simply have the keyword on the page and/or have just one inbound link with that keyword phrase as the anchor text and rank for it?

I'm just wondering becuase I've always targetted more moderate demand/competition keywords with reasonable success, but I sometimes see people sayting they get more total traffic from a larger number of more obscure longtail keywords than they do higher demand keywords.

 

[kingfish]

well its the same principles as targeting higher competition keywords just easier.

 

[WildPointer]

Long specific keywords (obviously) convert better than general terms.. so more or less hits, that's a plus, but strictly talking about hits, I usually write an article and try to use the keywords that people are likely to type - but being careful not to sound spammy or lower the quality of the content.

I.e., if i'm writing something about shoes, I might use shoes, sneakers, footwear, etc. It's important to me that the usage not just seems, but IS natural and the writing remains coherent, not just filled with keywords. But in all honesty, I rarely aim to target longtail.. it just happens, but the articles I write are usually very long (~5-20 pages) and I go into details a lot. It's more the nature of my writing than anything else.