Long Tail

Am I correct to say that for my home page I should focus mainly on 3 to 5 keyword terms, and also include all of the possible long tail possibilities which fit in to the text naturally?

No.

You should target only one keyword per page - especially on the home page.

Also, when you identify long tail keywords it shows a particular niche and helps you refine and further target your site.

When you identify a long tail keyword - create some content speicifcally about that keyword - then it will no longer be a long tail keyword.

The term lomng tail keyword comes from the fact that there are a lot of search terms that a few people find your site for because it is sort of related to that long tail keyword.

By targetting content ot that long tail keyword the new page will get many more visitors for that keyword which now is not in the long tail.

Long Tail analysis was initially developerd and used in production and stock control but has been purported quite successfuly into online marketing. It is very sueful to pay attention to.

Naturally, yes, but don't try working everything in. Homepages usually describe what is offered on the site, summarizes or focuses on the basic and the interior pages pinpoint the specifics.

Link to important internal pages with their keyword phrases.

Actually I'd say your way off base here...

The "mainpage" is a catch all page - if for no other reason than its the one page 95% of the web will link to regardless of the actual mainpage content.

Take any relatively large site and try to make the mainpage about "1" thing... it links to all the main categories of the domain so regardless how you purposely think the mainpage is only about "1" thing... it ain't so.

I have targetted the home page towards the main highly competitive keyword and I have included all the other long tail keywords that are natural in the page copy. The keywords I am primarily targetting are in the title, description, h1,h2 and h3. I have also included all of the long tail keyword phrases where they fit in.

We will see how this works out.

Thank you for your responses. I wanted to ensure that a few others agreed with what I am doing before I put it in to practise.

I also think that you shouldn't target 1 keyword per page, highly competitive phrases, lesser generic phrases, product specific and long tail, in my opinion, need including in the page copy.

On a general note the main page is related to "everything within the domain"...

1. it is the highest hierarchical level - thus the broadest match in topic scope, and

2. links to the domain define what a domain is about more than the content within the domain and physcially on the page. Because most links go to the mainpage and in consort with point #1 the anchors toward the page are as diverse as the topic of the complete domain [natural links that is] so --

If you make the content of the mainpage about swimwear but links to the mainpage are about cars... your domain is more about cars than it is about swimwear....

Be that as it may you haven't really "targeted" the mainpage to any specific phrase - unless you gotten links using that phrase to it.

That's a matter of opinion. I have some pages that I tackle 1 with, and others that tackle 20, and both successfully.



Targeting a longtail keyword to rank better does not stop it from being longtail. Whether your #1 for a longtail keyword and getting most of the traffic possible from it, or whether you show up in a couple searches for the same term, it is still a longtail keyword.

A long tail keyword is a keyword phrase that is on the lower end of receiving searches. The longtail makes up all the keywords that are searched rarely, which in turn makes them less competitive.

I go after everything with my homepage...

Let's say that I rank #1 in Google for "Widgets"... and that my domain is BestWidgets.com.... my homepage title tag would be...

Widgets | Wooden, Brass, Steel, Copper, Gold, Aluminum

I would then likely have great rankings for

Widgets
wooden widgets
brass widgets
steel widgets
copper widgets
gold widgets
aluminum widgets

I go after keyword REACH with the homepage (and lots of other pages).

Quality stuff! This is the approach I'm going to take from now on. Before, I was focusing on five or four keywords per page. This will 'hopefully' increase traffic somewhat!

Sometimes I work backwards. I build content concentrating on certain researched keywords.

Then, after a while, I check webmaster tools to see what I'm coming up for in searches.

Then I do some keyword research on the keywords I'm coming up for that I didn't intend to. See which ones would get the most traffic if #1 in rankings.

Finally, I start targeting those keywords too.

Doing this after the fact can help you pick off #1 for some keywords that you wouldn't think of, and that are more easily obtainable.

I think the suggestion to look at keyword searches through webmaster tools is key. Build your content first...

The same method im doing.

Research a KW. Make a content. Sit for a while. Observe whats going on and choose intelligently the KWs that pops out in your stat. And from those KWs, research it if it was valuable or not.

Im just experimenting this kind of method and tally if it was effective or not. As of now im happy with the result.

Any opinion about this method guys?

Thanks

To be clear - tstolber isn't wrong... he could have worded his post better...

If you pool his post with EGOL's post - they said the same thing...

e.g. out of the list

Widgets
wooden widgets
brass widgets
steel widgets
copper widgets
gold widgets
aluminum widgets

Widgets is the target at the mainpage and that with the aid of sub-pages for all the specific widget types and all the links anchored with different widget types allows the mainpage to be ranks for all or almost all the phrase nuances.

But say you want to do the same thing for SEO, which is the same as Internet marketing and link development or copywriting, or Meta Tags, or search engine promotion or link bait... etc., etc... these are all "as related as different types of widgets are to widgets" ... but 'targeting' is a tad more problematic - and likely what tstolber was driving at.