In order to get search engine traffic to your website or blog, you have to rank fairly high on the search engine results.  Appearing on the 10^th page of a Google search will not allow you to be seen since few people look that deep into the results.  You really need to be on the first page or two.  The closer you are to the number one position, the more traffic you are likely to receive.

One of the concepts I have been learning about while studying search engine optimization techniques involves climbing the SEO ladder.  What you try to do is to rank as high as possible with a long tail keyword that has little competition.  This will enable people searching for that keyword to find your site or blog, increasing your traffic.  As your traffic begins to increase, other more competitive keywords for which you are attempting to rank will be helped along as well.

As an example, let’s assume that you have a website related to gardening for which you would like to rank.  Gardening as a keyword is very competitive.  It will be difficult for a new site to rank highly for gardening as a keyword.  If you look at “rose gardening” as a keyword, it is less competitive.  Competition is virtually non-existent for “rose gardening in Florida”.  If you focus some of your SEO efforts on ranking for “rose gardening in Florida”, you can help your SEO cause in the rankings for “rose gardening”.  Eventually you can rank highly for both of those keywords bringing authority to your site which will help your rankings for “gardening” as a keyword as well.  In this way, you are climbing the SEO ladder.

There is no real shortcut to good search engine optimization.  It is important to provide your readers with good quality, unique content that will leave them wanting to come back for more.  By writing on a regular basis and focusing on long tail keywords, you can enhance your position for those keywords and begin to bring both visitors and authority to your site which will help you in the long run with some of the more competitive keywords.