"How to get listed among leaders on popular search term?" is one of the questions we can find in any forum. Well I would like to give one of the possible answers. (I would admit I was reluctant to do it because I thought it is million dollar secret but then decided that it is not possible for me to be so clever ;) )

It is based on local search. Let's say that any give country has 20 states or provinces and around 500 important local counties/districts (consumer markets). All you need to do is to make sure that your website or a single web page has a good visibility in any of those local markets. This means that any consumer should be able to find your website when they need a service or product like yours.

It is simple! Just needs time :)

Hmm...Most SEOs and many astute site owners knew this for years :)

Hmm...Most SEOs and many astute site owners knew this for years :)

more like close to a decade, it worked with altavista and hotbot too :P

Very good idea. If you are referring to google adwords another good technique is to include negative keywords. Keywords that you do NOT want to have used to draw traffic to your site. For instance, if you are selling something (obviously for a price) then you want to exclude the keyword FREE. You do this so that when someone looks for "free abc" they don't see your site.

If you don't know how to set a negative keyword, it's simple, it the word you want to exclude prefaced with a minus sign (for instance "-free").

nuclei.. but yet many still dont know whats seo and how it works

You are right. However one can draw relevant traffic using less popular keywords and a website become popular with continuous efforts and that takes time (many years).

HostColor no offense, but your Great SEO technique is like saying:

To get a lot of traffic, just get to the top of Google

In this I mean... pretty vague. I was hoping to see something extraordinary, something no one has ever said when I read the article. I was disappointed :(

Sorry but I have to disagree.

If you are a "local business only" type of operation (restarurant, car dealer, etc) then ranking for local keywords can be worth the effort since even though they may have little traffic the focus is sharp and conversions are generally good.

But if you are in a business which can sell worldwide (SEO, Web design, ebooks etc) then in order to make the most of the traffic available you would have to create thousands of pages targeting those terms and get more thousands of links to get those pages to rank.

I prefer to target those search terms which have the most traffic and even though you may have to work harder to get to the top the rewards are usually worth it.

But if you are in a business which can sell worldwide (SEO, Web design, ebooks etc) then in order to make the most of the traffic available you would have to create thousands of pages targeting those terms and get more thousands of links to get those pages to rank.

If you're a local business targeting local searches, then SEO is the least of your concerns. Paid advertising is what you should focus on.

Put it this way:

I run a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona. I can (a) advertise on a national radio station to the rest of the country (which would include Scottsdale) or (b) spend my money on local newspapers and radio stations.

Which do you think is more cost effective and will bring me the most people?

I can also advertise in the NY Times, or advertise in the Arizona Republic. Where do you think my dollars are going?

It all depends on your business. Are you brick-and-mortar, internet-only, local, national, global?

If you're a local business targeting local searches, then SEO is the least of your concerns. Paid advertising is what you should focus on.

Put it this way:

I run a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona. I can (a) advertise on a national radio station to the rest of the country (which would include Scottsdale) or (b) spend my money on local newspapers and radio stations.

Which do you think is more cost effective and will bring me the most people?

I can also advertise in the NY Times, or advertise in the Arizona Republic. Where do you think my dollars are going?

It all depends on your business. Are you brick-and-mortar, internet-only, local, national, global?

Yes it depends on your market, but that does not mean that you cannot get good and cheap traffic from local searches.

Put it this way - You can advertise in the Arizona Republic and a reader who saw your ad last week may or may not remember your name and address and he may or may not be interested in restaurants, but if that same person finds you in a search for restaurants Scottsdale you know that he is interested in restaurants and he is intersted in them now.

Its the difference between using a rifle or a shotgun when you are hunting deer.