The Long Tail Method
The Long Tail Method when applied to Organic SEO is a method of utilising the huge amount of traffic that search for unpopular and thus less competetive terms. Just because terms are unpopular (ie get few searches per month) does not mean they are not worth targetting, quite the contrary in fact!.
What is the Long Tail Theory
The Long Tail Theory is an economic one. From the graph below you can see that the less popular organic searches make up for a vast amount of the total search volume. If you compared the area in each of the red and green sections the green section would probably account for more searches and thus more potential sales than the highly competetive red section.
Long Tail Bennefits
Targetting terms that are in the long tail makes a lot of sense. You get access to lots and lots of targeted searchers in areas where there is little competition. If you target lots and lots of these terms you can build up a substantial amount of targeted traffic with a lot less effort than would be required to get the smae amount of traffic when targeting one of the top level generic terms.
The over riding priniple with Long Tail search targeting is to lower your advertising spend on paid for search and increase you sales from natural search, as shown in the graph below.
How to Use Long Tail
There are several different ways to use the long tail method. My own personal method is simple using keyword research and finding niche terms which is technically taking advantage of the long tail method.
Another method for using the Long Tail method is to use analytic software or raw stats. The trouble with these packages is that they often hide you from the real Long Tail searches. Google XML sitemaps account Log In gives you some idea of the searches your site receives and some statistics packages give you an indication as well.
Lastly there is the option of using tailor made Long Tail search software. One such product that has come to my attention recently is MyLong Tail. MyLongTail is javascript based software that gives you a web based interface to help you identify Long Tail search terms so you can target the terms that will work best for you. I haven't used this product yet but I do intend to try it out. When I do I will post a full review. For now though, it has been recomended to me by a trusted source so I am confident it is a good product.