keyword question

When it comes to picking keywords for my website, should I use the long tailed keywords or should I use the over satuarated keywords? Is it that much harder to rank at the top with the more generic keywords? If not, how many backlinks are needed to position number 1, or is that impossible.

thanks

Long tailed keywords are always easier to rank.

I can't tell you how hard is it to rank with generic keywords because I don't know your niche. No one can answer how many backlinks you need to rank with some keywords because its also quality of those backlinks what matters and SEO is also more than backlinks.....

This always depends on what keyword it is, try firefox addon "seo quake" to see in google backlinks for competition sites.

And always easier long tailed true.

I agree with KeijoKala ... there are a lot of variables here that will determine what is the best option. The info that you have provided is not sufficient for anyone to give you a very helpful answer.

However, for what it's worth, here's my take. There are 2 schools of thought. 1 that advices targeting long tail keywords which is easier to rank high for. The downside is that there will be very few visitors. The other is targeting highly searched terms for which it is tough to rank high but if you do, you'll get the traffic to make it worthwhile.

Yes i see what everyone is saying about the keywords. My market is "home business". I know that is a very very hard market to get into. Anymore suggestions on doing so.

Thank you

Now home biz is a HUGE field ... here are some ways you can approach this:

1. Cover all the niches within the home biz field and target long tail keywords for each of this niche.

2. Pick a niche that is less competitive than the other niches in the Home biz category and optimize your site the highest searched terms.