By Shaylor Murray
The early days of search engine optimization were, in hindsight, so simple. Back then all it took was a few good meta tags. Even tactics like invisible text and keyword stuffing not only wasn’t frowned upon but actually worked. Of course, that’s all changed. The search landscape is very different now, and while it used to be that scattering keywords around like confetti was all you had to do, today a much higher premium is placed on two things: content and inbound links.
There’s no absolute consensus on how important each element is, and it varies slightly from one search engine to another, but content weighs in as more important, probably about 70%, with inbound links making up the other third of this two part equation.
I would like to point out there are about 100 other factors that play a dynamic roll in achieving top ranking but these are the foundation of everything else. If you don't have these two, the rest is useless.
Step 1: Content, Content, ContentMuch like the real estate mantra “location, location, location,” climbing the ladder to the top of Google requires great content. The bottom line is that visitors will not stick around to check out your site unless your content is worth looking at. This will not be an overnight process.
Writing for a website is a bit of an art. It’s important to use keywords, but the tone should be one of natural speech. If you’re using to many keywords that you’re stumbling across the words as you read them, and you’re sacrificing general readability to get more keywords in there, that’s a mistake. If you’re unsure, ask a friend to help you write something in a naturally conversant way.
Ideally, each keyword phrase should have its own optimized page. That’s not likely in reality, but you should limit your usage to no more than two or three keyword phrases per page. You should allow for about 200 words per keyword. For a paragraph of the length of this one you’re reading now (~190 words), use the keyword no more than two times within the body text. The keyword should definitely be in the page title, and should be used within the first sentence of the content. Beyond that, limit use of your keyword phrase and spread it equally throughout the page. Wrap up the whole page of text with another usage, to show the spiders that the content is relevant throughout. Incorporate the keyword as anchor text for links that lead to another page of your own site, particularly the first usage. The link should lead to another page optimized for a different keyword, but with related content. For content with two different keyword phrases, the same rule applies: about 150 words per usage of the keyword.
Step 2: Link, Link, LinkWhen linking, go for the highest quality sites with content that is relevant to yours. Link farms that link your digital photography equipment website to a running shoe website are likely not going to help you. When linking, be consistent in how you enter your website, because in Google’s eyes, "http://www" is not the same as "www". Google considers links from high PageRank pages as more “authoritative” than links from low PageRank pages. Sites with PR of more than 5 will likely know they are in desirable link territory because they’ll be receiving a lot of link requests. So go back to Step 1 above, and start building that great content so that they’ll have no reason to deny your request.
There are several tools available that can help you determine the PageRank of a site. (This is not the same as a site’s placement in the search engine results pages.) The free Google Toolbar is one tool that can help you quickly determine the PR of any page you surf to. It will appear as a blue bar indicating a whole number strength between 0 to 10. Most high quality pages have a PR of at least 4. Only the most popular pages, like Google itself or something like CNN.com, have a PR of 10.
One thing to avoid if possible is a Links page, where all of your inbound links are essentially relegated to the content dustbin. Having all of those precious links going to one page, or all to your home page, is a big mistake and a waste of what could be major link juice. The links should go to your actual content pages, where they are most closely related to the content of the linking site. Most often, the home page is the highest PR page on a site, so the link should originate from the other site’s home page, to one of your deep content pages.
Inbound links to your pages should feature your keyword as the anchor text triggering the hyperlink, in other words, the keyword is the clickable part leading to your page. Surround the link on your own site with as much relevant content as possible. This is not the place to use generic, placeholder text.
The MethodBuilding links is a bit of a chore. The best way to handle it is to add it to your schedule and do it like any other task. There’s really no better way, other than great content as we just discussed, to build your website’s stability and authority on the major search engines. It’s a task that will repay you in full, provided it is undertaken with some care. The automated reciprocal link services are questionable. The links are often to low quality junk pages, or temporary, or are links to pages that can get your site blacklisted on Google.
It’s tedious to link manually, so the other option is to hire that service out to a professional. If you do choose to investigate paying a link service, find one that sets it up so your page links to another, which links to a different page, which then links to you. That way each link is counted as a one way inbound link by Google, which is the most valuable type of link to have. Periodically check your backlink profile, and make sure the links aren’t broken, and are to quality pages.
If you’re building the links yourself, take a little care with how you phrase your link request. Some people aren’t aware of the value of links, so explaining to them what you want to do and how it will benefit both of your sites will improve your odds. Don’t write the email like a caveman. Explain why the page you want them to link to is most relevant to the content they have on their own site. Link to it in the email so they can see the page and be sure that what you’re saying is true. Put the link to their site in place first. When possible, use the webmaster’s name, so they know you’ve actually done your homework and you’re not an automated linkbot.
Also, steady linking over time is much more important than just lots of links. Google want to see that people continue to see your site as a valuable resource over time. If links suddenly stop coming, it's a sign that your site or page no longer holds it's value. A priceless tool in combating this is to provide something related to your topic like an online tool, video or article ("sticky content") that makes others want to link to it.
Summary
The goal of having a quality site is that people will naturally want to link to you, and while link-building will be something you have to do, it will be a supplement to organically-grown (so to speak) links on your site. As your content improves, you will get more links, and you will begin that climb up the Google ladder. Add in some links that were hand-picked by you, and improved content, and you’ll climb even higher.
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