Search Engine Optimization
The Basics of Getting a Top Listing

Why's it Important?

Search engines are the number one way that internet users find websites. In most cases, a listing in a search engine is free. So, it's no surprise that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often the first priority when marketing a website.

Proper search engine optimization can bring you hundreds--possibly thousands--of visitors every day, and at no cost to you. It isn't easy to get a top listing--it could take months of tweaking and waiting--but it is certainly worth it.

Links are Everything

Other SEO guides talk about the importance of titles, meta tags, text concentration, etc. This is important, but there's something much more important: links.

Google is by far the most popular search engine, and the main factor in a site's rank is the number (and quality) of links from other sites to it. If your website has no inbound links, it is unlikely that you will even show up in Google's listings. And Google isn't the only search engine looking at links; most do to some extent, but Google places the largest weight on it.

Google uses an algorithm called "PageRank" (PR) to determine how popular a site is on the internet. You can read how it's calculated in the original research paper, but here's the basics:

• Every webpage gets a number from 0 to 10 (with decimals). 0 means that the page doesn't exist, and 10 is hugely popular (there are about 25 pages on the entire internet with a 10).
• The scale is logarithmic. This means that twice as many links will not give you twice the PageRank. In fact, moving from one number to the next could take five or ten times as many links. This is why it's so difficult to get a high PageRank.
• Google doesn't just look at how many links are pointing to your pages, it also looks at the PR of the pages linking to you. So a link from a PR9 site is worth a lot more than a link from a PR3 site. Also, Google considers how many other links are on the page that links to you.
• The text of a link matters. Google considers what text is used to link to your site. If you haven't named your site yet, choose one that has related keywords in it.

To see what a site's PageRank is, download the Google toolbar.

How to Get Links

Obviously, it's important to get links from popular sites. But how does one do that?

• Link Exchanges - Most webmasters are just as interested in getting links as you are. Make a "Links" page on your site, and link to related websites that also have "Links" pages. Then, e-mail those webmasters and ask if they will link back to you.
• DMOZ - If you haven't already, get a free link at DMOZ. This will give you some traffic, and also boost your PR.
• Niche Directories - There are directories for every conceivable type of website. Search for directories related to your website, and follow their instructions to exchange links.
• Submit Reviews - This is often overlooked. Most webmasters don't mind hearing positive things about their site. It wouldn't hurt to send short testimonials to sites with webmaster-related products, and then put "Webmaster of MySite.com" under your name. They might just add your review--and a link to your site.
• Write Articles - Write articles for ArticleCity. This will get your writing on hundreds of websites--and most will follow ArticleCity's requirement to link to the author's site.

Remember that it could take as much as a few months for your PR to increase after getting incoming links.

Targetting Keywords

Having inbound links is important, but you also need to decide which terms you want to appear under in search engines.

It is easiest to get a listing under terms that have fewer sites competing. So, try to find a few specific phrases that are relevant to your site, but that still get a lot of searches.

The easiest way to do this is with Overture's Keyword Suggestion Tool. It will take a broad term like "games" and make suggestions for more specific terms. It will also show how many searches each term gets per day (Google's searches per day for a term will probably be about three times this amount).

Another option is to start signing up for Adwords (but to abandon the process) so that you can use the Keyword Tool. This will also give you suggestions for related terms.

Here's a good process to use:

• Make a list of words and phrases that describe your website.
• Enter these into Overture's suggestion tool, and find more specific searches.
• For each specific phrase, do a quick search on Google for it. Write down the term, as well as the number of pages matching it (in the top-right) and the PageRank of the first page listed (click on it and then look at the Google toolbar).
• Pick three or four phrases that have a lot of searches per day, but that also have a low PR for the first page (6 or less is best) and a relatively low number of matches.

Using Your Keywords

Now that you've chosen your keyword phrases, how should you use them? There are many guides that go into much more depth than I will here (there are even books on the subject), but these are the most important places:

• Inbound Links - Google in particular looks at the text of links pointing to your site. If other sites link to you using your phrases, then that will boost your ranking under those searches. How can you control this? Choose a title of your site that has a keyword phrase in it. Also, don't link to your "Home Page." If possible, use the keyword-rich name of your site instead.
• <TITLE> Tag - Include your keyword phrases at least once in your Title.
• Meta Tags - Google ignores these, but you might still want to use them. I won't go into the details here, though. There are many excellent articles all about Meta Tags.
• Text - You should use your chosen keywords throughout the text of your pages. A good rule is to include each phrase once (but no more than three times) in every paragraph. A little less if you write especially short paragraphs.

Patience is a Virtue

Remember that Search Engine Optimization takes time. After you make a change to your website, it could take a month or more for search results to reflect the changes. When getting links, it could take even longer.

But it's definitely worth the wait.