Your Key To High Search Engine Placement: Links
 by: Mark Lawson

One thing has become abundantly clear in today’s Internet: you need to place well in the search engines if you want to succeed with your online business. Every search engine ranks pages based on slightly different criteria, but one that is consistently critical is the number of incoming links lead to your page.

Google especially focused its original algorithms on these links. Their idea was that if your page has lots of incoming links from pages in or related to your keyword topic, and if those links originated from good or prestigious pages, this was an indicator that your page was likely to hold the information that their search engine customers were seeking. Rankings were based on the number of incoming links a given page had.

Today, Google works on the same concept, but they’ve grown increasingly sophisticated to serve their customers better. For instance, when affiliate marketers figured out that Google was using linking to drive search engine placement, they started building automated link-generating sites that cross-referenced one another through complex linking arrays. This quickly became known as search engine spam.

How Can You Use Links?

First, never spam Google. They may blackball all your sites and your name if they think you’ve done something contrary to their terms of use. Instead, focus on how you can get good quality links from other pages to your website.

Great Content: Great content, once the word gets out, will always draw links from other sites to you. If you have a fantastic tool or resource to share, putting it online can draw links and ultimately traffic.

Links From Directories: Yahoo! and Dmoz are well-known directory sites; instead of cataloging pages via web spiders, these directories have you or an editor place your site into an appropriate category, from which your link will emerge. Always register your site with directories yourself so you can select a category appropriate to your keywords. Don’t overlook niche directories, either; whether your website is focused on pets or datachips, there are small specialized directories out there you can register with. Note: register with free directories first, and when you see where your site’s going to fall in the search engine you can start looking at the paid ones.

Links from Related Forums: If you post in a forum related to your website topic, always include a link back to your website; the spiders pick up these links and, when they’re from related forums, it will boost your website’s ranking.

Reciprocal Links: Historically, these have been great, a sort of tit-for-tat web marketing scheme. Lately, after the latest update on Google , they’ve been reduce in importance, though they are still valuable.

Article Sites: There are numerous websites that distribute free donated articles written by experts. If you write good articles, you can contribute articles to these sites. The benefit? Each article is printed on content-rich sites with a resource box that has your name and a link to your website in it. This provides you with an automatic one-way link from a quality site.

Blogs: Blogs are a little different, in that they don’t necessarily give you one-way links. What they do is provide your site with continually fresh content – an online commodity that the search engines love. With good one-way links and fresh content, you can raise your search engine rankings quickly.

About The Author

Mark Lawson is the webmaster for http://www.indexplex.com a leading Web Directory Please feel free to republish this article together with working hyperlinks.

With thousands of website designers, marketing firms, business directories, and independent consultants offering search engine placement services, choosing the right search engine placement company can seem overwhelming. There are many factors to consider including your specific needs, market depth and competition. Once you’ve defined the problem, you must still sort through the noise to find a reputable firm which has the capabilities needed to successfully execute your campaign.

What are your search engine placement needs?

Do you need your site on the first page for every search related to your services, or would just a few new clients per month bet a better fit? Will you need a new website or do you already have a professional looking, search engine friendly website? There are many different companies, offering a wide variety of services. Some business owners prefer to purchase services from several different contractors who have a narrow focus,, while others prefer to leave the whole project in the hands of a company which offers a broad spectrum of services.

Determining your search engine placement market depth and competition

How many other companies would like to sell something to your target market? Obviously a New York City plumber will have more competitors than one in Missoula Montana. In larger markets there is also a larger number of profitable keyword opportunities. The more competitive your SEO market is the more important it becomes that you choose a top tier placement company.

Finding a reputable, capable search engine placement company

Once you’ve determined what kind of search engine placement campaign you need, you can begin vetting companies. There are directories like Searchified Organics, Top SEO’s, SEOMOZ directory and others where you can find hundreds of marketing companies, including including information about services offered, customer reviews and other information. When looking at client reviews keep in mind that a few happy customers doesn’t guarantee that you will experience the same results. Conversely, just because one negative review is online, doesn’t mean the company is un-hireable.

Finding a reputable seo company

I always recommend hiring only firms who have proven competency in similar markets, provide genuine client testimonials, and are members of associations like local chamber of commerce, BBB, etc. Avoiding companies who do not have an established client base and available portfolio of work is a good rule of thumb. The advantage of working with a member of the BBB and similar organizations lies in the fact that they are accountable to an independent third party in the case of a dispute.

Combining a little research with some common sense will help you avoid mistakes when choosing an online marketing company, and save you the expense of creating an in house web marketing department. Do a few Google search for your products. If you can’t find your website on the first page, it’s probably time to start looking for a reputable search engine placement company.

Benjamin Briggs is the Director of Search Engine and Social Media Marketing for Global Market Exposure He provides no-nonsense search engine marking consultation, SEO services, and social media marketing campaigns from offices in Portland Oregon.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Benjamin_Briggs

Think about the last time you used a search engine to find a product, service, or information. Probably within the last day or two, right? Now think about the last time you cracked open the phone book. I can tell you that at my house, the phone book has turned into kindling for the outdoor fire pit. In fact, an entire chunk from “Physicians” to “Restaurants” is gone (but not the least bit missed).

The reason I mention my family’s creative use for the phonebook is that it speaks to the shift in marketing techniques over the past few years from the traditional (yellow pages, print, radio, etc.) to the Web. It also sheds some light on why Web Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in particular, should be a priority for your business. With more and more people shifting their attention online, businesses need an online presence to match.

But is the marketing shift away from traditional methods to online dramatic enough to justify an investment in SEO? And are there statistics to back up the claim that SEO is vitally important for your business? We think the answers are: yes and yes. Here’s why…

The Shift: Traditional to Online

When compared to traditional marketing strategies (i.e., direct mail, radio, trade shows), Web Marketing not only has the same reach as these methods, but has the added bonus of allowing consumers to convert into a lead or sale on the spot. That means there’s one less step in the sales cycle, and one less opportunity for buyers to “fall off”.

The Web also does a much better job of keeping information current and relevant. Not to pick on phone books again, but they’re outdated by the time they get to your doorstep, and their advertising is terribly expensive in the first place.

Web Marketing is often more of a time investment than a financial one. But even if you outsource your work, it’s still incredibly cost-effective with an average cost per lead of $0.29. (Source: Entrepreneur Magazine)

Top Search Engines

When it comes to search engines, there are only a few major players. Google dominates the search engine market in the United States; they’re also the leader globally although not to the same extent as here in the U.S. Following a distant second and third are Yahoo! and MSN. Here’s a complete breakdown of U.S. market share:

* Google – 59%

* Yahoo – 15%

* MSN – 6%

* AOL – 3.9%

* Ask – 3.7%

* Others –13%

(Source: Accuracast.com, Jan 2009)

It’s obvious why businesses focus their efforts on ranking well in Google, and to a lesser extent, Yahoo! and MSN. If your site is ranking well in those search engines, you have 80% of all search engine traffic covered.

Why Web Marketing?

Considering the fact that there are hundreds of millions of websites and blogs clogging up the Internet, it’s important to stand out. It’s not enough to just put up a website and hope that your potential customers will find it, because they won’t. Without SEO, your site will almost surely end up in Internet Oblivion (also known as page 28 of Google). Here’s why:

* 1.3 Billion Internet Users

* Over 85% start at a Search Engine

* Less than 25% will go beyond the top 10

* Top 10 get 80% more traffic than those ranked 11-30

(Sources: Internet World Stats, Search Engine Blaster, Base One Search and Bestrank.com)

Did you catch that? Less than 25% of users go beyond the first page of the search results. Even if your company is on page 3 or 4, your site traffic and online visibility will probably be minimal. That’s why it’s so important to optimize and market your site so that it dominates your online competition in the search engines.

Important Elements of Web Marketing

So where and how do you start? Search Engine Optimization is actually just one (big) piece of the Web Marketing puzzle. When you’re marketing your site, you actually want to consider all of these web marketing techniques as possibilities:

* Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – often called natural – or organic – placement in the search engines. SEO includes the following strategies:

Link Building

Online Public Relations

Content Creation

SEO-friendly HTML Code Optimization

Analytics

* Pay-Per-Click (PPC) – PPC refers to paid placement ads in the search engines.

* Social Media – while Social Media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter certainly have SEO benefits, they also help your online visibility and overall marketing effort.

* Email Marketing – drive traffic to your site using email messages.

Here’s the bottom line: Web Marketing is one of the most cost effective uses of your marketing budget. It’s also a “must” if you want your site to perform well in the search engines and be seen by potential customers. When Web Marketing is done right, you can expect things like greater online visibility, search engine rankings, site traffic, and leads and sales. How’s that for a nice payoff?

About The Author

Collyn Floyd is a marketing and public relations specialist with The Karcher Group, a web development and search engine marketing firm based in North Canton, OH. She is passionate about helping The Karcher Group’s clients achieve greater online traffic, leads and sales through search engine optimization and marketing.

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