This may be the most necessary SEO step and that's why I listed it in red. The heart of the Google Pagerank system scores your site based on the quality of links that OTHER sites have pointing to yours, known as incoming links. By quality, I mean other sites with a high Pagerank score. My personal opinion is that the Pagerank system has turned the Internet into a "country club" in some ways. If you race with the "in crowd", you get points for it. Regardless of what I think about the system, I decided to "play ball" in order to get my websites listed well in the directories.

One of the easiest ways to get incoming links is to participate in a common Internet practice called reciprocal linking. This is where you agree with another website that "if you link to me, I'll link to you". What matters here is the Pagerank of the other site. If your site starts out at PR 0, it can be hard to find a PR6 site that wants to link to you! This is also because OUTgoing links actually cost the sponsoring website a few points. One type of site that lives to list other websites and aren't so PR-conscious are the web directories. All most require is a reciprocal link.

Reciprocal links are worthy and will get spiders to recognize your site, but one-way links are even better. Google doesn't score reciprocal links between two sites "as high" because it's "an arrangement" between the sites. Google will score your site much higher if you have a one-way link on another site that points to your site, even though your site does not link back to that site. When I learned this, I thought "Great, but where can I get one-way links?"

I discovered that because of the rising demand of links with high Pagerank, there is now an auction specifically made for auctioning off high-PR one-way links (search for it on Google). PR7 one-way links are auctioned off there for about $50. The rule-of-thumb is that the highest incoming PR link you have should make your site 2 PR less (a PR8 link should at least create a new PR6 site). I highly recommend the site as a source for high PR links. One link can set your website on the fast track to worthy search engine listings.

One more quick tip: The anchor text in your incoming links should contain your target keywords for maximum effect with Google.

After you've done Steps I. - III., you should see some spider hits within a few days of your directory listings. Google may then list some or all of your website pages. You can check your listings in Google by going there and searching for "allinurl:www.yourdomain.com". After 6-8 weeks, you should see the full effects of your efforts, and your Pagerank should rise. If you've "reached for the skies" and targeted very well-liked keywords and aren't seeing any results, alter your website so that it targets keywords whose listings in Google are more attainable. Be patient. This process takes monitoring and fine-tuning.

That's all I have on search engine optimization for today. It's a challenge that takes effort, but it's nice to actually see some results after a few weeks. That's more than I can say for some of the other "advertising magic wands" that are sold all over the Internet.


Good Luck!