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The 3 Essential Components of a Search Engine Optimization Campaign
By Matt Hockin (http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com) (c)

Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 Million searches. In
a recent Forrester Research report 81% of consumers on the
Internet find products and services by using the Search Engines.
Search Engine Optimization allows you to achieve top search
engine placement and a tap into a new source of qualified
visitors who are actively searching for products and services
on the Internet.

Unfortunately, only 7% of all websites are visible on the search
engines according to a recent StatMarket.com study. The reason
for this phenomenon is that most web sites are not properly
optimized and promoted to achieve high search engine rankings.

The Top 3 Components Of Optimizing Your Web Site for Top Search
Engine Rankings:

To achieve the best overall, long-term search engine positioning,
three components must be present on your web site:

 1. Content component (Your web page text.)
 2. Link component (How you link your pages together.)
 3. Link Popularity component (The in-bound links to your site.)

1) The Content Component

The most important part of the content component (of a search
engine algorithm) is keyword selection and where you place
keywords on your web pages. In order for your target audience
to find your site on the search engines, your web pages must
contain keyword phrases that match the phrases your target
audience is typing into search queries. Finding these keywords
that your target audience uses to find your product is
accomplished by conducting keyword research.

2) The Link Component - Internal Linking

The strategy of placing keyword-rich text on your web pages is
useless if the search engine spiders have no way of finding that
text. The way your web pages are linked to each other has huge
impact on your site's search engine positioning. Be sure to link
your pages together with your keywords within your links.

3) The Link Popularity Component - Acquiring In-Bound Links

The "Link Popularity" or Google "PageRank" (PR) component of a
search engine algorithm analyzes how many web sites link to your
website.

95% of the battle of getting high rankings at the search engine
is acquiring quality and relevant links pointing to your web
site. Ever since Google entered the search engine market, all
the major Search Engines have started using links as the primary
way they rank web sites. This is known as your web site's "Link
Popularity" or in Google's case it's called "PageRank" or "PR."

For example, the heart of Google's algorithm is PageRank, a
system for ranking web pages developed by Google founders Larry
Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. Here is what Google
says about their "PageRank" web site ranking algorithm at their
web site http://www.google.com/technology/...

"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by
using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual
page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A
to page B as a vote, by page A for page B. But, Google looks at
more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives;
it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by
pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and
help to make other pages "important."

As Google explains, Links and PageRank are critical to ranking
high in the search engines. In fact, inbound links and the text
within those inbound links account for 95% of effective search
engine optimization.

Relevant Links:
But, attaining optimal link popularity is not as easy as simply
obtaining as many links as possible to your website. The quality
and relevancy of the sites linking to your site holds more
"weight" than the quantity of sites linking to your site. Since
Yahoo is the most frequently visited site on the web, a link
from Yahoo to your website carries far more "weight" than a link
from a smaller, less visited site.

Here's what Google Developer Matt Cutts has to say about links...

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        "Thematic incoming links from authority sites
        carry more weight than on-page optimization."
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Top 4 Strategies for Acquiring Links to Your Web Site:

Below are the four critical steps for achieving high rankings
by acquiring text links to your web site...

1) Get a higher Google PageRank score than your competition For
any given keyword. There is a minimum PageRank required to rank
at Google. In order to see what this minimum PageRank number is,
search Google for your keyword and look at the PageRank of your
competition's web sites that are ranked in the top 10 of the
Search Engine Results Page (SERP). An easy way to view the
PageRank scores of your competition is to use Google Toolbar
http://toolbar.google.com or the SEOChat PageRank Search tool.
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/pagerank-search/

2) Get more relevant links than your competition. All links are
not created equal. The best links are "relevant" links from web
pages related to your keyword.

3) Get more links on more different web sites than your
competition. Getting links on a variety of different web sites
on different networks is crucial for high rankings.

4) Use the keywords you want to rank high in the search engines
as the anchor text of your in-bound links. "Anchor text" is the
visible text within a hyperlink. Text links and anchor text are
the two most important criteria for how Google and other top
Search Engines rank web sites.

Here is an example of a link containing the keyword phrase
"ERP Software" within the anchor text...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
F*R*E*E (ERP Software) white paper shows how
to increase profitability and reduce inventory.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Relevant Links and PageRank are critical to achieving high
search engine rankings. Want proof? Do a search at Google for
the highly competitive keyword "computers" and you'll find Apple
and Dell computers rank numbers 1 and 2 in the Search Engine
Results Page (SERP). Now, click through to the Apple and Dell
web pages and look for the word "computers" in their web page
text. What did you find? Neither www.apple.com or www.dell.com
have the word "computers" in their text, yet they're ranking #1
and #2 at Google.

Relevant Links and PageRank Win!

The sites with the most relevant links and highest Google
PageRank win every time and rank the highest at the top search
engines. There are many methods you can use to acquire text
links, including buying links from a broker, Internet
directories, reciprocal linking, Internet publicity, and others.

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Matt Hockin is President of Interactive Marketing, Inc., an
Internet marketing consulting company providing web site
optimization and search engine marketing services that "tune up"
web sites for increased conversion rates, traffic, qualified
leads, and profitability. For more information, visit
http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com
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