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A Simple Guide For Achieving Top Rankings in the Search Engines
 - Even if You Are a Complete Newbie
By Darren Chow (c) 2009 

The proper term for the process is known as SEO, or Search
Engine Optimization. SEO is a combination of two major
components. First, you must learn how to tweak your web pages so
that the search bots find your content to be search engine
friendly. Once you have set up a search friendly site, the next
component is to build back links. But before diving straight
into SEO, you must first know which keywords to target.

Choosing Your Target Keyword Phrase

Many new Internet Marketers make the mistake of choosing the
wrong keywords to target. So what makes a keyword
inappropriate?

Your ideal keyword phrase should be around three to four
keywords. If you are targeting a word like "music", you may
find that you may not be able to rank for anything. That is
because the keyword itself is too general. Whether you are
looking for someone to sign up as a member, download a song, or
buy something from you, you want to be sure that you are
matching the right offer to the right audience. In other words,
you are looking for targeted traffic. So instead of choosing a
keyword like "music", a keyword phrase like "local music bands"
would be a much better choice.

Use a keyword research tool to make sure that the keyword will
bring you traffic. If you are targeting an obscure keyword
that nobody ever uses, you may just be wasting your time and
resources. Google offers a free keyword tool that will give you
a good idea on which keyword phrase to choose. The tool reveals
estimated search traffic, as well as the level of competition.

But don't be over-reliant on keyword tools to help you find
keywords. As a business owner, you should be very familiar with
the market. Know who your target customers are. That will help
you find and locate valuable keywords that no one else would've
thought of.

Choose keywords with a fair amount of competition. Some
marketers believe strongly that keywords with little competition
are easier to rank. Therefore, it makes sense to target those
keywords. But if you are setting up an online business, you want
to be in an active market. In other words, the best keywords are
those with a fair amount of competition, but are not overly
saturated. A fair amount of competition is a good indicator of
the value of a keyword phrase. You stand a much greater chance
of success if you target those keywords.

Setting Up a Search Engine Friendly Website

Fortunately, you don't have to be a geek to learn how to tweak
your sites. Most content management systems are SEO friendly,
and the best part is, most of them are free. The popular ones
include Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and DotNetNuke. Your web
pages will be search friendly when they are hosted on these
systems. But if you really want to learn the basics, make sure
that you implement the following.

If you are tweaking your site manually, there are two important
things that you must implement. First, always make sure that
your target keyword phrases are included in the title tags. Use
them in your META keyword and description tags as well. Next,
use a search engine friendly file name such as
"your-keyword-phrase.html". You can easily rename your html
files using any text editor.

Manual tweaks can be implemented easily if you have a small
site. But if you are thinking of growing the website into a huge
site, you should consider using a content management system
(CMS). If you are using a CMS, be careful not to overload the
site by installing too many unnecessary plug-ins. Remember that
your primary goal is to make it easy for the search bots to find
your web pages, and to determine the overall theme of the
content. By installing too many unnecessary bells and whistles,
you are making it more difficult for the search bots to do their
job. For that reason, you will often find that simple templates
tend to work better than fancy ones. Don't overcomplicate things.
The golden principle here is to keep things simple.

When you are satisfied with the design and content, it's time to
let the world know about your site.

Link Building with Articles

There are many ways you can build back links to your site. You
can post entries on blogs, submit links to Web 2.0 properties,
submit URLs to a bunch of web directories, or write and
distribute press releases and/or articles. You can use a
combination of these methods if you have the time and resources,
or you can keep your focus on just one - such as article
marketing.

Article marketing is one of the easiest methods to get well
established websites to link to you. These are authority sites
that have been around for years, and you can get hundreds (maybe
even thousands) of one way back links from these sites. One way
back links means links that point to your sites, but that don't
require a reciprocal link back.

Every article you write allows you to include two to three
simple text links at the bottom of the article. This is when
things get interesting.

In the "eyes" of the search engines, every link from an external
site to your website is counted as a vote. In other words, the
more back links you have pointing to your site, the better your
site will rank. Of course, these can't be any back links. They
have to be links from authority sites and relevant web pages.

Now you already know that there are literally hundreds of
article directories on the Internet that are recognized as
authority sites by the search engines. All you have to do is to
create relevant content, put your links at the end of the
articles, and submit them to the article directories. When they
are approved, your articles get published online, and you get a
bunch of high quality links pointing to your site.

What you really need to know here is that you must be careful
about what you include as the anchor text for your links.
Anchor text are words that you place within the HTML link tags.
For instance, instead of having your links as "Click here", make
sure that you create links that say, "Your Keyword Phrase".

This is how the search engines determine the theme and relevancy
of the content on your website. The assumption here is that if
there are a thousand links from external sites "saying" that
your site is about "green aliens", then perhaps your site is
really about "green aliens".

Write on topic, and include your target keywords as anchor
text. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

What to Expect After Your Articles Have Been Published

If your website is brand new, don't expect to see miracles
overnight. It can take anywhere from four to six weeks for a new
website to pick up speed. If you have done everything right
(choosen the right keywords, optimized your site, and picked the
right anchor text), your site will appear in the search index in
about three weeks. Initially, it will appear on page 5 or 6 of
the search results, but that is a very good sign.

Two weeks later, your website should move up to page 3 or 4.
Don't rest on your laurels and stop writing and distributing
articles. Keep up with your link building campaigns. If you
have chosen the right keywords, you should be able to rank
in about 6 weeks. For highly competitive keywords, it may take
longer.

Your goal is to at least get your site to rank on page 1 on the
major search engines. Once it emerges on page 1 of the search
results, you will be receiving a steady stream of highly
targeted traffic from the search engines. Do your part by
serving your visitors well by publishing valuable content or
offering killer products. You will soon be enjoying handsome
rewards.
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Darren Chow is a full time article marketer. He founded a
successful article submission service
(http://www.fastsubmitarticles.com), and has been offering high
quality article writing and submission services to hundreds of
Internet Marketers worldwide. http://www.fastsubmitarticles.com
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