How to Improve Your Search Ranking
Backlinks and SEO
Ranking well in the search engines for highly competitive phrases takes more than just on-page SEO tactics. It takes backlinks, and lots of them.
A backlink is simply when the owner of another website or blog links to your site. As you'll see, a few high-quality backlinks can be far more powerful than anything you do on your own website.
To search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, when someone links to your site it's like they are voting for it. Someone thought your content was valuable enough to link to, so it must be important. The more people linking to your site, the more important it must be.
Even more important than the number of links to your site is the anchor text. Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link. For example:
Above is the html code for a link to this site. On the web page, the anchor text is what readers actually see.
Search engines see anchor text too, and they use it as a way of determining what your site is all about. This is why you want anchor text of incoming links to include your main keywords whenever possible.
So now that you understand why backlinks are so important, let's look at ways to get them.
The biggest factor in getting people to link to you is to offer high-quality content that can't be found anywhere else. Be different. Be controversial. If people think your site is valuable and unique, they'll want to link to it.
You should make it as easy as possible for other websites to link to you. Set up a "Link to Us" page that contains snippets of html code they can just paste right into their site. Of course, you'll make sure your keywords are in the anchor text.
Write some articles and submit them to article directories. They'll get picked up and reprinted on other sites with your link in the Resource Box. A single article could bring you dozens of backlinks.
Try contacting a few sites within your niche and offer to write a regular column for them. Or work out an arrangement where you trade content so each side gets a backlink.
Submit your site to free directories that are related to your niche.
Find blogs in your niche and post comments to some of their posts. Be sincere, and you may even form a new relationship with the blog's owner.
Article Marketing
Article marketing is a tried and true method for generating traffic to websites. It's been used since the early days of the internet and it's still as effective as ever.
A successful article marketing campaign will bring you a flood of valuable links and a steady stream of visitors for years to come. The key is to write the content for human consumption, not search engine spiders.
How does article marketing work?
Put simply, you write articles for other websites in exchange for a link back to your own site. You should use different articles than the ones already posted to your own website.
The more unique, high-quality articles you can share the better. You'll get more backlinks and traffic, and you'll build your reputation as an expert in your niche. It's possible other websites may start seeking you out for your opinion or for interviews.
How do I start my article marketing campaign?
First, write some articles (or pay someone to write them for you) of around 300 to 600 words. Don't write ads in disguise. Offer genuinely useful information and tips. You'll get more backlinks if your information is truly helpful.
You wouldn't want to publish someone else's misinformed article on your site, so don't expect them to publish your articles if they are less than informative. Write separate articles specifically for your article marketing. You should also do the same keyword research you would do for your own website. Also spend some time proofreading for typos and grammatical errors.
The next step is to find places to submit your articles. Building one-on-one relationships with other website owners in your niche can be beneficial, but it's time-consuming.
Fortunately, there are many article directories which allow you to post your articles for free. Other websites can then publish your articles on their own sites.
There are literally thousands of such sites to choose from, but here is a short list of some of the most popular article directories:
- ezinearticles.com
- goarticles.com
- articlealley.com
- articledashboard.com
- searchwarp.com
- buzzle.com
Or you can use a service such as iSnare, which will distribute your article to many different directories for a small fee.
Hot tip - Your author's bio is vital to the success of your article marketing campaign. You definitely need to spend some time crafting the perfect message.
You should keep it short and punchy, but always include the following:
- Your name
- Your url as http://yourdomain.com (this ensures your link will be clickable.
- A short teaser that entices readers to visit your site.
Offer a free report or something else of value to get them to click on your link.