Search Engine Placement Most Overlo

Search Engine Placement - Most Overlooked Key
by: Bob Schwartz
Good design, proper key word density, intuitive navigation, correct Meta tags and informative
content are all important to achieving top search engine placement. Especially when it comes to
real estate sites, they are almost devoid of one critical search engine element... Quality
incoming links!

Google, the acknowledged leading search engine, isn't looking so much at word density with its
ranking algorithm, as at what other sites are linking to your firm’s site. Google relies primarily
on link popularity for ranking pages. They assign a PageRank to each site they index with 10 being
the highest. The vast majority of quality sites rank at least four or above. Google isn't breaking
away from words-on-the-page -- it never started there.

The logic is that pages other people think are valuable resources will often get linked by other
webmasters, while pages that are of low quality or do not contain any information at all, will not
gain many links. Thus, the Top10 places will be filled with sites people regard as useful. It does
make sense and it adds another way for SE's to rate your website with minimal effort. Virtually
all Webmasters these days are aware of the fact that exchanging linkbacks with other sites is an
excellent method for building traffic.

The problem is that this change might make it even more difficult for small and new sites to make
it to the top and it favors big, high-traffic mega sites. There is a software program that can
greatly help in you getting the links that you desire. It does all this automatically.

More links are not better unless all of them are high-quality links. Numbers aren't as important
as context and relevancy. It is better to have a few links from sites that are similar in content
and topic to yours, a few links from the portals, and a few links from site reviewers, than to
have 1,000 links on Free For All (FFA) links pages. Actually, in practice, non-themed links can
actually lower a site’s search engine placement. This is especially true when lazy webmasters join
link swapping plans in hopes of having ‘instant’ mega, in-coming links. These services are
designed to immediately boost your link popularity. The way they work is simple: Each member of a
link-share program places a machine-generated page on his site and links to that page from his
front page. The machine-generated page has links to all other sites participating in the program.
Each member submits his machine-generated page to all search engines, and the result is that each
member has a link to his site from everyone else.

These programs have produced some positive effects in years past, but many search engines now
regard them as spam and often ban sites that they find participating in these programs. Don't even
try them, even if you are really desperate. Here is what Google has to say about this practice:
“Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or
submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that do
not affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines. At least, not in a way you
would likely consider to be positive”.

Quality incoming links are critical to improved rankings and therefore, increased business. With a
good linking program in place, your site will soon reap the true potential the Internet offers.

Copyright 2005 Promotions Unlimited. All rights reserved.

About the author:
Bob Schwartz http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.comoffers free trial &low cost software for search
engine optimization. Improve your sites creditability w/Free site awards. Apply &submit your site
at http://www.web-site-award-winning.comBob's newwest site is:
http://www.san-diego-plastic-surgery-cosmetic-surgery-doctors.usA plastic surgery site


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