There are many technical aspects to Search engine optimization (SEO). Too many people get caught up in the detail. In SEO there are only two things to focus on: keywords and backlinks. Everything else is a distraction.

It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an expert. It doesn’t matter if you are starting from scratch or trying to tune up an existing site. Keep your attention on keywords and backlinks and then measure your results. It is as easy as 1-2-3.

1. Keywords: Research and select keywords that are relevant to what you do. Many people try and select phrases with high numbers of searches first and relevance second. Make relevance your first priority. If you attract someone to your website, they won’t stay if you don’t have what they are looking for. You will want to use these keywords visibly and prominently on your website… not just in the META tags.
2. Backlinks: Getting incoming links from other websites is very important in your SEO effort. A large number of backlinks from relevant websites signals the search engines that your website is very important. Using your keyword phrases in the anchor text tells the search engines what your web page is about.
3. Measurement: Track your major metrics on at least a monthly basis. I like to track number of pages indexed by Google, number of links as reported by Yahoo, Home page authority and domain authority as reported by Open Site Explorer, Alexa rankings and actual rankings in the SERPs for my 5 primary phrases. Each month I work to get some improvement in my measurements.

If you have read anything about search engine optimization (SEO), you have come across the term backlinks. These are incoming links from other web pages to your web pages. A good number of quality backlinks signals the search engines that your website is important enough to be rewarded with a top ranking. Backlinks are an important building block of the SEO process.

There are 5 facets to look at to determine if your website has enough backlinks.

1. Quantity: You can measure the sheer number of backlinks using a tool like Yahoo Site Explorer. A larger number of backlinks in general is better for your website.
2. Quality: How important is each of these backlinks? Look at the PageRank (PR) of each inbound link. You want at least some of these backlinks to be high PR backlinks.
3. Relevance: How relevant is the page linking to your site to your topic? You links from other web pages that are closely related to your subject.
4. Anchor Text: This is the clickable text in the hyperlink. It is sometimes called the link text. You would want keywords to be used in the anchor text rather than “click here.”
5. Variety: You want your backlinks to come from as many different sources as possible. This would include blogs, web directories, articles, press releases, social book marks, etc.

SEOmoz has a free tool that allows you to measure the success of your backlinking called Open Site Explorer. Pay attention to both Page Authority and Domain Authority to see if your website has enough backlinks.

Hint: Compare the number one rated site for your target phrase against your website.

Click here for a free analysis of your website’s backlinking.

Article Marketing is an effective SEO strategy that has been around for many years. It is still one of the best ways to generate high PR one way links and to drive direct traffic to your website at the same time. Article marketing involves writing keyword focused articles and posting them onto article syndication websites. These website are frequently highly trafficked websites with high Page Rank.

Article marketing accomplishes two things. You are able to promote yourself and your company as a respected expert by providing solutions and insights for problems in your market niche. By producing articles that are highly keyword focused and providing a keyword based link back to your website, you help your website’s link popularity.

Many articles allow reposting and reuse of your articles onto other websites as long as the links in the resource box (at the end of the article) is left intact. These articles then become “link bait” as other websites hungry for content will repost your articles around the Internet.

Getting good quality articles written is the key to effective article marketing.

1. Goals: Before writing, have definite goals for what you want accomplish. Develop a central message around your goals. Think of the image and brand you are building.
2. Outline your article with a clear beginning, middle and ending. What do you want to leave your readers with? If you leave them hungry for more, they will follow your link back to your website.
3. Keywords: Select a single keyword phrase to focus on. Use your phrase in the title of your article, within first paragraph one time and in the link text within your resource box.

Deep links are considered more important than home page links in SEO. Deep links are inbound links that point to a specific page on a site other than the home page. Deep linking is considered the more natural linking method that occurs naturally over time on a website.

A higher number of links (or high quality links) to a specific page will build up the importance of that page. Deep links help your visitors by guiding them to the exact information they are searching for.

If a website has a low percent of deep links, this is a sign to the search engines that a site has used artificial link schemes to try and build up its link popularity.

Deep Link Percentage is the percent of all inbound links that point to pages other than your home page. A normal deep link percentage is considered 30% or higher.

Measuring: You can measure your sites deep link percentage by querying the search engines that have mapped out which other sites have linked back to your website. I prefer to use Yahoo because it reports a high percent of all inbound links. Use the following in a Yahoo search (substitute in your domain into the query).

1. # of Deep Links= linkdomain:YOURDOMAIN.COM-site:YOURDOMAIN.COM-link:http://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM-link:http://YOURDOMAIN.COM
2. # of Total Inbound Links= linkdomain:YOURDOMAIN.COM-site:YOURDOMAIN.COM
3. Calculate % Deep Links = # Deep Links / # Total Inbound Links

Most websites will have a deep link percentage of 30% to 60%. There doesn’t appear to be any downside to too high of a deep linking percentage. Too low though is clearly visible to the search engines and many of your inbound links are likely to be discounted by Google.

Submitting your site to directories is still a valid and cost effective link building method that should be part of developing your portfolio of back links. You just have to be selective on which directories you use. There are many different directories out there, some worth submitting to, others are totally worthless. Here is how to choose the good ones.

Topic: Find directories that are focused on your market niche. An easy way to locate these is to do a Google search. Google will list the directories with the ones it considers the most relevant and best quality first. Search for “www” alone and you will get a list of sites Google considers the most powerful sites on the web. “www directories” will bring up the most powerful directories. “www medical directories” will bring up medical related directories.

You can also do a wild-card search using * to improve your results. “Medical * directories” or “furniture * directories” will bring up a list of possible directories you can consider for your campaign.

Quality: Look over the site to make sure would want your site listed in their directory. Stay away from directories that include site wide links to a few external websites. Be wary of directories that focus on gambling, adult content, or other offbeat topics. Links being offered should be true hyperlinks, no javascript or other redirects. Links should not use “nofollow” tags on their links. These make their links worthless to you.

Indexing: Does Google index all the content for this directory? Check by using the “site” command. Search using “site:www.dirctoryname.com”. This will not only show how many pages have been indexed, it will rank order the pages in the order Google considers the most important.

There are many types of directories out there. Some are paid, some are free and some require a reciprocal link in order to be listed. I like to select from the paid and free directories and stay away from those requiring reciprocation. DMOZ (free) and Yahoo (paid) directory listings are still important links to get..

Today, all major search engines measure and give credit for the number and quality of inbound links a website has in place. Each link is viewed as a popularity “vote.” The more “votes,” the higher the website will rank. Link building is now a key part of organic SEO.

Myth #1: Link Popularity is all about the numbers. Link building is not about getting the maximum number of inbound links. It is about developing a wide variety of links from many source. Top quality links from authority websites, from a relevant (topic) website or links from social media give the best results.

Myth#2: There is automated software that builds your website’s Link Popularity. Absolutely false. People are always looking for the easy solution… the magic bullet. Link building is hard work. The natural solution is to add a blog to your website and write insightful original postings that others will want to link to.

Myth #3: Use the name of your website in the title of the link. False. You would like the keywords you want your site found for to be used in the link text or anchor text. The keywords that appear in the link is more important than the sheer number of inbound links. You may want to email sites that display your link and request they change the anchor text. Many will accommodate.

Myth #4: Link exchanges will get your website penalized. Although reciprocal links do not provide much authority any more, they still can provide valuable links. Don’t use reciprocal linking as your only source; they still help build link popularity. Remember, you want a diversified approach to link building.

Myth #5: Directories and article marketing are a waste of time. No both work. Choose directories that are relevant to your topic. Submitting articles to article syndication sites can produce good back links. Allow your article to be re-posted onto other websites (as long as the links in the resource box are left intact) and you can pick up a good number of links.

Myth #6: Google will penalize you if you use paid text links. No, the worst case is that Google will not count these links. Use these paid text links as paid advertisements to drive traffic to your website. If you get credit for the link, this is a bonus.

Myth #7: PageRank is a good measure of your website’s back links. False. PageRank information is about 3 months old and it has been at least 3 months since Google already gave you credit for the links. Second, it is affected by the quality of links and even the number of links on a particular page. Third, the PR info is frequently posted wrong by Google and doesn’t match the Link Popularity credit Google is actually giving you. The best advice… don’t obsess over PageRank.

Myth #8: Google shows how many back links your site has. False. Google deliberately reports only a small fraction of the links it detects on your website. Usually only 5-8% of the actual number they have found. Yahoo and MSN report a number much higher and closer to the real number.

Publicity is one of the most important success factors for almost any website or business. Submitting press releases does not have to be an expensive process. There are a number of free press release services and low cost PR services where you can post company announcements, new product releases or other company news. These sites give a low cost way to promote your company and a good way to increase the link popularity of your website.

1. 1888pressrelease.com: Free and paid press releases. Paid plans begin at $15.
2. 24-7pressrelease.com: Free and paid press release distribution. No links allowed in free press releases.
3. clickpress.com: Free and paid options
4. ecommwire.com: Free, but must be newsworthy content related to ecommerce.
5. exactrelease.com: Free press release service
6. express-press-release.net: $29 press release
7. freepressindex.com: Free press release distribution service
8. free-press-release.com: Free press releases and paid plans as low as $1
9. free-press-release-center.info: free and low cost paid plans. They also have a $49 press release writing service.
10. healthprspider.com: Free press releases for health care and medical news.
11. indiaprwire.com: Free press release distribution service.
12. openpr.com: Up to 3 free press releases per day.
13. pagerelease.com: Free press release distribution.
14. pressabout.com: Free press release service formatted like a blog.
15. pressreleasespider.com: $4.95 per press release.
16. prbuzz.com: $299 per year for unlimited number of press releases.
17. pr-inside.com: Free submission of press releases.
18. prleap.com: $49 per press release
19. techprspider.com: Free technology related press releases.
20. theopenpress.com: Free and paid press release distribution. Free press releases must comply with press release guidelines.

High quality one way incoming links is a core part of any website optimization. Avoid linking schemes that have you manipulating, buying or trading links. Your goal is to create natural linking to your website from many different sources . The best way to increase your link popularity is to give people something they want to link to.

You will want to apply multiple strategies and most of them will center on creating interesting original content. This is not a short term strategy, but a long term marketing effort. These are linking tactics and strategies that work.

1. Onsite blog: Adding a blog to your website not only adds keyword rich content regularly to your website but attracts links from other bloggers. Include new insightful commentaries and analysis that will cause other bloggers to reference what you say in their blog postings.
2. Stand alone blog: Create a standalone blog on a separate URL when your topic is different that your website. Occasionally link to your website with relevant postings. Build up the traffic and importance of this blog so the links to your website are both independent and important.
3. Write articles: Write relevant articles in your field of expertise. Submit these articles to online publications and re-publishing sites. Usually, a link is included in an “author’s resource box,” which is a brief “about the author” paragraph promoting the author’s site.
4. Press Releases: A well written press release with a link to your website can greatly improve your website exposure. These pseudo-news stories can be posted to either free press release sites or get much better attention on paid sites like prnewswire.com.
5. Directories: Submit your website to the Open Directory Project (Dmoz.org). There are many niche directories around the web where you can list your company and add a link to your website free of charge.
6. Testimonials: Offer glowing testimonials to products and services that you really like. Website owners love to be able to post these on their websites along with links to your website. After all they want to show the testimonial is genuine and from a real person.
7. Squidoo Lenses: User generated content sites like Squidoo allow you to post your own article on a highly trafficked website. A Squidoo lens is easy to create. You will be able to insert links complete with keyword rich anchor text back to your website.
8. Hold a contest: Offer to pay some amount like $250 to one name drawn at the end of a month. Contestants would have to register and add a link to your site using your specified anchor text. The winner would be verified by verifying at least one traffic referral in your website statistics package.

Article marketing is where you publish articles that are closely related to the subject of your website. These are not promotional articles; they are educational, interesting and informative to your target audience. In the article you use keywords and phrases that relate to your website. This would be much like you would optimize a web page.

In the author bio section, add two links, one to your home page and one to a closely related interior page on your site.
You then submit your article to article syndication websites. You will allow anyone to republish your article on their website as long they leave the links in the bio section intact. Each time your article is used, you will benefit with keyword rich inbound links to your website.

Articles should be 500-700 words in length. Readers prefer shorter articles as low as 300 words. Search engines prefer longer articles up to 1000 words. 500-700 words is a good compromise that satisfies both.

For articles to be effective, they need to be well written. Great articles take time to research and write. The content needs to be original and provide valuable information to readers. The best articles are picked up and used repeatedly.

Benefits of article marketing

1. Link Popularity: Articles produce backlinks to your website. In the anchor text, use the keyword phrase you are targeting. If you are targeting “blog marketing tips,” be sure and include a link using blog marketing tips in your article.
2. Expert Status: Publish articles that are closely related to your market niche. You will build a reputation as the authority on this topic. Your name will not only appear on your website, but on many other related websites.

Without a clear purpose or objective, a website will not get results.The first task in website planning is to list out what you hope to accomplish with your website. A clearly defined purpose will help the rest of the planning process.

Start with asking yourself, “Why am I building this website?” What results do you need ? This could be qualified sales leads, online sales or creating awareness for your brand. Decide on your objective before you decide if you want a blog, e-commerce or other web technology.

Is your website designed to sell products online, build your prospect list or gather requests for proposal? Perhaps you want to enhance your company image or strengthen your brand?  It could be customer service or tech support. You could create an Internet community that is passionate about some cause.

Draft a purpose statement with specific goals you want to reach. This statement should be clearly focused on what the new website will accomplish and what your website visitors will get from it. Do you have short term and long term goals?

Goals for your website need to be S.M.A.R.T.

• Specific:  A specific goal is much more likely to be met than a general.
• Measurable:  A goal is measurable if you can measure the results.
• Achievable: Set goals that can be accomplished.
• Realistic: Don’t make your site goals too easy, just attainable.
• Time Sensitive: For a goal to work, it should have time limits.

Example: I want to be making one online sale each day within 90 days of the website launch.

Build your website around your central purpose. Let’s assume that your website purpose is to build an opt-in email list that you can market to with your newsletter.  You would focus your site on getting visitors to register for your newsletter. You may give away an eBook, free report or something else of value.