This article, as the name implies, deals with search engine optimization in general, and links in particular. In previous articles, I have dealt with related search engine optimization topics such as choosing the right domain name for your website and creating the title, meta tags, and content for your website.

This article is not intended to be a definitive work on search engine optimization, particularly as many search engines keep changing the rules. It, and previous articles are intended, however to give the internet marketing beginner some insight into the subject.

Search engine optimization is not magic, and it does tend to incorporate a few basic tenets. When followed, these steps, methods, or actions CAN increase the visibility and ranking of a website in a search engine's returns. It is popularly, and fairly accurately, stated that most people will pick a site from those listed on the first page of a search's results. However, that is not the final spot that everyone picks from, nor is every site in exact competition with yours nor attractive to search engines for the same reasons, or keywords, or content as yours.

In most cases, when someone requests a search on a word or phrase, one of the first acts of many search engines will be to take a look at the titles of the websites it has indexed and see if anything seems to match. It will then scan the first few lines of text on the page to see if that search term is there, and how often it appears. It cannot be stated that every search engine follows this exact pattern, and, even if they do, most tend to then refine the initial results by viewing other data.

In fact, one reason that search engine optimization IS more an art than a science is due to the variables looked at by each search engine and how they are weighted by that site. It is possible to optimize a site for one search engine and injure its ranking in another!

One way that many search engines can be induced to raise the ranking or placement of a site is accomplished thru linking. When speaking of "linking" most people are going to be speaking of external links leading to the site from other websites. I am going to include some internal linking discussion, so we will be covering:

1. External Links

2. Internal Links

3. Sitemaps

LINKS FROM OTHER SITES:

As in many other considerations, the quality of the links leading to your site may be of more importance than the quantity of links. It should also be a consideration that sites that you try to have link to your site be relevant as a willy-nilly bundle of sites can actually lower your ranking in some search engines.

One linking tactic is to find the front runners in searches on keywords and subjects relevant to your site. Then, you would communicate with the site owners or webmasters in hopes of getting them to link to your site. In some cases, a reciprocal link may be requested, but, despite some accounts to the negative, having a link from a valuable site will increase the value of your site, even with the reciprocal link.

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