How to Optimize for Google: Part 2 of 3

How to Optimize for Google Part 2 of 3 By Scott Van Achte Optimizing for top Google rankings includes a number of factors. We will touch on incoming links as well as using Google Webmaster Tools. Links Links are very important in today's Google rankings, but just how many links you will need depends on both the competitiveness of your target phrases and the quality of the incoming links themselves. Essentially the number one rule of links is to keep it relevant. Topical relevance is very important in order for inbound links to give your site the most value. If the page that links to you is relevant, that is good. If the entire site linking to you is relevant that is better. There are many different ways to get links to your site including the age-old reciprocal link trade, directory links, article-based links and links from press releases. Reciprocal Links Reciprocal linking has seen its value dropped considerably over the past few years. However, if the site you are trading with is relevant, you can still receive value from these links. Paid Links Google frowns on paid links. However, that is not to say they don't work. Often you can find highly reputable and relevant websites which are offering paid advertisement spots. If these links are coded to link directly to your website without passing through any tracking redirects, you will in many cases see value in the form of both direct traffic and increased link densities in rankings. Articles Writing and distributing industry specific articles is a great way to help increase both your link accounts and site traffic. Consider writing articles on a regular basis and submitting them to some of the more popular service such as Ezine articles. Be sure to include a link to your site from somewhere within the article or at least within your bio. Try to use target phrases as part of the anchor text for additional value. Press releases If something of importance has happened to your company such as a new product launch or other notable achievements, essentially anything newsworthy, put out a press release. Submit this press release through services such as PRWeb or PRNewswire. Again, be sure to include a target phrase as part of the anchor text. Forum Posts Forum Post can help to marginally increase your link counts. However, with this one you must be careful. Only add a link to your site in the signature if both the forum allows it and you are a respected member of the forum. If you are a solid contributor and your post have depth and meaning and the forum is highly relevant to your site then having a link in your signature may give your site some juice. Posting wildly to random forums will in most cases get yourself bend and will be both a waste of time and potentially make you and your site look bad. Guest Books In nearly all cases do not post your link to your guest books. If you happen to assemble upon a guest book that is highly relevant to your site, the other comments are relevant to your site and you have something useful, and again relevant to say, then perhaps consider it, but typically focusing on links from guest books is considered Spam and is best avoided altogether. Blog Comments Having a link from your blog comments is not necessarily a bad thing. If you find a relevant blog post of use and have something relevant and constructive to say, don't be afraid to enter your link into the URL field of the forum, but don't try stuffing links into the comment itself. Link farms and bad neighborhoods These are sites that allow you to simply post your link no strings attached. There are mostly long scrolling pages with countless links. Stay away from them. If you see one, run in the other direction. These links are bad, will not help you with your rankings and in some cases can actually damage your rankings. Google Webmaster Tools Google Webmaster tools can be useful for optimization efforts. It may not directly help you obtain higher rankings but it can help you troubleshoot if you are experiencing problems. It will also allow you to remove URLs that you don't want index and set various preferences such as your domains, crawl rate and geographic target. Inbound Links Inbound Links play a significant role in successful Google rankings. By focusing on relevant links as well as by diversifying where you get those links from, you can build a solid foundation for your search rankings today and into the future.