The temptation is great to jump to top of search engine rankings a few days after opening day. If you cut corners to get to top, your site will be among first to be axed when major search engines like Google tweak their algorithms, which they do often. You will appear on page one for a season, and when you come back, you are off radar. You've had your 15 minutes of fame. If you are a marathoner, you will go distance.

Getting quality and important inbound links to your site takes a lot of patience and perseverance. Take it one step at a time, one day at a time, and keep at it, even when results are not obvious. Before long, you will show up at top. The big sites that throw their weight around for practically every word that appears on their site have been around for a while. Some of them even have link managers; a fella whose sole job is to source for links and manage their link pages. If you are a small guy, you may not beat them at linking, but if you have a high quality unique content site, when content counts, you will overtake big boys.

So, don’t go about requesting for link exchanges from every Tom, Dick and Harry. Research site you want to approach. Determine if it has unique quality content that complements your site, and is useful to your audience. Take it step-by-step, day-by-day. Before long, your link pages will overflow to page two etc, and sometime soon, you will appear where it matters for valuable keywords that will bring targeted traffic to your site and boost your conversion ratio. And when you get to top, you will remain there if you do not relent in your efforts. You will not suffer a stroke when Google and Co. tweaks their algorithms. Slow and steady wins race.

Another fact webmasters often overlook is that if you have a high quality site, other webmasters will link to you, sometimes without asking for a reciprocal link. I have seen some strange links to my site in my traffic logs, from sites I never requested for a link from. If you are best in your field, world will make a beaten path to your door. That saying holds true also for linking. As a matter of fact, visitors to your site may feel so inspired by your site that they suggest your site to other sites and directories without your knowledge. They go beyond "tell-a-friend". They tell other sites about you. People are tired of low/zero content affiliate sites that litter web and jump at you as pop ups, pop unders, pop sideways and pop overs etc. They pop at you, and before you know what has hit you, you have two or more new windows open in your browser. Some are funkier. They slide like ice skaters into your view from all directions. After getting mauled by popping sites, a high quality site with unique content is like a breadth of fresh air.

So as you go about scouting for links, stop for a moment and take a second look at your site. Go out door and come in as a visitor. Is your site type of site people will willingly link to if Google and Co. does not care a hoot about links? Is linking to you a pleasure or out of obligation?

Are you here for long haul? Then get off 100 meters dash and get to work. Easy comes, easy goes. There is no easy road to top.

Best wishes in your linking campaign.

Armed now with knowledge on how to recognize and choose between different phrases there remains only one question, how do you know which phrases are even searched? Fortunately there are a couple great resources out there to help you find out how many searches are performed for specific phrases. They Are:

The Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool

A decent tool for researching keyword phrases. It indicates which phrases had highest numbers of searches on Overture during previous month. The biggest weakness it has, as far as applying it to natural search engines, is that Overture counts singular and plural as same and also corrects misspelling so totals are all lumped together in this tool whereas on natural engines they are considered differently.

WordTracker

WordTracker is very similar to Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool except that this tool differentiates between plural and singular searches, does not correct spelling (i.e. it gives number of searches for misspellings rather than correcting them and giving a total for correct and misspelled words) and gives results in predicted numbers of searches over all engines per day rather than just one engine over a month.

They have a great free trial that doesn't give you as many results but which can be very useful.

When using these tools I recommend beginning with Overture Search term Suggestion Tool and once you've narrowed down your choices, switch to WordTracker to insure that you're getting right information in regards to tense (singular vs. plural) and also that numbers match. Sometimes you will find that numbers are completely different from each tool. In this event you will have to use your best judgment.

Don't forget to check misspellings when using WordTracker!

Tips & Tricks

There are no real "tricks" to uncovering keywords you should target however there are a few tips. A few pointers that will help you maximize your keyword selection:

• Think like a layman. Just because you know your industry terms doesn't mean that everyone does. Don't just think of words you use to describe your products/services, think of words you would use if you knew nothing about it other than fact that you needed it. You may want to recruit a friend and have them run some searches for you.
• Think like an expert. On other side of coin, there may be phrases used specifically in your industry that people "in know" would use to search for your products and/or services. Be sure to look into these phrases. You just may find some hidden gems that no one else has thought to target.
• Don't target too many phrases. Some SEOs and webmasters target dozens and sometimes even hundreds of phrases. The end result, they often miss ones they most wanted to attain. Keeping yourself and your keyword list focused will keep your site focused. If your site is focused you'll rank higher for phrases that will produce highest return on investment.

Testing

Test your phrases. If there is any debate about whether a search phrase is worth targeting it's often a good idea to test conversions through pay-per-click engines. Set up an account with a PPC engine and bid on phrases that you would like to target.

You have to remember that PPC engines do not provide for same amount of traffic as natural engines. Test initial phrases, test alternative phrases, and see which produce best results. Something else to keep in mind is that PPC are not natural engines. If your ROI is not as high on more costly phrases that doesn't mean they won't produce higher return on natural engines where a top ranking does not cost money per click.

In end you will have confirmed a solid list of keyword phrases and if PPC campaign is providing a good return on investment you might as well keep it running and enjoy "bonus" traffic that it provides.

Next Week

Next week in part two of our "Ten Steps To an Optimized Website" series we will be covering content. This will cover everything from optimization of existing content to creation of new content for your website.