Currently Yahoo is a better portal to check for backlinks. To generate a list of linking web sites on Yahoo simply go to http://www.yahoo.com and type following into Yahoo search bar.

linkdomain:www.mycompetitorwebsite.com

This will deliver up to date link information as read by Yahoo. The only downside with information is that one site may appear many times if it is giving multiple links.

5. Alternate your description text

This is often overlooked, but there is no real advantage to be had if description text supporting your inbound links is always identical. To avoid possibility of a description ever being seen as ‘duplicate content’ alternate it when you can. If you combine it with varied anchor text [as in tip 1] you’re heading in right direction.

6. Link to good related content from your web site

It seems like an obvious thing to say, but with so many people caught up in link exchanging you sometimes wonder if we’re losing site of basics. If you have something useful to say on your site and can back it up with a useful link to another web site then do so. Not every link has to be reciprocated. This resourceful linking will allow your visitors to read around subject. Linking to informative related content is useful for visitors and search engines quite like it too.

7. Seek out directory links

Links from good web directories can be some of best links you can get for your web site. Aaron Wall has a ‘directory of directories’ at http://www.directoryarchives.com where you will find a great selection of search engine friendly directories. Some of directories are free to get listed in whilst others may charge a fee.

Step 3: Find your primary and secondary keywords Now go to nichebot and type in each of your terms. Look for “COUNT” and “RATIO”. (listed to right of each term) Plug these into your database in second and third column next to corresponding terms. Once you have completed this step go through your list and seek out terms with highest count and lowest ratio. Take top 5-10 terms and place them into a separate list. These will be your primary keywords. You will use these in optimization of top pages of your site. Then take remaining list and alphabetically order it from lowest to highest ratio. (there should be a tool in your spreadsheet to do this automatically for you) These will be your secondary keywords.

That’s it! You now know basics of keyword research. I’m sure you are asking “what now?”. Well there is quite a bit more to learn. You are going to need to know on-site and off-site optimization and various methods and tools available to you for these tasks. You will need to learn difference between “white hat” and “black hat” SEO which basically outlines what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in terms of SEO. So stay tuned for my next article. I will take you through process step by step. By end there will be no need to hire greedy SEO firms for something you can do for a fraction of cost.