This is arguably on of most important aspect of SEO process and can mean difference between first page rankings and 100th. It has to be done right and it has to be done on an ongoing basis.

Over this series we will cover ten key aspects to a solid search engine positioning campaign.

The Ten Steps We Will Go Through Are:

1. Keyword Selection (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/keywords.htm) 2. Content Creation (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/content.htm) 3. Site Structure (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/structure.htm) 4. Optimization (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/optimization.htm) 5. Internal Linking (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/internal-linking.htm) 6. Human Testing (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/human-testing.htm) 7. Submissions (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/submissions.htm) 8. Link Building 9. Monitoring 10. The Extras

Step Eight – Link Building

Link building: it’s pretty much understood that this is a critical component when you’re trying to attain top search engine positioning however confusion enters when it’s time to decide exactly what you should do.

From talk about reciprocal link building one might come to believe that this is golden egg of SEO. While reciprocal link building can definitely be beneficial to your rankings it is far from only or even best method. In this article we will cover following link-building tactics:

· Reciprocal link building · Directory listings · Non-reciprocal link building tactics

· Tools to maximize your efforts

And so, without further ado …

Reciprocal Link Building

Reciprocal link building is trading of links between two websites. Essentially it an “I’ll post yours if you’ll post mine” sort of arrangement. There are many sites out there that will essentially link to any-and-all sites willing to link to them. This is not a good practice.

While purely speculation at this point, there is significant debate in SEO community regarding how search engines might be altering their algorithms to take into account a Webmaster or SEO’s ability to manipulate their rankings with reciprocal links. Whether or not these speculations are true currently, they are most certainly being integrated if they have not be already.

Essentially, search engines need to protect themselves and provide relevant results to their users. While inbound links as part of search engine algorithms is certainly here to stay, way these links are calculated changes constantly and in reaction to current environment and also in prediction of future developments, way we build them too must evolve.

There are some basic rules to follow when exchanging links:

· Relevancy is more important than PageRank · Check and make sure recips aren’t being blocked · Link pages with more than 50 links aren’t worth exchanging with · Prepare for future

Relevancy

Many Webmasters focus only on PageRank of a website when deciding whether to exchange links with it. Without a doubt PageRank is important however more important is whether or not that website’s content is related to yours. There are two reasons for this:

1. The algorithms are changing to take into consideration relevancy of links. A link from a relevant PageRank 3 page will be considered more valuable than a PageRank 5 link from a totally unrelated site. Some predict that unrelated links will soon be given little or no weight whatsoever. 2. Believe it or not, Google is not only search engine. PageRank is Google’s ranking of value of a site. What Google gives a 3 out of 10 Yahoo may give more weight to.

Basically, after a series of tests we have determined that links to related sites will never hinder your rankings. With this in mind feel free to link to any site you think your visitors would naturally be interested in if they are at your site.

Blocked Recips

Unethical website owners (or their SEOs) will sometimes block links backs from search engine spiders. Be this in an effort to attain what appear to be one-way links as opposed to reciprocal or simple to make their website appear to have fewer outbound links this is not ethical and it certainly won’t help you.

When you’re looking at a potential link exchange page check source code for robots tag. If it’s set to “noindex,nofollow” then page is being blocked and link won’t help at all.

Some wiser webmasters will user robots.txt file to block search engine spiders. If you look for robots.txt at root of domain (i.e. at http://www.domainin question.com/robots.txt) you will see files/folders that are being blocked. Look for links pages and/or directory these pages or in, in this list. If you find it, then don’t exchange links with them.

A new one I’ve recently found along this tangent is to draw links from a script and to block script and database folders from search engines. The files won’t show up in excluded list but links won’t be counted. To detect this easiest thing to do is to view cache of page. If page is cached but none of links appear and script directory is listed in robots.txt file then this tactic is being used. Again, don’t bother exchanging links.

If you find Webmasters employing any of these tactics they are unethical. Unethical Webmasters shouldn’t be rewarded with high PageRanks or good results. If you have time and inclination you may want to email those websites listed on page (heck, they may be good recip link partners anyways) and let them know what’s going on. You’ll be doing them a favor and they’ll probably be happy to exchange links with you as well.

Link Pages With More than 50 Links

Webmasters who are trying to actually do their link partners a favor will limit their links pages to 50 links (the lower better). The reason for this is that every page gets one vote. A link to another website counts as a vote for that site. This is why it can help improve rankings. As each page only gets one vote a link from a page with 10 links counts at 0.1 of a vote, whereas a link from a page with 100 links counts as 0.01 of a vote. Anything past about 100 links is not counted at all.

Welcome to part nine in this search engine positioning series. Last week we discussed important topic of link building. In part nine we will be covering monitoring and various areas you should consider and tools you may want to use.

While this area isn't directly related to attaining higher rankings it is definitely equally important. Once you've got good rankings your competitors are going to work to beat you out. You have to keep on top of it to insure you maintain your top positions.

Over this series we will cover ten key aspects to a solid search engine positioning campaign.

The Ten Steps We Will Go Through Are:

1. Keyword Selection
2. Content Creation
3. Site Structure
4. Optimization
5. Internal Linking
6. Human Testing
7. Submissions
8. Link Building
9. Monitoring
10. The Extras

Step Nine - Monitoring

After days, weeks, or perhaps even months of researching, optimizing, proofing and link building you've got your website into top positions. First thing's first: congratulations! It's no easy task to get your site where you got it and you deserve a break. Take a week off and don't look at your site, at very least this'll let you come back at it again with fresher eyes - at best it'll give you time to spend with those who missed you during your obsession with your site and rankings. But don't take too long ... your competition is right on your heals.

As important as first eight steps were to getting you rankings, so to is this step that will help you keep those rankings. There are three basic yet critical steps to monitoring process. They are:

1. Monitoring your rankings
2. Monitoring links
3. Monitoring changes in search engine environment

Monitoring Your Rankings

There are a number of ways that you can monitor your rankings. You can run searches manually, you can use software to check your rankings or you can use online services to check your rankings. There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

Checking Manually

Advantage - You will be able to visually confirm results and also you will remain in full compliance with search engine's rules governing use of their systems including use of automated rank-checking software.

Disadvantage - This method for checking rankings can be extremely time consuming is checking for multiple phrases across multiple engines. If you are targeting 20 phrases and want to check your rankings across top ten engines and know when you're places as far down as position 50 you will have to check up to 1000 different pages for your site.

Rank-checking Software Advantage - This method for checking your rankings is extremely efficient. With software such as WebPosition Gold you simply enter keywords you are targeting, engines you want to check for results on, and how deep you want it to go. After that it's a matter of running program and doing some other work or grab a coffee while you await results.

Disadvantage - This software often violates search engines rules regarding use of their systems by running a large number of searches. If you are going to use this type of software please set software to run courteously (a setting you will find in options) and register for Google's Web API which will allow you to legitimately run 1000 automated queries per day.

Online Services Advantage - It is much faster than checking manually and doesn't have cost associated with it that software does. An example of an online rank checking tool can be found at http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/. Disadvantage - It is still far more time consuming than automated software and over a few months you will have made up money spent on software in time saved by using it. Also, I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to entering detailed info regarding my SEO sites and targeted keywords. I'm not a fan of anything that requires me to give my targeted phrases and URL to another marketing site. But maybe that's just me.

Monitoring Links

Monitoring your links is equally important to attaining them. When you were first starting your SEO and link-building you probably checked to see how many links your main competitors had and built more. So what makes you think they haven't been building more links since then.

It's a good practice to schedule weekly checks of how many backlinks you have detected by major search engines and also check to see how many your main competitors have. If you document results on an ongoing basis you will be able to note whether theirs are growing or not.

While you should always be generating more inbound links for your site whether you see your competitors doing so or not, knowing when they are and where they are can give you a solid advantage in reacting to this new threat. Remember, as hard as you worked for your positioning, so too with others.

There are software and online services to check for links however only one I would recommend has nothing to do with its link number abilities. As noted in previous articles, Top Optimizer Pro is link-building tool I would most highly recommend. On top of giving you number of links your competitors have it will tell you what anchor text is, what PageRank is of those links, and more. It will even help you find link partners.

Monitoring Changes In The Search Environment

The last thing you will have to monitor is for changes with search engines themselves. First of all, with changes such as MSN's upcoming shift from providing results based on Inktomi to providing their own results, you will want to know when this happens and what to expect when it does. Additionally, you will want to know when changes are occurring in search engine algorithms, when major ones take place, and what those changes are.

This is why there are full-time SEOs. To monitor all of these things can be very time-consuming however assuming that you have time and inclination here are some resources to help you keep on top if it all: