In this article I reveal what I believe are the two most important ranking factors used by Google.

My findings are as a result of my ongoing optimization experiments of my network of web sites on Google.

The top two Google ranking factors are:

1. PageRank
2. Incoming Text Link Keywords

I’ll explain each in more detail and what you MUST do to maximize the effectiveness of each element.

1. PageRank

PageRank is determined by the number and quality of links to a page. Both the quantity and quality of text links are important. Always try to get links from web pages with a PageRank rating of at least four.

Concentrate on getting as many different quality sites as possible to link to one page on your site, usually your home page. Do not spread the links to different pages. This will maximize the PageRank of your main page, plus those of the subpages.

2. Incoming Text Link Keywords

ALWAYS provide text links for linking to your site. Avoid image links.

Google does index image links, but without any text for it to index, it won’t help your link popularity rating for your important keywords.

In addition:

1. Include the most important keyword phrase in the text link, using the EXACT spelling.
2. Do not pluralize the keyword phrase, if people usually search the singular version of the phrase. And vice versa.
3. Avoid excess words, where possible.
4. The linked to page MUST have the text link keywords in the body of the page, otherwise Google will discount the page.
5. Include the text link keywords within the title tag of the linked to page. It is possible for a page without the text link keywords in the title tag to get top rankings. But I have discovered that around 80% of top 10 rankings have the text link keywords in the title tag, so always include it.

Well, there you have it. Those are what I consider the two most important ranking factors used by Google. Other factors are considered by Google, but their importance pales in comparison to the two I have discussed in this article.

Follow these tips whenever you optimize your web pages and they will quickly shoot up the Google rankings.

Michael Wong is the editor of Mike’s Marketing Tools, which offers internet marketing tools information and reviews, free marketing tools, and dozens of marketing tips that has been published on thousands of web sites.

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Michael Wong is the editor of Mike’s Marketing Tools, which offers marketing software information and reviews, free marketing tools, and dozens of internet marketing tips that has been published on thousands of web sites. Visit his web site at http://Mikes-Marketing-Tools.com

In this article I show you how to improve your search engine rankings using 27 quick search engine optimization tips.

1. Increase your site’s link popularity by increasing your internal and incoming links.
   • Internal links – Cross link all your sites and important pages within each site. This will maximize the PageRank of all your pages within each web site.
   • Incoming links that you control – Create several small web sites related to your main site. Each site should only consist of a few pages. Then cross link them all together using the most important keywords. Don’t forget to include links back to the main site.
   • Incoming links that you don’t control:
     • Ask sites that link to your competitors to link to your site. To find out which sites are linking to your competitors, visit a search engine and enter, “link:” followed by the competitors’ domain name.

       For example:

       link:www.yourcompetitor.com

     • Exchange links with sites listed in the same category as yours in the major web directories, such as the Yahoo! Directory and the Open Directory.
     • Find sites that accept site submissions. Visit your favorite search engine and search for:
       

       "add url" "your keywords"

       Also try searching for the actual submission page using its page name.

       For example:

       addurl.html, addsite.html, addlink.html, etc.

2. Include a TITLE tag as the first META tag, directly after the HEAD tag.

   For example:

   <HTML%26gt;
<HEAD%26gt;
<TITLE%26gt;Mike's Marketing Software Tools Reviews%26lt;/TITLE%26gt;
...

3. Try to avoid stop words in your TITLE tag. Stop words (a, an, and, but, he, her, his, i, in, it, of, on, or, she, the, etc.) are common words and characters ignored by some search engines to enhance the speed and relevancy of their search results.

   You’ll find a list of 297 commonly-used stop words ignored by most search engines in my Search Engine Optimization Guide; Search Engine Optimization Strategies: Top 30 Search Engine Optimization & Ranking Strategies For Dummies.

4. Include a META DESCRIPTION tag, directly after the TITLE tag. Include the most important keyword phrase for the web page as close to the beginning of the description as possible.

   For example:

   <HTML%26gt;
<HEAD%26gt;
<TITLE%26gt;Mike's Marketing Software Tools Reviews%26lt;/TITLE%26gt;
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Mike's Marketing Tools is the leading review site for the very best internet marketing tools for web marketers and webmasters.">
...

5. If you use a META REFRESH tag, make sure it is set to refresh after 30 seconds.
   

   <META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="30; URL=http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com">

   Some search engines consider pages that refreshes under 30 seconds as spam. I recommend using a JavaScript redirect tag, if you require a quicker page refresh.

   For example:

   Step 1 – Paste this code into the HEAD section of your HTML document. Change the 3000 to whatever number you like. 1000 represents 1 (one) second.

   <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!--
function redirect () {setTimeout("change()",3000);}
function change () {window.location.href="http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com";}
//--></SCRIPT%26gt;

   Step 2 – Insert the onLoad event handler into your BODY tag, so that the JavaScript code is executed when the page loads.

   <BODY onLoad="redirect()">

6. Remove all other meta tags (author, date, etc.), unless you’re sure they are absolutely necessary. The only meta tags I ever use are the META DESCRIPTION and occasionally the META REFRESH tag.
7. Include a site map with links to all your pages. This will help search engines find and index all your pages.
   • Limit the number of links on a web page to 50.
   • If you have more than 50 links, limit your links to your most important pages.
   • Include text on the page as some search engines, such as AltaVista, have been known to kick out links only pages.
8. Use one or more header tags in your main page body and include your most important keyword phrase/s.
   • Use large header tags, such as <H1%26gt; and <H2%26gt;.
   • Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to alter the appearance of the header tags to fit the look and feel of your site. For more information read this CSS tutorial.
9. Check the first couple of lines of the first paragraph to see if it’s appropriate to be used as a description of your page. Many search engines utilize the first couple of sentences of the body text as the search results description, instead of the contents of the META DESCRIPTION tag.
10. Try to achieve an overall keyword density of 1-2%. For more information on keyword density read my article, “How Keyword Density, Frequency, Prominence And Proximity Affects Search Engine Rankings.”
11. Try to achieve a minimum word count of 300 and a maximum of 750 words on each page.
12. Register a domain name with the exact keyword phrase you wish to target, using hyphens to separate the keywords.

    For example, if the keyword phrase is “search engine rankings,” then register:

    search-engine-rankings.com

    If the domain you want is unavailable, either try a different extension, such as .NET, .INFO, or .US, or add a keyword to the end (preferential) or beginning of the domain.

13. Name directories after your keyword phrases, using hyphens or underscores to separate the keywords.

    For example, if an important keyword phrases is, “search engine rankings,” name your directory:

    www.yoursite.com/search-engine-rankings/ or...
www.yoursite.com/search_engine_rankings/

14. Name web pages after your most important keyword phrase. Separate the keywords using hyphens or underscores.

    For example, if the keyword phrase is “search engine rankings,” then name the page:

    search-engine-rankings.html or...
search_engine_rankings.html

15. Name your graphic files after keyword phrases. Again, separate the keywords using hyphens or underscores.

    For example:

    <IMG SRC="search-engines-rankings.gif">

16. Include an ALT (alternative text) atrribute in image tags. Include the most important keyword phrases.

    For example:

    <IMG SRC="search-engines-rankings.gif" ALT="search engine rankings.">

17. If you use an image map, include HTML links, as some search engines do not follow image map links. Plus image maps do not offer search engines any link text to index. So, try to avoid the use of image maps as they do not help with your search engine optimization efforts.
18. Use the longer or plural version of a keyword, where possible. Word stemming is a concept used by some search engines to return search results that include keywords that extend beyond what you searched for.

    For example, a search with the keyword “engine” might return results for, “engines,” “engineers,” and “engineering.” If someone searches for the longer version of a word and your page only uses the short version, then your page will be excluded from the list of possible results.

19. Sprinkle a few uncommon keywords and synonyms in your main body text. Less popular keywords have less competition in the search engines. So your web page is has a greater chance of being listed amongst the top results.
20. Do not repeat keywords or keyword phrases over and over again on a web page, as this would be considered as spam by search engines.
21. Keep your pages as close to the root domain as possible. Do not set up more than 3 directory levels.

    For example:

    www.yoursite.com/index.html (1st level - excellent)
www.yoursite.com/html/index.html (2nd level - Good)
www.yoursite.com/html/marketing/index.html (3rd level - OK)
www.yoursite.com/html/marketing/search/index.html (Too many levels down - search engines will find it difficult to find and index pages this far down)

22. If you have a persistent (on most or all of your pages) navigation bar at the side of each page, your table is almost certainly set up in such a way that it pushes your page’s body text down the HTML document. Search engines give prominence to keywords nearer the beginning of a HTML document. So, design your HTML table so that the navigation bar is placed after your main body text.

    If you’re unsure how to do this, check out my Search Engine Optimization Strategies ebook. You’ll discover exactly how to design such a table in my book.

23. Move Javascript code to a separate file, or the end of the HTML document after your closing BODY or HTML tag. Yes, this technique actually works!

    Follow these instructions to move the JavaScript code to a separate file and link to the file from the HTML document. Then place the following code in between the HEAD section:

    <HEAD%26gt;
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="file-name.js"></SCRIPT%26gt;
</HEAD%26gt;

    This procedure also reduces your file size, and therefore your download time. In addition, it allows you to reuse the code on other pages by simply link to the JavaScript file. Both of these techniques will move your important body text nearer to the top of the HTML document.

24. Although not always practical, you may like to try naming your cascading style sheet tags after keywords.

    For example:

    .search {
color: #ff0000;
}

25. Use Robots.txt files instead of Robots meta tags, as some search engine robots do not recognize the tag. Visit The Web Robots Pages for more information.
26. Do not use font size one (1) text as the default text size. Many search engines consider tiny text to be spam. It’s OK to use some font size one text.
27. Do not participate in link farms or link exchange programs. Search engines consider link farms and link exchange programs as spam, as they have only one purpose – to artificially inflate a site’s link popularity, by exchanging links with other participants.

    Do not confuse link farms and link exchange programs with reciprocal linking. Reciprocal linking is the exchange of links with individual sites, and is certainly an accepted technique for improving your site’s link popularity.

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This is a great article Scott wrote. What do you think?

The process of link exchange with other webmasters has been a rather tedious and time consuming process for the most part. It’s important that you get links from websites that are related to your site in some way and not just any old website. There are link directory software programs you can buy that will help you to find link partners. The problem with most software programs is that while many of them will conduct searches in the search engines for websites that trade links, you will have to get the email address to those websites yourself. It can be tedious and time consuming to acquire email addresses to contact these webmasters.

Having a mechanism for people to exchange links to your website is extremely important. And having a script that will collect them for you as people stop by and browse your site will dramatically increase the number of links you’ll receive. The idea is to make is as easy as possible for people to exchange a link with your site. If they see that you have a form for requesting a link, then they will be more inclined to want to trade links. Sites without “add a link” forms require sending an email through a contact form. It also requires manual copying and pasting of linking code into a links page, and uploading that page to a web server. This is time consuming, boring, and you may or may not get a link back in return.

Links pointing to your website should have your all important keyword phrases in the anchor text. Search engine robots will see these and the more you have, the higher your site will rank for your keywords. Link exchange in combination with careful on page seo will get your website rankings to the 1st page of the results.This normally will not occur overnight, however, and it’s best to grow your links gradually over time. This is what the search engines like to see as opposed to a sudden large increase in links which could get you into trouble and possible gray barred at Google. Your page rank should increase as you start receiving more traffic to your website.

There’s really nothing else like having your own customized directory that blends into your website design. Once you have acquired links to your site, you must use a backlink checker to insure that they continue to exist over time.

Scot King is a SEO consultant and author of Website Optimization Simplified. This free ebook is available through his website at http://www.link-exchangers.com through the footer of the site. He is the co-developer of the site which is written in the asp.net language. It has been under development since 2006 and it has undergone many programming changes as the result of member feedback. It comes with a link exchange script which automates the process of exchanging links and saves webmasters valuable time by not having to perform copy/paste of linking code into link pages and uploading to a web server.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scot_King

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Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him.

Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece.

I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

• The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.
• List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?
• List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up – don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

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