Adrienne posted an article last Friday about how the secrets to gaining higher search engine rankings...

http://adwordsandseoservices.com/....ranking-secrets.aspx

Reading it over, I tend to agree with most of what she wrote, though she says her blog increased from a PR0 to a PR1, and I'm still seeing it as a PR0. But I guess even your PR goes up and down over time!

Here's my two cents worth on SEO...

By this time, there's no way to boost yourself to the top of Google; the guys at Google have pretty much seen it all.

Google is a "popularity-based search engine", it always has been, and it will probably always be one. That is, it ranks websites based on how popular they are. So, if you're website is not popular, then it won't show up anywhere on Google. If there are ways to get an unpopular website to show up #1 on Google, it's because you fooled it into thinking it's popular.

Google's definition of popularity is "page rank", which is a value several digits long. It's the not the same "PR" value you see on Google Toolbar; that's an abbreviated form of page rank. Page rank is largely based on incoming links to your site, but these links carry lesser or greater value depending on their own page rank, abd their "authority". Page rank is also based on on-page optimization too.

Even if you managed to fool Google into thinking your website is popular, you're still living on borrowed time. Google will eventually figure out what you've done, and make amends.

Bottom Line

To get a webpage to rank high for a certain search term, you have to have the most popular webpage for that search term. You do that by getting other websites to link to it. More importantly, get other "authority" websites to link to it.

The best way to do that is simply to create an awesome website and ask other bloggers to blog about it. Look for bloggers in your genre. Do a search on Technorati or Google Blog Search to find these blogs. Don't offer a return link. Just ask them to blog about you. Bloggers always want stuff to write about. People ask me of the same request all the time, and half the time I do it, just because I need to keep writing new material for my readers.

Another idea on the same note, is to write an article about a very cool new product. Find something new and strange. Then, find other bloggers that you think might be interested, and let them know about it. In your e-mail, request to give you a "credit link".

If you're having trouble finding bloggers to blog about you, try "paid blogging" networks like PayPerPost or ReviewMe. It's not that expensive to get a related blog to write about you.  

Labels: Page Rank