SEO An Hour A Day: Small Tasks That Make A Big Difference

A lot of work goes into improving a website’s rank on search engines, and most of the tasks that are performed to realize that goal take a lot of time and a lot of energy. Along with those big time consuming tasks, though, there are a few small, quick things that can be done that can go a long way toward getting your site to the top. These tasks are ongoing, and can be accomplished within an hour a day.

These ‘hour a day’ tasks focus on ‘off the page’ factors and the creation of inbound links that generate traffic.

Contacting other websites and requesting a link back to your site is one particularly useful option. Generally, you give something in return, which can be creating a link on your site pointing to theirs or some other form of payback. While swapping links can be useful, it is good to know that doing it too much (or doing it with a site infamous for the use of reciprocal links) can have a negative effect. Thanks to spammers utilizing this method in the late ’90s and early 2000s, search engines today may penalize a website by lowering its page rank if it determines that the website in question is swapping links with other sites too much, and any site that is linking to them may fall with them. For the most part, it is easy to spot a potential problematic site, and there should not be a problem for you as long as you pay attention.

It is also worth mentioning that inbound links from sites in the same field of business or study as yours can boost your rankings the most, as search engines interpret such links as a ‘vote of confidence’ from knowledgeable sources. Having a site about physics and the material laws of the universe link to your site about alternative cancer treatments would not benefit you much, or vice versa.

Getting your site listed in directories is a good way of generating some traffic and increasing your search engine rank, and there are directories focused on every topic imaginable. These, along with the more board directories that host a variety of sites, give you plenty of options for generating inbound links. As with most services on the web, there are directories that will host a link free of charge while others require payment.

Inbound links from blog posts is also worth the time and energy to solicit them, as these have great potential benefits. As with the website linking above, receiving inbound links from blogs related to the same field of business or study as your website can yield greater results.

The performance of these tasks can fit into any schedule, and the benefits such tasks can yield are very much worth the hour you should spend in doing them. Not only are such tasks an efficient use of time (and therefore money), but the continuing positive results can give you the motivation to continue working on your personal site, or make holding your job easier if you are working on a client’s site.

About the author: Rune Risom, passionate SEO entrepeneur from free seo suite SEOsupporter.com. Also the founder of Hubdir.com, a PHP link directory script.

Best 10 Tips for Better Search Engine Rankings

The factors that make a big impact on search engine rankings are usually seen as highly secret information vital in keeping the integrity of the Internet alive. None of the big search engines like Google and Bing want website owners to know their algorithms for ranking web pages in search – even less letting you in on their version of the top ten tips for better search engine ranking. When you do a search for something typical like “buy books” you will usually get thousands and thousands of websites that match the query, where only a fraction will actually be useful for what you are looking for. As a general rule, search engines only show ten results on the first page. Everyone who manages a website wants to have one of those 10 spots as users generally tend to find answers that satifies their need within that top list. That makes it very important to know the top ten tips for better search engine ranking.

Let’s take a look at what some consider the top ten tips for better search engine rankings.

1. Pick the Best Target Keywords – You have to get into your target audience’s head. Your website sells bandanas for dogs and cats that you make yourself. So if someone types in “doggie bandanas” or “pet scarves” you want your site to popup in that sought after top-ten results list. If another page in your site focuses on embroidered collars, then that page needs its own keyword – perhaps “dog collars”.

2. Make sure to put your main search keyword in the title of your web page. It is absolutely vital to include your main keyword or words, so they show up in the title tag. Something like “Hot make-up for girls on sale” could work to get the attention of your target customers. A catchy title is also always a sure winner.

3. In the body of your web page make sure to inlcude your keywords and words wherever sensible, but don’t go overboard. Google and the other major search engines will penalize you for “keyword stuffing”.

4. The words used, when other websites link to you are crucial. It’s called anchor text, and it’s the part of a text link that you click. Always try and get in touch with any websites that are supporting yours and ask them if they could use anchor text that you prefer.

5. Inbound links – It’s simple, more is better. Inbound links are very important. This is the part where you need to put on your salesman hat and aim at getting as many other websites to link to you as possible.

6. Only get links from web pages that are relevant to your niche. It’s just doesn’t work for a website about sports news to do an inbound link to “Make-up for girls”.

7. The longer your site has been out there, the more hits you get, and the better the chance of it appearing in that top 10 list of results. Of course, you can’t magically make your site age. Patience is the only answer for website aging.

8. Relevant Content – a snappy title with a great target keyword isn’t worth anything if the page content is not relevant to the keyword. Make sure to make keywords a natural part of the content.

9. Include HTML links on your website’s main page that link to other relevant content in deeper parts of your site.

10. Perhaps this tip should have topped the top ten tips for better search engine rankings list. Don’t do spamming! Don’t try and stuff the same keyword into a meta tag repeatedly. Don’t use hidden invisible text – even though it can be tempting, it doesn’t work. The search engines can pick stuff like that apart in a split second.

Written by Rune Risom, a respected and innovative online search marketer through the last 12 years. For a limited time you can get free seo tools from his professional seo services company, SEOsupporter.com