First, you need to make sure that the website the links will be pointing to is properly optimized. No matter how expansive your link building strategies are, they will be undermined if your website is improperly optimized. Really, you will not experience much success from a sparse website that has little value or content. The website will need quality text that is rich with the keywords that are commonly keyed into the various search engines. Adding audio and video files as well as a site map would not hurt either. The search engine robots generally favor such websites which is why these added components are so helpful and necessary. If you do not have a quality website designed then your link building strategy is not going to be worth much.

That said let’s take a look at what is needed to get the most out of your link building ventures…

Above all, you will need relevant links. You do not want to haphazardly place links on sites that are not going to deliver much in terms of value. Then again, you could randomly place links as a secondary link building strategy but you do not want it to be a primary strategy. Remember, you will want the search engine robots to smile upon all the links that you put out on the web. The more relevant the links are, the more likely this will occur. For those wondering what relevant links are, these would be links placed on websites that share similar subject matter to your own website. For example, if your website deals with sports memorabilia, any link placed on a site that is related to sports would be considered a relevant link.

You also want to look towards those sites that have high Google page rank. The greater the page rank, the more “search engine juice” your website will receive. Once again, that is not to say sites with low PR are worthless but their value will be limited. Adding links to sites that low in PR may or may not have much impact. Placing links on sites that have high PR will always have a positive impact.

One way links are much better than reciprocal links. When the search engine robots see you are trading links, they will downgrade the value of the links. Sure, they may not seem fair but that is the way the system is devised. By putting more value on one way links, the search engine robots can get a better gauge determination as to how popular your site really is. Hence, they prefer one way links.

Don’t dump a whole slew of links on the internet all at once. Yes, there are some services that can put up a few hundred links on various (low quality) sites and blogs within a week. Such “link spam” may not help your cause. Adding a few links a week for week after week will definitely have a much better impact since it will make a more positive impression on the search engine robots. This, in turn, will boost your site’s rankings and increase the success potential of your marketing venture as a result.

What is the difference between a search engine and a directory anyway? A search engine uses a program for searching documents, mostly HTML, based on given keywords. It generates a list from its database put together by two programs, a spider, which fetches corresponding documents, and an indexer, which reads documents and creates the database based on their word and idea content. A directory, on the other hand, is a listing of submitted and approved websites. Basically, the main difference between search engines and directories is that the latter rely on submissions while the former have programs that scan the net for websites to include in their database. Keep in mind that search engines and directories are two different things, so it is best to come up with separate plans for utilizing the two methods for website promotion.
With search engines, it is all about keywords and HTML layout. You can look into discussions about keyword density, prominence, and placement to better equip yourself for targeting high search engine rankings. Remember that search engines can pick up your pages without you ever submitting them, so design your site accordingly.

As for directories, there are several steps you may have to undertake to prepare your website before submission in order for it to have a better chance of being approved. First and foremost, make sure that your website has been up and running for some time before you submit it. If you had recently made changes, again, wait a short while. You must know that some of the qualities of a good site, according to directory standards, are clean and attractive design, useful content, and fast loading pages.

Once you feel confident about your website, you can start the submission process. You usually have to start with picking out the category or categories which your site falls under. Think this through as this could have a great impact on your site’s exposure. Before submitting your URL, thoroughly read instructions, terms, and suggestions from the administration. Since directories depend on the information you give them, be as accurate as possible when asked for a description.

The top directories out there are Yahoo and DMOZ (also known as Open Directory Project or ODP). With ODP, it is not really as tough to get accepted, but there are so many submissions and they are usually short on staff which is comprised of volunteers. This is actually something you can capitalize on by volunteering to be an editor yourself and accepting your own submission. You have to realize that the Open Directory will not bring an amazing amount of traffic to your site, but it has its ways of influencing rankings, especially with Google. Remember, Google is like the godfather of all things SEO. It is always best to do things that are favorable to it.

Directories usually have a lead time after submission, so do not expect your site’s exposure to be magnified immediately. It may be necessary to submit specific web pages that can fall under different categories or to resubmit the actual website especially if you do a lot of tweaking or if you feel that the course of the site did a turn and it can now fall under a different category. However, do not be so aggressive about your submissions that you are practically spamming the directories. This may lead to detrimental consequences with regards to your active listings.

Link Love

• Go about getting as many inbound links to your site as possible. This is all part of the infamous search engine algorithms. The more links to your site there are, the higher your ranking will be. Make sure the links are from “good” pages and not spammy or off topic ones.
• Make sure that you have a site that is worthwhile to visit. Linking works a lot like high school popularity. You want to cultivate the right crowd or connections. Why would anybody want to put a link to your site if there isn’t anything useful or interesting on it? You have to make the owner or author of other sites want to link to you.

Keywords are Key

• Keyword density is essential to the content of a site. Your titles should bear it (it should be incorporated into each page’s Title tag), your links should spell it out (as opposed to click HERE or read THIS ARTICLE), your body should be peppered with it (make sure that your copy mentions it as many times as possible without the content appearing like senseless gibberish), etc.
• Familiarize yourself with your site’s target audience or market. Get to know which keywords they are likely to type into the search boxes. There are sites that have conducted surveys and studies and they can provide the necessary demographic details so that you can construct your site with the correct keywords. You should also look into keyword research tools such as Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. These can help you choose the optimal way to phrase your keywords. Avoid general keywords because they do not specify to the potential visitor what your site can really offer them. In fact, “keyphrase” should be the operative word and not “keyword” as it is all about the phrasing.
• Design your site so your keywords are easily spotted by search engines. Graphics and Flash can make your site seem cool, but text content is what search engines can connect with.

Code ‘n stuff (Sorry, but you can’t completely escape technicalities.)

• Place ALT tags on images you post on your website. Apparently, Google acknowledges the text in ALT tags of images. Make sure that you label these tags with a clear description of the image.
• Construct your website to be easily navigated by search engine crawlers.  Remember that search engines cannot fill out fields, read Java Script, interpret graphics and Flash, or search your entire site, so have equivalent HTML links to the important pages of your site in the main navigation of each page. These links should offer as much information about the pages they are directing visitors to. If people won’t bother guessing what could be at the other end of a link, search engines are even less inclined to. Keywords also figure into this, so give it plenty of thought.

SEO Myths

• Caching. Is Google really so spiteful as to punish you for not allowing it to cache your pages? Google has denied these allegations, but if you do not have any specific beef about caching (copyright infringement, pricing-related issues, product updates, etc.), just allow it. It’s always good to stay in the good graces of Google.
• META tags are ignored by Google and the majority of search engines, so inserting them does little for your ranking. However, this can change, and some of the search engines do look for them.