The third step in search engine optimization is link building.

In the first article of the series I suggested several ways to receive links. In this article I will look more in depth at ways to get hundreds, even thousands of back links to your website to better your rankings.

After you have successfully been listed in the major search engines and optimized your website you are now ready to begin major link building. Link building is essentially finding other website to link to your website, be it by creating great content and them linking naturally or be it by submitting your site to directories.

Directories

The first place to look is directories. After you have about a hundred pages of quality content (for small business web sites, once the site is completed) you can begin submitting to the obvious big two free directories: Yahoo and ODP (which may be hard to get into).

Websites that have yet to be established can more easily find directory links at niche directories and smaller general directories. A great place to start is by searching Google for [add link 'niche'] replacing ‘niche’ with your topic of choice. You can also try searching [submit link 'niche'], [submit site 'niche'], or any other combination.

Web logs

Web logs (blogs) are a great way for unestablished websites to get noticed within their industry. The trick is finding relevant blogs and leaving insightful comments and leaving your website URL within the URL box. Although many blogs are nofollowed, meaning your link doesn’t technically send juice to Google, Yahoo or MSN, it will bring the author of the website along with the sites visitors to notice your name and website. Overtime, they will visit your website and in theory notice your great content and link to it in a future article.

Tip
Can’t wait? Try searching Google for ‘You comment, I follow’. This will give you a list of websites that do not place ‘nofollow’ on its links within their comments. Try word searching around your niche with the keyword phrase and you might find quite a few sites who accept it. Find sites without spammy comments to make the most out of it.

Forums

Participating in forums is another great way to receive links and be considered an expert within your niche. Find forums (also known as boards) about your given topic and begin participating. If the forum always signatures, be sure to add a link back to your site. Over time not only will Google, Yahoo, and MSN give value to the links but visitors to the website who find your post useful will click through to your page, and hopefully find something useful and continue coming back. Who knows, they might even find it useful enough to link to from their own website or recommend it to friends.

Article Submissions

Another great way to receive link is by writing great content and giving it away for free to hundreds of website free to use. There are many great article directories to choose from, so you don’t have to be too picky on which ones to submit your works to.

In the past I have successfully submitted articles and had others use them on their websites from:

1. Article Depot
2. Buzzle
3. Go Articles
4. Article Blast
5. Ezine Articles
6. Article Alley
7. Article Lists

Guest Posting

A great way to get your writings out but to keep it unique and still receive a quality link is by guest posting. Although it is one of the hardest to get involved in, once you do an article for a major blog you are set for a at least a few months.

Link Exchange

Exchanging links has long been a practice by SEOs to gain quick exposure in the SERPs. This of course means Google has long since began sniffing out link exchanges and discounting them, especially the links listed on ‘links’ pages and directories that require a link back.

To get the most out of link exchanges you must make the link will have these qualities:

1. The website is related.
2. The link is from a page with a very small amount of external links.
3. The website is not spammy (is listed in search engines, no links to other spam sites, etc.).
4. The link will bring natural visitors and isn’t only for link juice.

The next article in the series will be about reducing duplicate content.

Entrecard has taken its next step into gaining exposure across the web by purchasing impNERD.

impNERD has shown its support in the past by writing several articles on improving web traffic by using Entrecard. impNERD has also sold EC credits in the past to help raise money for charities.

One of the most recent articles published on impNERD was about the Past, Present, and Future of Entrecard. Now we know what the next step will be with the purchase of impNERD.

The next step in search engine optimization is keywords, finding them, how to use them and the density they need.

How to find keywords

In a previous article we took a look at what SEO tools can be used to find quality keywords for your website. What it comes down to is having a general idea of what you wish to rank for, then type in the words and presto! More keywords.

It is also important to stay up to date with trends. If you own a lyrics website, stay up to date with recently released songs and new artists. Not only will this benefit your readers, but it will also benefit your rankings.

How to use keywords

While finding the right keywords may be easy for some sites, figuring out how to use them is a whole other ball game.

What is important for keyword rankings:

• Using them within the title tag
• Using them within the header tags (h1, h2, h3)
• Using them in inbound links
• Using them in outbound links
• Using them with the strong tag
• Using them with the em tag
• Using the keywords within the content at a certain density

What keyword density is accurate?

Although no one really knows the correct keyword density of an article, there are few agreements SEOs make:

• You shouldn’t use the same word more than three times within the title, keywords meta or description meta.
• Keyword density within links, strong, and em tags is not separately calculated than that within the content. So although they count for more in search engines, the density doesn’t matter. So if you have 10 links with the same word pointing to different pages, it will work all the same. Although, that isn’t recommended since it will set off a different spam filter, as will including your entire content section in a strong tag.
• Writing for the audience will almost always give you a good keyword density. Just be sure to work your keywords into the conversation, but make it sound normal. If you are really worried about the density of your keywords, try to make it 2-5% for one-word keywords and 1-2% for longtail. If you are using WordPress, check out the Keyword Snatcher plugin.

Stay tuned for the next article in the series about how to receive links for better rankings.

When it comes to getting listed there are quite a bit of rumors and suggestions. You may have read on other blogs about getting listed, but what really works and what doesn’t?

Search Engines

The most popular suggestion given is submitting your website to search engines directly. Although this may work in some cases, it isn’t necessary for the big three: Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Why it doesn’t work
- Google, Yahoo, MSN : Worked several years ago, but not now. There is nothing that shows websites are indexed by submissions.

Exceptions
- Blog search engines. Submitting to Google Blog Search works.
- Will work on smaller search engines and is suggested. This is because small search engines have fewer sites listed, thus they must use the submission box to crawl. Even ask.com uses it, although crawling through links is preferred.

Buying links

Since submitting to the big three is known within some blogging communities, they search for other ways to tell their readers how to get listed. Buying links is a extremely popular suggestion.

Why buying links doesn’t work
Will get you listed, but for how long? If the links are under a headline titled ’sponsors’ or ‘advertisers’ the link will be discounted. You might get listed, but you’ll receive a nice sized penalty that could stick for a long, long time.

Exception
Links within articles or other unquestionable manners.

The best way to get listed

With so many suggestions being thrown around it is hard to sift through all the non-sense and find the quality information needed.

What works
- Comment on as many blogs as possible. Make sure they aren’t spammy, and be sure to include your url within the ‘url’ box.
- Submit to as many directories as possible. They can be free or paid, just make sure the links aren’t 302′d and is listed within Google, Yahoo, etc.
- Write articles and submit them to article directories.

What about the sandbox?

While talking about getting listed, it is almost a necessity to mention the sandbox.

Sandbox facts
- The sandbox existed long ago, but it is no longer. With the popularity of blogs and the ever increasing need for fresh information, Google decided to do away with such a thing.
- Today, what is known as the sandbox is actually a penalty due to several factors: 1) Too many links at one time without much after. 2) Links from spammy sources. 3) Bought links.

How to stop the ’sandbox’?
- Be careful where your links go. Link exchanges went out of style, so don’t do them even with directories. If you must do them, be sure to do it with related websites.
- Don’t buy obvious links. If your site is about hot dogs don’t buy a link on a car website. Unless it is a hot dog car page.

If you plan on your website relying on search engine traffic or you just want to get a nice chunk of ‘free’ visitors, it’s a good idea to know what you are up against. One aspect of SEO is keyword research. Keyword research is defined as finding keywords to use on your website to gain search engine rankings.

Luckily, there are several ways to go about finding the right keywords. Although each way may give different keywords, it’s a great way to find ideas for other articles.

Keyword Research Tools

Google Sets

Type in a few words, then Google finishes the set. If you have a few keywords already, type them in and it spits out others related to it.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Helps you find both expensive keywords, local keywords and some long-tail keywords. It is a great tool that is highly under-utilized.

WordTracker / SEOTools from SEOBook

Gives a general idea of what is being searched for and the frequency they are searched. SEOBook’s SEOTools is similar to WordTracker, with a few tweaks here and there, although they aren’t necessarily visible.

Overture Keyword Tool

Gives a rough estimate of the amount of times a word is searched for within a random month. You can find quality general terms using Overture, but don’t try to look for anything holiday or trends because the numbers will be way off.

NicheBot

Uses several different tools, including WordTracker and Overture.

Google (the ~ search)

Use tilde (~) before a word and Google will find synonyms for it within the search results. It is a great way to find related keywords that the other tools might have overlooked.

Your own stats

Find what others are searching for and how they are reaching your site. You can easily find words that you can improve upon. The best part about this is the more pages you have, the more keywords you will be able to see (if you can rank).

Google Trends

Compare two or more keywords to find what is most searched for throughout the past few years and related news articles. This is a great way to find what users are searching for and what keywords to use in titles, headers, etc.