The ultimate aim of all website owners is to receive free targeted traffic from Google – in abundance. The problem is though, that SEO, or search engine optimisation, can be rather complicated to the ordinary website owner or budding online entrepreneur. There are though, many things that can be done to improve a websites search engines position and standing without the prerequisite of advance SEO know-how or ability.

Knowing your websites current Google page rank is the first step to take and this is easily done by a variety of methods. If you use the Firefox browser then there is a plugin you can use which shows you the page rank of each page you visit on the internet, otherwise, typing “Google page rank” into a search engine will show you just how you can check.

All web pages on the internet receive a rating of between zero and ten. The higher this number, the more important Google deems this particular page to be and, in essence, the easier it will be for your site or page to show up for the particular keywords you are targeting (for that site or page).

There are many factors Google takes into consideration for working out page rank, some well-known (such as number of links pointing to the page, the age of the domain, internal links) and some not so well-known (or even known at all). Inbound links, though, are by far the easiest factor to influence to strategically increase the page rank of a particular web page.

Sites with a page rank of zero normally indicate a fairly new site. Don’t forget, as mentioned above, domain age plays a major part of page rank determination, therefore older sites will tend to rank better than newer ones. While automatically increasing a domains age is impossible, creating links to a site or page is not and there are some really powerful methods of doing this. Below we outline just a few of these.

First of all, think about internal linking. This is a great start and making sure each main page or post is linked to both the homepage and each other.

Secondly, writing articles and submitting them to various article directories is a great link-building method. And the reason for this is the resource box you are allowed to add to the end of every article, in which you can place to or three links to any website or webpage of your choosing.

Third, writing testimonials about a particular product or service are very often a great way of securing backlinks. These testimonials will more than likely be found and placed on the particular vendor’s site, giving you the backlink you crave. Obviously, the higher the page rank of the particular vendor’s site, the better, or “stronger” the backlink to your site is perceived.

The fourth strategy you can use is blog commenting. Search the web for blogs that are in your particular niche and then go through their content. If there is an interesting article that you feel you could leave an interesting comment about, then do so. Most blogs that allow comments nowadays also allow you to add your website link to them. Be advised though – never, ever spam these blogs. Always make sure your comments are well-thought out and meaningful to the topic in hand.

Finally, a rather newer link building method is by creating and uploading a video to one of the many video sharing sites such as YouTube or Metacafe, or social networking sites such as FaceBook, Bebo, Twitter, etc. Today, video marketing as it is known is fast becoming the number one method for effectively marketing a product or website.

The above are just a couple of ideas for you in your link building endeavours. There are literally hundreds of other ways and a quick Google search will unearth many more ways for you to build links and hopefully increase your page rank.

Search Engine Optimisation and LinkedIn. Over recent times, all social network sites have more-or-less carried out what the set out to do in the first place – provide a means for people to interact with each other on a social basis. Other individuals have found a means of sharing information on a more professional level thanks to networks such as LinkedIn.

LinkedIn itself is geared solely toward the professional community and offers a very strategic type of networking experience. With the professional profiles created at LinkedIn, an individual is able to garner a level of respect and because of this is able to jump the queue, as it were, in terms of SEO opportunities on their relevant fields of expertise or subjects.

One of the reasons for this is the fact that LinkedIn is highly thought of by search engine giant Google, and as such, LinkedIn pages are seen in a favourable light when compared to some individual websites or pages. Because, therefore, it is such as an important professional and social networking tool, it goes without saying that there are a few tips and hints for increasing the SEO benefits and potential. Here are some of those tips:

-         Being the professional network it is, having a professional looking appropriate photograph is a fantastic way of offering first impressions. Many individuals will look at the photograph first and then onto the written profile.

-         Individuals can share as much information about themselves or their business via their LinkedIn profile, hence the opportunity to “sell” ones professional profile. The LinkedIn profile offers ample opportunity for the individual to market their “wares” as well as add links to their particular websites or blogs for the reader to attain additional information.

-         Learning all the various functions afforded by LinkedIn enables an individual to maximise their SEO potential by sharing relevant information such as resumes, business opportunities, job vacancies, etc.

-         Regular updates give better visibility and more credence in the eyes of Google.

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