SEO Traffic Analysis and Report - TOP 5 List

By Gary Marsh, copyright 2007

SEO is one of those scary words to many online business owners. It doesn't have to be.

One of the biggest mistakes websites make is doing there own thing thinking they know what will work and what won't without doing the research that's necessary. Before we get into the top 5 list of off-page optimization...

The most important thing you can do is copy the top ranked website for your keyword phrase to get the number one position! Copy exactly what they're doing and then you need to do it just a little better. It really is that simple when you break SEO down. With that in mind, here is the TOP 5 List you need to work on to get that number one ranking:

1. Number of Websites Linking to You

It is critical to get as many links from websites that are considered the authority. The easiest way to understand this is...

2. The Google Page Rank of the Website Linking to You

Google assigns a page rank between 1-10 with 10 being the highest rank. The trick to figuring out the Google page rank of the sites linking to your competition is to download the Google Toolbar. In Google search, type the following: link:www.competition-site.com

This will show you all the sites that currently link to your competitor's site. As you click on the results sites, view the toolbar which will show you the sites ranking. If that site has 5 authority sites linking to it with a page rank of 7, you need to find 6 sites that'll link to your site with a page rank of 7. Do this with all the links you find for your competitors link partners.

3. The Page Title of the Website Linking to You

The page title is very important to the links of the sites that are linking to you. Page title tells the search engine spiders what your page and website is about. From the title, you need to have a description of the site and follow up with keywords. A title of the website can do great things if it is optimized. The best way to optimize a page title is to use the primary keyword and secondary keyword. The best way to do this: primary keyword | secondary keyword.

So, if your site happens to be about fitness, then you could use the keyword diet as the primary and then you could use weight loss as the secondary keyword.

4. The Anchor Text Used in the Link Linking to You

Anchor text is at the top of the list due to the critical nature of how a link is pointing to your site. Anchor text should always be the primary keyword your targeting. Link swapping usually allows you to create your link exactly how you want your link partner to display your link. Go to any link directory and you'll quickly understand the sites that are optimizing there anchor text pointing to there site.

5. The Number of Outbound Links on the Website that is Linking to You

The number of outbound links really does play an important role in how you link is perceived in search engines. If a site has you link on a page with 100 other links, your site will be penalized as that link will not have as much importance. A page should never go beyond 50 outbound links.

That is the TOP 5 list! Backlinks are absolutely critical to SEO. The biggest thing to do about backlinks is to work with a link partner and the type of anchor text they use on the link pointing to your site. Also, you need to work with them to link from a page that has your keyword phrase in the page. One way of doing this is to actually create the page for them that works to your advantage through proper latent semantic indexing content. Articles are a great way to do this. Your giving your partner content to go along with a link! Who in there right mind would not want to link to you?

Gary Marsh is an SEO Agent & Expert. He has been working on the Internet since 1995, and is the Owner of BizNiche Marketing Solutions, a company providing low cost search engine optimization, submission and web promotion services.