The Single Most Important Factor for High Search Engine Rankings

Many won’t believe it if I told them there is but one key factor in effective search engine optimization. I say this with confidence based on the advice given in many SEO forums. In addition, there are courses that cost in excess of $1000 promising to teach SEO. And if this wasn’t enough, I know of companies that charge as much as $5000 per month for SEO services.





What is the Secret?

But I can tell you as an Internet Marketer with over 10 years of experience that the most important factor in achieving good search engine optimization is building LINKS! The more links you have to your website, the higher you ranking will ultimately be - it’s just that simple. Get enough quality inbound links to your website and you won’t need to worry about onpage optimization and you will outrank your competition every time. Adobe’s Acrobat Reader page is an excellent example of this.



Log on to Google and type in the phrase ‘click here’. You will find that Adobe’s page is number #1. It beats out other websites using this exact phrase in their title; it even beats out a company actually named Click Here that is obviously optimized for anyone searching that phrase. In fact, if you are not familiar with search engine techniques, you may be surprised to find that the words ‘click’ and ‘here’ are not even in the text or source code.



I’m attempting to show you the proof that those well versed in SEO know that back links are the most important factor in getting those top rankings with a search engine like Google. Think about it – there must be literally thousands upon thousands of high quality sites (like government, educational institutions, and corporations) that link to the Acrobat Reader software. All of these sites undoubtedly use the words "Click Here" as their anchor text.



Anchor Text

Anchor text is important to Search engine optimization efforts because a search engine like Google will use keywords (like ‘click here’) to determine relevancy of a site. The flip side of this coin is that if you use the same keyword for each backlink created, you will often be blacklisted by a search engine for spamming. This is why a SEO expert will advise you to use the main keyword no more than 50% of the time; the secondary keywords should be used 30%. Finally, the full URL link and a stock phrase like ‘click here’ or ‘more info’ should be used the remainder of the time. The goal is to create enough variation that will prevent you from being blacklisted by the search engines.



Quality Over Quantity

You must also keep in mind where the backlinks are coming from. While search engine like Yahoo or Bing (which also powers Yahoo) pay more attention to quantity of links to a site, Google appears to pay more attention to the quality of a links in addition to quantity.



This means that you can get a ton of backlinks from directories to help you with your ranking on Bing or Yahoo. Google, on the other hand, will probably find your website more favorable with fewer links coming from high authority or relevant sites with them. In this case effective search engine optimization would be about focusing your energy on getting better quality links rather than a higher quantity of them if you want good rankings.



Final Words

Finally, be sure to remember that basic optimization of a website is good, but should not be obsessed over. Instead work on creating backlinks rather than simply focusing on keyword density!





About the author:

Jeff Oxley owns an SEO company in Toronto - Toronto SEO. For more information, visit www.Toronto-SEO.org