Recently Google has become the most popular search engine in the world. Among the factors of its success are first-rate performance, ease of use and the high quality of search results ensured by a sophisticated algorithm that includes such Google’s know-how as the PageRank. Developed by Larry Page (allegedly hence the name) and Sergey Brin in 1995, PageRank measures the site relevancy by assessing the quality and quantity of its inbound links.

To put it differently, PageRank considers all the incoming links as “votes” for a webpage, so the more links a page has, the higher PageRank it’s likely to show.

Yet the quality of links also matters. Thus, five links from authoritative search engine-optimized sites with good content are better than a hundred of links from low-quality or spammy sites (the so called bad neighborhood) which, by the way, can provoke Google to ban your site. Those webmasters who try to outwit Google ranking tools are more likely to outwit themselves, in fact. Nowadays link manipulation has achieved such a massive scale that Google had to introduce special punishments, devaluing “false” links. Thus, if your incoming links have been bought or come from irrelevant and poor quality sites, your website really runs the risk of being frowned upon by Google and – potentially penalized in a certain way.

Another popular path that some people take to grow their PageRank is link exchange. Either that is the case of linking by mutual agreement (“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) which is a popular topic within some online forums, or a kind of family linking, like “This is my grandma’s site, that’s the site of my best friend, and click here to see my dog’s site”, Google tends to lower the value of both, especially if the topics of linked sites don’t match or their IPs coincide. In addition, from the point of view of PageRank raising, reciprocal links are less important than one way links, so such an exchange won’t help you much with high ranking.

The good news is that, apart from gray- to black-hat link building methods, there also exist many legitimate and effective ways to get incoming links. Some of them will be favorable to your site’s traffic, others will optimize it for SEs, and there are things which are good for both.

To to get more incoming links, start your link-baiting campaign. Let the online world know about you: sign the guest books of the sites with related content theme, leave testimonials, write product reviews (e.g. on Amazon.com), post comments on blogs or start your own blog and tag its posts on Technorati.

Submitting your articles to the trustworthy websites with high PageRank, such as iSnare, EzineArticles and GoArticles might also be a smart idea. Next, you can submit your site to free or paid directories; in particular it would be great to get listed in DMOZ; or create your own topical directory.

While PageRank refers not to the site as a whole, but to each separate page, optimize your site’s navigational structure to better distribute its PageRank. Consider arranging some freebies – people will appreciate it and possibly refer to your site.

It is also advisable to update your website regularly so it always appears fresh and interesting for visitors.

All in all, the above tips have been proven to work, but still please keep in mind that the most important step to increase your site’s PageRank is to fill it with unique high-quality content, easy to understand and worthy of linking to. Good and relevant content can be more significant for developing your authority than other factors, so make sure it is your starting point when optimizing your site.

As such, if you can’t create brilliant content yourself, hire copywriting specialists whose work will help to grow your site’s popularity and make it be in the lead.

Whether you deal with online marketing and sell goods or services through the Web, or just want to popularize your personal site, you can largely succeed by applying the following Longtail SEO tips:

First, choose various word combinations for the keywords to make them more specific. Phrases of 3 or 4 words will convert more potential buyers than 1-word ones. Combinations are also used to target many different tail terms. For instance, creating a page with the title “New Jersey Spa Salons” is better than “New Jersey Salons” and “Spa Salons”, as it captures both terms at once.

Another important point is to choose more target keywords using keyword lists which can be charted with the help of Google AdWords, Wordtracker, Overture or Google labs tools.

Remember that each page of your website should have enough keywords, otherwise it will be difficult to discover.

Moreover, take into account that while targeting the tail, you shouldn’t use far-fetched terms. Thus, an article about landscape-gardening with the keyword “Godzilla” will hardly do, as these two topics hardly have anything in common.

The rank of your website also depends on the quantity of pages in the search index. The more content you can offer – the more visitors will be attracted by your site.

However, while working on the quantity don’t forget about the quality: modern search engines are sophisticated enough to identify if the body text is connected with the keywords or not, and whether keywords are relevant.

Of course, good site navigation is also very helpful, especially if your site contains many pages. As a good housekeeper knows the location of pots and pans in her kitchen, a website visitor should have a clear view of how to find the necessary information. So place a link to the site map in the footer of every page, or at least put it onto the home page.

In addition, get more inbound external links to every page of your website. Build at least 2-3 inbound links referring to the correspondent specific terms on your site.

And finally, to increase the competitiveness of your website, you should draw links from respectful sites with good quality content.

Such a Longtail SEO approach is quite effective and can considerably optimize your site’s PageRank.

The reality is such that even the pithiest and the most creative sites may remain unknown to the targeted audience if the ranking factors of Search Engine Optimization – or SEO – weren’t considered by the web master. With the appearance of SEO technologies encompassing a wide range of methods the process of searching has become much easier, and so has site promotion. In fact, SEO techniques have had a dramatic impact on the world marketing, at times making online business even more profitable than offline one. Nowadays, to succeed in the Internet marketing, each online man of affairs should know the basics of SEO and use it in a proper way.

Without any doubt, website traffic – or how many people have visited your site – is of ultimate importance. High traffic implies a greater income, while low traffic means the site owner doesn’t make much profit. It is also clear that traffic depends on your ranking directly.

According to the leading experts, the most important ranking factor is the appropriate keyword use in title and body text, as well as the relationship of keywords to body text content.

Some SEO specialists claim that if there isn’t enough time to apply all SEO tools, one should work only on a good title. Nevertheless, others believe that it is not so much important to create a good title as to avoid a bad one which can absolutely ruin the page. Furthermore, the keyword must figure not only in the title but also in the body text, because it also optimizes the ranking. Yet, it is worth keeping in mind that the abuse of keyword phrase using leads to the suppression of ranking, too. SEO experts also think that such a factor as semantical relationship between the body text and the targeted terms will considerably develop in future, as search engines are improving constantly.

As you see, choosing the right keyword is the most effective way to achieve success. Some words, like credit or travel, are very popular on the web: having typed them in the search bar you’ll see an endless list of links, and it takes some time to find what exactly you need. Actually, it often takes MUCH time, as the ranking page offers all possible word combinations and usage. So, rather often potential customers get tired before they manage to find the relevant information and get the goods they wanted.

No way out? Don’t panic! All you have to do is to grow a long SEO tail to your website which will contribute much to your progress in online marketing. So what is the Longtail SEO?

Let’s suppose you’re selling lingerie over the Internet. As you probably know, this niche is overcrowded with distributors, and if you choose lingerie for the keyword, it will be quite difficult to find your site among myriads of others. But if the term is specialized, like white sheer Italian silk lingerie, your site has a good chance to be noticed by the targeted clients. As a result, your site’s traffic increases attracting advertisers and making a greater profit. Besides that, Longtail SEO brings more targeted traffic, favoring referral commissions and sales. Another Lontail SEO advantage is that it saves money, as you have to spend less on link building. Moreover, using Longtail SEO you don’t have to worry so much about changes in search engine algorithms which become smarter day after day and weed out websites with irrelevant content. In this way, Longtail SEO helps your site not only to win a desirable position in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), but also to hold it for a long time.

So, Longtail SEO is completely indispensable while running an online business, and, as any subject, it can be studied.

To be continued…