How To Rank In Google Organic Search

How To Rank In Google Organic Search

Author: Chad R Fisher

Obtaining an organic search ranking now is a lot of work and is not for the faint of heart. You used to be able to cram your site full content and stuff your title, and meta description and keyword tags, then submit your site to Google, Yahoo and MSN, sit back and watch the traffic roll in. Nowadays obtaining a ranking in the top 10 for most keywords is very competitive and not only is your onsite content still important, but what you can´t see is even more critical. What you can´t see without using special tools are the other sites that link to your site - these backlinks are paramount to getting you ranked in the top 10 at Google.

Backlinks are hypertext links from someone elses site that links back to your site. These links can be in the body of the text, they can be in the site´s footer or the left or right navigation bars. If you´ve ever looked at a blog, you will see what is called a Blogroll, these are a great example of a link back to someone´s site, many bloggers exchange blogroll links to boost their search engine results, often referred to as the SERPS.

Also, it´s not just the link that is important, it is the anchor text of what is included in your link. For example, if you sell cedar planters, you would want the link back to your site to include text related to cedar planters. This descriptive anchor text tells Google that your site is about cedar planters and next time someone searches for cedar planters, you get credit for that search.

Not all links are created equal, links that are deep in someone´s site are often less useful than a link from someone´s home page. However that´s not always the case, if I was offered a deep link from a web site with authority like the New York Times I would take that in a heartbeat.