You’ve probably heard the terms Search Engine Optimization, Link Building, Social Networking, etc… But, do you know what they all mean? Most people don’t know the exact definitions but they’ve heard that they need to do these things to make their website succeed online. The truth is there are lots of different definitions for these terms floating around. Let’s clear a couple things up!

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a very broad term and encompasses many different areas and techniques. The desired end result is the same, to get a high position on the search results in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines.

So how do you do this? There are lots of things involved. Let us assume you have a perfectly optimized website already and you have lots of original content that uses all the correct keywords that best describe your products or services (if you don’t then that is what you need to start with).

The next logical step is to get the search engines to notice you! Once again there are several techniques to achieve this. One of the key things involved is called Link Building. Although it’s not rocket science, it is time consuming and does require a creative mind to think outside of the box. Basically Link Building involves posting links that lead back to your website from other relevant and popular websites.

Here are some things to keep in mind when building links:

1. Use relevant websites – if you sell shoes don’t request a link from one that talks about radios.
2. Only link from reputable sites – don’t request a link on a gambling or pornography site.
3. Ideally you should get links from highly ranked sites – pay attention to things like the amount of traffic they get, their positions in the search results and their Google PageRank.
4. Use the right keywords – make sure you are using keywords in your links that are related to you and the page they are pointing to.

There are SEO companies out there that promise lots and lots of links in a short period of time for little money. This technique works in the short term but in the end will only hurt you. The term for this is Link Bombing. The search engines look for this and will penalize you for it!

Ideally you want a steady amount of new links posted on a regular basis for a long term effect. The ideal way to do this is to use the Social Bookmarking websites (Digg, Delicious), Social Networking websites (Twitter, FaceBook) and Article Posting websites (Go Articles, Articles Base) to post your content. You can also use relevant directories and localized sites (community forums, etc…) to post links but these take a bit more work and planning.

The long and short of it all is that if you want to get to number one on Google or Yahoo then you need to Build Links to your website. If you don’t have the time to invest in this type of project yourself there are companies out there that can help.

Contact JSS Marketing today for a no obligation consultation. We charge a low monthly fee to write the content and post it online for you. We even provide you with access to keep track of the links we have posted and regular reports with your positions in the search results on Google, Yahoo and MSN. SEO and Link Building doesn’t have to be scary, we’re here to help you!