The road to success for most online businesses will be determined on how well they rank in the major search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of applying a set of methods and procedures aimed at improving website rankings within search engine listings. Although the array of methods to increase placement in the search engine result pages (SERPs) is vast and often confusing to new webmasters, there is one process that can easily be applied by just about anyone and will make an immediate impact.



One-Way Links That Are Relevant

A one-way link is created when a website links directly to your website and you do not link directly back to that particular site. Google and other major search engines place a lot of emphasis on one-way links. Think of one-way links as a form of balloting system. Each link that points to your website from another website is casting a vote of support for your site. The more one-way links pointing to your website, the more votes of support you have. As the number of votes increases, so will your Google PageRank and subsequently your search engine placement. It's also important to keep in mind the relevancy of the links. A link is considered Relevant if it is coming from a source that contains similar content or services and can be categorized into the same category as your own. Links of higher relevancy are weighted heavier in search engine algorithms, so your goal will be to try to obtain as many one-way relevant links as possible.

Directory Submission

Submit your website to as many directories as possible. The two heavy hitters are The Open Directory Project (ODP), more formally known as DMOZ, and Yahoo!. When submitting your website, be sure to read the rules for each directory carefully. It's important to place your website in the appropriate category that is most relevant to your website content.

Link Services

Perhaps the most effective method of achieving one-way links is to sign up for a link program, such as Free Links Direct (http://www.freelinksdirect.com) or Free Relevant Links. These sites maintain a system that provides a steady stream of links that increase month over month. It's important that one-way links come at a gradual pace as the search engine algorithms will view this as a natural progression. One mistake many users will make is to sign-up for a link directory where they go from 0 incoming links to 200 incoming links in one day only for that number to remain stagnant over the next few months. This is a huge mistake as you can possibly be penalized by the search engines. Websites need to show a steady progression of links to be the most effective. Services such as Free Links Direct are free to the user and provide one-way relevant links and a very solid service on which to start your link campaign on.

Article Submission

With any website, you get out what you put in. You'll want to promote your website as much as possible and get the word out that you're site is online and providing services, products, or information that internet users can't live without. A very effective way to spread the word about your website, while at the same time generating valuable one-way links, is to write articles and submit them to online article directories. There are literally thousands and thousands of websites that act as news agencies and article stores. Every time a website publishes your article, you increase your website exposure and extend your reach to more users. Perhaps just as valuable, you'll receive one-way links from each location the website is published. Manually locating and submitting articles can be tedious, to say the least. Fortunately there are some excellent free services that will make your job easier. Article Sender (http://www.articlesender.com) provides a free service that will blast your article submissions to a very large number of article directories and websites.

Blogs

If you have not already done so, start a blog. Blogs are a great source of information for users and offer more avenues to increase exposure of your website while creating a one-way link. Blogs also get indexed by search engines, creating yet another avenue to help increase your one-way links.

Testimonials

Companies will often post user testimonials on their website as a marketing ploy to instill trust into visitors so they can increase sales conversions. Find a site that provides a product or service you genuinely love and offer to write a testimonial in exchange for a link to your site. Chances are you'll find more than one website that will be more than happy to post your testimonial.

Of course, the best way to create one-way links is to let them come naturally. By providing quality content and a professional design, you'll be one step closer to achieving high search engine rankings as users link to you. Remember, you can't expect your site to be ranked in the top 10 overnight. Give yourself time, develop your content, keep things fresh and interesting, and always develop for the user. Success will come to those who focus on what's most important to their website; people.