One of the key ingredients that most search engines use when ranking web sites is the number of incoming links. Google is well-known for using this formula when ranking web sites according to the keyword searches.

Let's take a look at 2 key components in the search engine ranking formula.

1. Incoming Links

Incoming links mean a link from another website, let's say website (B)to your own website (A).

Website B could be your own, or it could be another person.

Generally the higher the number of incoming links, the higher your website will rank in the search engines.

2. Anchor Text

Anchor text actually refers to the keyword that is being used in linking back to your web site.

For example, let's say you have a site on dieting tips. At the time of writing this article, there were a total of 3.5 million competing websites on Google for the keyword "dieting tip".

A search at Overture reveals there were 2121 searches done in April 2006 on the keyword "dieting tip".

If you want to rank high for the keyword "dieting tips", then you need to get lots and lots of incoming links to your dieting tips website.

However, having many incoming links alone is insufficient to ensure a high ranking for your targeted keyword.

You have to ensure that the keyword or anchor text used in linking back to your site is "dieting tips".

This will add even greater weightage to your ranking for the keyword "dieting tips" in the search engines.

So how does a blog fit into this picture?

When used properly, blogs have the power to help you leapfrog in terms of your keyword rankings.

There are basically two three ways to increase the number of incoming links to your website so that you can increase your keyword ranking.

a) The first method is to email other website owners asking them to link back to your site using the right anchor text, which is basically the keyword that you want to target.

If done manually, this task might be a quite time consuming.

There are software in the market that helps you look for link partners as well as to automate the sending out of emails to these blog or website owners to request and ask them to link back to your site.

However, having said that, there is still the waiting time factor. You'll have to wait for the blog or website owner to respond, and he/she might not necessarily accept your request for link exchange.

b) The second method is to buy or purchase incoming links.

Well, if you have the money, you can always buy links to your website.

This method is fast but can be quite costly.

c) The third method that I want to share is creating your own incoming links with Blogs.

If you're using a free blogging service like Blogger, technically you could create hundreds of blogs. Then you could make a post to these blogs and insert the keyword that you want to target and link it back to your main website, in this case the "dieting tips" website.

There are already software in the market that allow you to create hundreds of blogs at one go, as well as to automate the posting.

The end result is an increase in the number of incoming links containing the target keyword. Within weeks, you can see your ranking easily jump up to the top three positions.

This technique might not go down well with 'white hat' search engine practitioners, who believe in getting incoming links the proper way.

However, in this article I merely want to point out the method and technical feasibility of dominating any keyword you want.

A top ten ranking in the search engine means more visitors to your website and definitely more subscribers.

If you have a subscriber box you can capture this visitor's email address by offering a free course or some incentive to sign up. Once the visitor joins your list, you can then follow up with them using an auto responder.

What entail then is of course more sales for your online business.

Imagine how powerful this method is and what it means to your profits and bottom line?

One of the key ingredients that most search engines use when ranking websites is the number of incoming links. Google is well-known for using this formula in ranking web sites from the search results of specific keyword or keyword phrases.