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I know that there are several components in marketing ones website and they should be the following:
1) Search Engine Promotion
2) Affiliate Programs
3) Adwords - Paid Inclusions
4) Link Development
So it is all about the pages being optimized for the SE, paying campaigns in popular SEs, other websites linking back to you with good PR.
Question 1:
Are there any more that I have missed out?
Question 2:
Within Search Engine Promotion, some say word density isn't important...then what is?
Question 3:
Within Link Development, some say they don't do reciprocal link...then how do they achieve higher PR? I don't know if my understanding of PR is right, but isn't higher PR acheived when more people see your site is valueble and want to link to you? Of course there is the issue on linking to lower PR pages that can weigh you down. Why is that? Please advise anything about Link Exchange as it is a whole mess to me .. link inbound links and outbound..what are they?
Question 4:
Why are some people so unethical when all we want is the same thing - to get our sites found my our audience. Let's say I request for a reciprocal link from a site. Why do some webmasters prefer not to link back. My site has a PR of 5 (which happened accidentally - don't know how its done). Someone should start a site for members(don't care if it we pay a little to join) but it allows legit members to link to each other (must be some moderator of course to keep the baddies away). By the way anyone legit wanting to trade links, sticky me.
Question 5:
What is the best way for a new site to gain higher PR. Does it only have to do with Link Development or is does Search Engine Optimization play an important role? What if you start with 0?
Do you have any more 101 info that we can learn from or should know about? Please help!
ps: Appreciate if you could reference your answer to the Question no.
A2:Keyword density is important, but it's not the biggest thing. Sure, Dell.com can get #1 for "computers" without having it once on their page, but most of us aren't dell.com. You're going to need to pepper your text with your keywords. The controversy comes from how much is enough, how much is too much? Opinions range from 3% to 15% for optimal keyword density, some say 15% will get you a penalty. I don't think you'll ever be able to get a unified opinion about that, you'll just have to try things out until you find what works for you.
A3:Link development is a big part of the major SEs algo. Getting quality inbound links is tough, especially for newer sites. Most small new commercial sites will need to exchange links unless there is a huge budget to buy text links. Submitting your site to the thousands of directories that accept free link submissions is an important step for smaller sites. The dream of every SEO-conscious webmaster is that their content is so good that everyone will link to their sites willingly; this involves luck and hard work to make the kind of site that other webmasters will want to naturally link to. Webmasters who state they don't exchange links but try to SEO their site are either spending money to get the links, have that killer site that naturally gets great links (this site would be an example), or are not very successful.
A4:Webmasters can refuse to exchange links for countless reasons. On the sites I do exchange links on, I decline 9 out of 10 requests/submissions. Those 9 just get deleted, I don't waste my time responding explaining why; if they had a clue, they'd figure it out on their own and stop putting my link on a page with 250 casino, viagra, and bali hotel links, then expect me to give them a link. Now if you're talking about the junk that goes on like is being discussed in that "Dark side of link exchanges" (or whatever its called) thread that is floating around, there is no excuse for that. Webmasters agreeing to exchange links then deleting the link a month later or any of the other sneaky tricks are pains, keeping up with your link partners is part of the expense of trading links.
A5:Only inbound links directly effect PR. PR is just a mathematical function of inbound links. That said, it might be easier to grow your business and attract more inbound links which will raise your PR by doing the other promotional things.
Anyway, those are opinions, there are plenty of people who can offer counter-points to all of my answers. The trick is to keep reading, keep experimenting, and make up your own mind.
do different things on different sites. search results ebb and flow anyway. eggs and baskets comes to mind.
use your head, read between the lines in this forum, there is a good mix here between the GENUINE leaders in their field (not always the members with lots of posts either) and people who actually are giving wrong (knowingly or unknowingly) information
in suppliment to flood6 excellent answers i would add...
A1
>>So it is all about the pages being optimized for the SE, paying campaigns in popular SEs, other websites linking back to you with good PR.
No, its all about getting the RIGHT visitors to you site (right is a variable depending on your business model)
A2
the more competitive the market you are in, the more important the details. word density is just one of many details/factors.
A3
>>Of course there is the issue on linking to lower PR pages that can weigh you down. Why is that?
it isn't true
A4
what you suggest is called a link farm. think of how to make people WANT to link to you
A5 ask google themselves [google.com]
