I found the comments on this video to be particularly interesting. Especially this one from vxcriss.

“If you would be God, and you would be able to instantly visualize all the web pages on the Internet that contain information related to a search phrase, you will probably find thousands of pages with exactly the same information on them, but in different wording. How would you determine which ones deserve to be listed in the first 10? Throw a coin? Relevancy only works to a certain point, between the relevant pages, there has to be a competition to determine the winner. Meet the back links.”

I think this person is completely correct. Getting links to your site is a popularity contest especially if your content is good. There are a bunch of other people out there who are probably saying the same thing as you using different words and the above comment sums up the struggle of getting on the front page beautifully. Here’s the video that provoked the comment.

I think it’s a tough question to answer when you consider the fact that big business have the funds to pay for getting their links out there.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

I thought I might share some of the things the average webmaster can do to get higher page rankings and believe it or not they’re free methods that are very easy to do.

The first method, which is one of the first strategies that I was introduced to is article marketing. This is a fantastic way to get traffic to your site. You research an article and write it around key words which you have researched. Your article must be original and helpful to the reader but you don’t tell them everything. The bio in the article is the key to this and contains a well written spiel that will prompt the user into action. You are usually allowed to put a couple of links back to your site to promote whatever it is your writing about. The best method in my opinion is to include a link back to a posting that covers the same information but is not a copy of the article submission (you don’t want to get penalized for duplicate content) and a link back to the home page of the site. Write a compelling spiel that will kick start the reader into action.

Article submissions can have a double whammy effect on your traffic. Number one is the immediate traffic injection from readers clicking through to your site which is never a bad thing. The other whammy is that if you have chosen your article site wisely then you now have a couple of back links on a high PR site which can only help your site rise higher in the SERP’s. Do an article a day and it shouldn’t take long for you to see results and get tons of that lovely traffic.

The other method which is easier but takes longer to see a benefit is to comment on blogs that are related to your niche. Find a blog, read a posting on that blog and comment on the blog. You’re usually not allowed to blatantly advertise in the comments section but you are allowed to put a hyperlink in the name you have chosen to display on the comment. These are picked up by Google and consequently your site ranking should increase slowly but surely. Make sure you post a meaningful and insightful comment as most blogs are moderated by the owners. You’ll just give yourself a bad name if you write any old crap. Do this a few times a day and you will slowly start to see your traffic increase through being higher in the search results.

The third method is similar to the above but you concentrate on forums relating to your niche. As before don’t go in there with a sell sell sell attitude. Not only will  get your post  deleted but you may also get banned. It works best if you have a helpful attitude and gain the respect of the readers. Eventually they will see that you have something of value and will click through to find out more about you.

That’s it. Simple, cheap and doable every day.