If you’re serious about getting great ranking on Google you need to be serious about linking. Of course there are lots of ways to get links so we’ll focus on just the methods that are fast, low cost or free and get the best results. Here are three that can put you on top of Google in no time flat!

First let’s start with getting inbound links from directories. A link from a directory gets a lot of weight from Google because they value it as a form of endorsement. You’ve probably used some directories yourself, like Yahoo. Or maybe you’ve used some without even knowing it, like The Open Directory Project (DMOZ.org) that powers many of the most popular search engines, including Google!

Each directory is different and offers different options for obtaining links to your site. Here’s a rundown of how different directories will link to your site…

1.) Free Submission ‘ Just like it sounds. No charges for inclusion. DMOZ.org is the best one and powers Google, AOL and even Yahoo Search (not Yahoo directory.) Just be sure to follow their submission guidelines and pick the most appropriate sub category possible for inclusion. This is extremely important.

2.) Paid Submissions ‘ They charge a fee to review the submitted link and possibly list the page. You might pay a few dollars one time, a recurring annual fee or as much as the $300 that Yahoo charges for commercial site review.

3.) Reciprocal Link ‘ These usually require you to link to the directory before they will even consider linking back.

4.) Featured Link ‘ Your link gets a premium spot that you pay for.

5.) Featured Homepage Link ‘ This is a featured link on the homepage. As you’ve probably guessed, this can get real expensive.

Yahoo is easily the most popular (and most expensive) but it’s not the best. It’s been my experience that a free listing with DMOZ.org is worth more than a paid listing with Yahoo. Even though Yahoo is more popular as a directory that people actually visit, DMOZ is much more popular with search engines and carries a lot of weight. A "vote" from DMOZ is a big deal indeed.

Here are the five top directories offering free listings. Some even offer inexpensive expedited listing services or featured listings:

1.) dmoz.com

2.) directoryvault.com

3.) domaining.in

4.) getlistedrightnow.com

5.) visitalink.com

There’s a site that keeps an updated list of directories, but not all are free. You have to visit each to see if there is any cost. Go to http://www.topwebsitetips.com/FreeLinks-Directories.aspx and scroll down to the drop down box at the bottom of the page. Select your desired Google PR and search. If you want to avoid getting niche directories in the results, check the "General Directories Only" box after your first return set and rerun the search.

As a second option, you can also consider paying a submission service to get your site listed in the major directories. There are plenty that will do it for a reasonable fee. Just be sure they do the following three things:

1.) Manual submission only

2.) Verify that your site is not already listed

3.) Provide proof of submission (usually screen captures)

Just search Google for "directory submission service" and you’ll get plenty of options. I’ve used http://www.seonext.com/directory-submission.html in the past with good success. They offer a "slow submission" service that makes your link building appear more natural to Google and other top search engines.

And finally, there is no better way to get quality links than from a traditional reciprocal link campaign. This can be a time consuming step without automated software, but is very important.

Here are 10 steps to a successful reciprocal linking campaign:

1.) List the keywords you want to be found for.

2.) Draft a standard letter you can use to easily customize for each site (customization tips at the end.)

3.) Run a search on Google for each keyword and jot down the URL for each match returned (not just the homepage but the URL for the actual page you want the link from, which is the one that came up in the search.)

4.) Remove any direct competitors from the list.

5.) Go back through your list and find the contact info for each site. Record this information.

6.) Create a link to each page you want to get a link from. This should be from the most appropriate page on your site, not the homepage. Do not exceed 10 outbound links per page at most. The fewer, the better.

7.) Send the customized email with the considerations outlined below.

8.) Verify their backlinks.

9.) Remove any outbound links that do not reciprocate within a month or so.

10.) Check your inbound links every couple of weeks. Make sure you are still getting the links you earned and that the people linking to you have not moved you to a less desirable page.

Reciprocal Link Email Tips:

A.) Address the email to a person by name if possible.

B.) Start with a complimentary statement about what you like on their site.

C.) Introduce yourself and your site.

D.) Lead into why you feel your site is a good, non competing match (list benefits for them and their visitors.)

E.) Mention that you have already linked to their site and hope they feel a reciprocal link will be beneficial. Provide the URL to the page you linked from.

F.) Explain why you linked from the page you did and the anchor text you used to show you understand link strategy.

G.) Request that if they link back they use one of your anchor text suggestions along with the exact URL you want them to link to.

H.) Offer to change the link anchor text of their URL if they wish.

I.) Thank them genuinely for the time and sign with your first name to make it more personal and natural.

You can do all of this manually or invest in a good piece of software to do the difficult and time consuming work for you. Many SEO professionals (myself included) use SEO Elite (http://www.SEOeliteWeb.com) because it finds the best link partners, automatically gets their contact info and even manages entire campaigns. It’s also a link verification system and search engine rank checker so it covers all of my SEO needs nicely ($167.)

So whether you do the work by hand or invest in a time saving "instant gratification" SEO tool, the information in this article can help you to the top of Google in record time. Good luck!

SEO in Richmond? Definitely! Richmond businesses are getting more and more Web savvy every year. And although its not yet as big a business in Richmond as in Boston or New York, search engine optimization (SEO) is becoming much more important for local merchants.

Mike Small, founder of SEO Partner, has consulted for dozens of companies since 1999 – from Sidney Australia to Boston Massachusetts. More recently in the mix is Richmond Virginia, which has hundreds of businesses who can benefit from SEO.

So how does this affect you? That’s easy. The reason Richmond is getting more SEO aware affects just about every city in the US. Even if your business is local, your competition might be global. Case in point; one of my first local clients was a Richmond based florist who was losing most of his local floral deliver business to national Internet mogul 1-800-FLOWERS.com – That is, until we Trumped their position on Google and took the business back.

And the same thing affects local bakeries, candy shops, and even print shops. In short, SEO can help any company reclaim business and get a bigger piece of the local pie as well.

Knowing about such things as the rumored “Google Sandbox” in advance has a potentially huge advantage. It’s like knowing what pieces of cheap real estate will become worth a fortune in a matter of months.

As an optimization professional, you can research additional available domain names and make recommendations to your present customers on which to purchase. But try to avoid having them buy too many names if they don’t need them. In the late 1990’s this is one of the things that lead to accusations of “domain squatting” for some companies. And although though the domain’s they purchased were not a competitor’s branded or trademarked names, some of the rumors did public relations damage.

You also might want to consider personally buying some domain names that fall into any specific niche you find yourself working in regularly. Then you can have a number of domains available to clients when they need them.

Better still, if you can build a well-optimized site – that offers genuine value – it might be worth it to have a ready-made starting point that can be revised or for your clients. But be careful. Be sure not to do anything that might appear to be a “bait-and-switch” trick to search engines

We received a posting from a newcomer who writes “I got a proposal in an email that said an SEO company can guarantee me top placement for $149 per month. Is this a scam?”

Normally one of us would just reply to the thread but it’s such a good topic, I thought it should have a top spot.

In short – I am not able to say whether or not it’s a scam. I will say however that you really need to be careful with proposals like this. First of all, I don’t know how anyone can guarantee top placement on any search engine – unless they own it. And I don’t think the people offering this service own any big search engines. Which brings up a good point… What search engines can they guarantee placement on and for what keywords?

I suggest, that when dealing with any SEO professional – or wannbe – offering such a guarantee, you ask the following questions:

• What search engines will I attain top 10 listings in?
• What keywords will I get top listing for?
• Can I see your references?

If they don’t have good answers - forget it. And if they do have good answers, get it in writing.

OK, I just got an email asking “How can an seo company guarantee me top placement? Is that even possible? I mean, they don’t control the search engines, so I don’t get it.”

My response is this – Good point! It’s been my experience that most companies offering a “guarantee” are really offering more of a warranty – meaning that you would not pay full price unless you received what they agreed to provide. This, in my opinion is a fair business practice.

The guarantee or warrantee is typically a number of “top 30 rankings in five or more top search engines” or something to that effect. But buyers should be aware that the “top” rankings might be for useless keywords that were easy to rank for, such as your company name (which is often the domain name that could have been typed in directly without need of a search engine). This is just something to be aware of when agreeing to the search terms they guarantee.

I just got off the phone with a friend who wants to know where he can find the best deal on having an SEO specialist optimize his site. My first thought was Rent A Coder. It’s a place where you place a job request posting and freelancers bid to do the work for you. Each freelancer has a rating (1-10) and feedback you can read about to see if you are hiring the right person.

I’ve used them dozens of times of coding projects, writing assignments and even some marketing campaign work. I’ve even handled a couple SEO projects through them to test the waters.

One of the most amazing things I find is the difference in prices I see with each posting. For one SEO job in particular, I had proposals ranging from $25 to $1,200 – for the same job! I finally settled on a coder that said he could do it for $75 – and he did a fantastic job of tweaking my original SEO work (mine was all raw HTML and he added some ASP functionality and more). The site topped MSN in two weeks!