So you have put together a great web site, with really useful content, added the Title for each page, also the description and keyword meta tags like the experts advise, and even sprinkled keywords in the body of the text - but now what?
If you read many of the SEO columns, the next step is to have as many one way and outbound (reciprocal) links associated with your site and instantly you will be golden with all of the search engines.
After all Google recently published their methodology for determining the worth of a site and way up there was: Link Popularity.
On the face of it then, joining many of the free link exchange programs, and contacting hundreds of similar sites to exchange links would seem to be the way to go - particularly if your budget is limited and you are willing to put the time in for the success of your site.
Why, there are even smart programs you can buy which will automate the task for you, and soon you will have literally thousands of web sites linking to your site - instant success with Google!
There is something seriously wrong with this scenario of course, not the least being that if this was all that was required, it would render useless the services provided by Google and the other search engines - they would just display a list that had nothing to do with the relevancy or quality of the sites.
Only who had won the game of securing the most links! The sad news, for those web owners and webmasters who would like to manipulate the system rather than position their web sites based on the real value of their site, is that securing or even buying in-bound links has to be part of an overall SEO strategy.
Even if you can afford it, you cannot simply buy top ranking by buying link your business and again, if you could, this would make search engine positioning quite meaningless.
So what is an effective overall SEO strategy? How can you be sure that buying links is going to pay off with good SE positioning, with increased traffic and, ultimately, higher sales and profits for your web site?
Most importantly, select the right experts to work with, in your SEO campaign. They will know not only what links to purchase but also how to do it - slowly and steadily for best results. Search engines will be suspicious of a sudden spurt of incoming links to your site.
And one other word of caution, as the manipulators think up new ways to fool the search engines, so just as surely the search engines will tweak their algorithm or methodology in assigning the worth of a site.