Perhaps the most important element in search engine marketing, especially when trying to achieve high search engine rankings in Google, is the number of highly relevant, quality inbound links you have pointing to your website. To refresh, a link (or hyperlink) is what we click on to travel from one website to another. Much like a popularity contest, the number of websites that have links to your website will tell the search engines how popular, or relevant, you are to a particular keyword phrase. In addition, the quality of the website that links to you, and the actual word or phrase used in that link, are just some of the other factors involved in the search engine’s link algorithm.

We’ll use examples again to help illustrate this concept. This time we have two websites that offer free dating advice. Both sites have been properly optimized for the keywords “online dating advice”, and are hoping to achieve high rankings in search engine results. Let’s see how each site’s inbound link building strategy will affect their rankings.

Website # 1 has gotten 27 links from other websites. Each of those websites simply used the words “dating website” to describe Website # 1. Most of the websites linking to website have nothing even remotely relevant to online dating.

Website # 2 has gotten 400 links from other websites. While the text for each site varies, most are using the words “online dating advice” to describe Website # 2. In addition, most of these websites deal with information relevant to online dating or dating advice.

So which one will achieve higher search engine rankings?

Again, Website # 2 would achieve higher rankings. In this case, Website # 2 has optimized links related to his targeted keyword phrase as well as a large number of quality relevant websites linking in to the site.

Now, as noted with Online Search Engine Optimization, Inbound Link Building and offline link optimization is a far more complex exercise than this example; but you see now how the two are used by the search engine to determine its relevant search engine results. As with other factors, inbound linking habits are constantly changing as the search engines evolve their ranking algorithms; it’s not as easy to get quality inbound links as it used to be. You see, search engines strive to produce highly relevant results to a keyword search. As more people understand and manipulate these results, the more complex the search engine ranking programs will work to provide quality content.

Ultimately, it is this quality content that proves to be the only lasting factor to real search engine success. With highly optimized, relevant content that is updated frequently, your website will get the attention it deserves. People will read and use your quality content, and if it’s good, others will link to it from their websites and your search engine rankings will improve.  It’s easier said then done, and can take weeks if not months to begin seeing results. So, while you’re waiting for your rankings to skyrocket, there is one to do in the meantime: enter a little form of advertising that’s made the search industry the new 800-pound gorilla in advertising: PPC.