I am trying to find ways on how to optimize my website so that I can get in the top 10 rankings. I have been reading tons of posts but in some ways am more confused than before I started reading so I am going to put some of the questions to you and see what answers come up. Firstly my metatags are 100% according to metatag analyzers. Secondly I have a PR4 ranking. Despite this I am still not in the top 100 on google (actually I'm not sure where I am in googles rankings) so I'm not sure what I am doing wrong or what I still need to do. I know getting on directories and building links is important which I am doing at present. So here are my questions: 1) I have seen much reference to backlinks. Now I might sound stupid but what exactly is a backlink? Is there a difference between that and a recipricol link or a standad link from a directory or website? 2) The program I use generates an html page and an htm page for the index page. All other pages are just htm. Someone once commented that having two index pages could cause problems. Would that affect search engines and if so which would be the better to have. 3) I have seen much reference to Wikipedia and would like to know how much does posting articles there affect your ratings. 4) How important is having a blog and does this affect ratings at all. Just some questions I have.
Backlinks are very important to a website and it drives your ranking up fast. Backlinks are an exchange of linkage between you and the secondary party. You place his/her link onto your website and he/she in return places your website link onto theirs. But its not that simple. Why? You need to find links that already has a PR or PageRank and getting the other party to exchange with you. Usually a website with a PR3-PR5 will exchange with you for free or at a low rate, but a PR6-PR10 is like asking Bill Gates to use his house in Washington for the weekend. A friend of mine by the name of Brad Callen has a free newsletter that is very powerful in showing you the steps to do REAL optimization. You may also find many good ideas here as well. Content is King. Articles are content. Blog is an important tool to have also. Have fun.