By Sharon Housley

Webmasters have far less control over the "off-page" optimization factors than they do the "on-page" optimization factors. Off-page optimization does, however, influence how a website ranks in search results, so it should not be ignored.

Use the following off-page optimization techniques to improve your website search engine ranking:

1. Keywords In Incoming Links

The anchor text used to link to the web page should contain important keywords or keyword phrases. The linking text is viewed as "contextual" by search engines.

2. Quantity Of Incoming Links

Search Engines will often monitor the quantity of incoming links to a website. A large quantity of incoming links is an indicator of popularity or importance, and the search engines will favor sites with a larger number of backlinks. Search engines use the volume of incoming links to give better ranking to more popular websites.

3. Quality Of Incoming Links

While search engines value quantity, they value the quality of the links even more. Backlinks from trusted and related websites matter more than a large volume of links in general. Whenever possible, solicit backlinks from trusted authority websites.

4. Timing Of Incoming Links

The gradual acquisition of links appears far more natural to search engines, and will not give the appearance that a webmaster is attempting to manipulate the ranking by gathering a large number of links in a short time frame. Try to spread the number of links obtained over time, rather than getting them all at once.

5. Varied Linking Text

Vary the anchor text slightly when possible, so that the linking appears natural to the search engines. The text used to link to a webpage should be varied.

6. Blog Commenting

When commenting on blogs, use a keyword phrase in the "name" box. That will often result in a backlink for which you have control of the anchor text.

7. Forum Posting

When posting in forums, include your keywords or phrases as part of your forum signature, as another way of encouraging backlinks.

8. Press Releases

Submit any press or media announcements to increase exposure and backlinks.

Each and every link back to your website can help the site rank better, so take the time to develop quality backlinks and optimize the anchor text to increase your search engine's ranking.

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll https://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll https://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.

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