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I’ve seen a lot of inaccurate information on search engine optimization on the web. Most of that inaccurate info comes from vague theory and not tested concept. However, there are some fundamentals to search engine optimization which will probably always remain true.

1. Use the 80/20 Rule When Doing SEO

Google says they have over 200 ranking factors in their algorithm. I suppose the same is with Yahoo with Bing. However, this should not scare you. If we take the 80/20 rule, we can conclude that 20% of those ranking factors contribute to 80% of the rankings.

From experience and some testing, many people have concluded that the 2 most important ranking factors are links and on-page optimization.

2. Build diverse links

One of the key factors to search engine optimization is building links. Not any type of links, but diverse ones from various domains. Search engines probably count a link from each domain as a ‘vote’ to the domain you own.

3. On-page optimization

I’ve noticed that on-page optimization (optimizing title tags, adding keywords and so on) is usually more important when you already have more links to your site. Anyway it is very important you have a basic understanding for on-page optimization strategies, which basically are: putting the keyword in the title and the body text.

4. Piggybacking is a great starting point to build links

Piggybacking means seeing where other websites get their links from and then figuring a way for you to get those links also. You can use tools like Yahoo Site Explorer and Linkscape for this purpose.

The more you do this, the more you’ll start seeing different patterns and even coming with your own strategies for building links.

5. If you do manual link building, diversify

Search engine will become very suspicious if they see only links from blog comments or forum signatures coming to your site. Make sure your diversify if you plan to build links manually.

6. Create link strategies that create a lot of opportunities

Link bait is a great example here. If you create a link bait article and it goes viral, you’ll attract thousands of visitors. A small percentage of them will be webmasters who will link to that article. This is what I call ‘creating a linking strategy that creates opportunities itself’.