This is the second in the 5-Part Series, “SEO Ranking Factors Unveiled.” If you missed Part 1you can read it here.

You can start a lively (sometimes heated) discussion at any gathering of affiliate marketers if you ask the question, “What are the five most important factors Google uses to rank websites?”

The guys at SEOmoz.org decided to ask the top SEO experts what factors search engine algorithms gave more weight in determining website rank. The results are interesting.

Seventy-three percent of the SEO experts said “Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links” has “very high importance.” In at a close second; (71%) of the SEO experts said “External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links) has “very high importance.”

External Link Optimization with Linkbait Strategy

Linkbait (or link-bait or link bait) is anything on your site that visitors will notice and link to. When sites link to your site they’re saying they value the content of your site and that they think visitors to their websites will be interested in it, too.

Lots of external links means that other sites consider your site valuable so the search engines consider it valuable (relevant) as well.

Creating linkbait isn’t rocket science. You create content that will be interesting to or valuable to your customer base, put it on your website. Then you let related websites (and the rest of the world) know it’s there through social media and industry related forums and blogs.

Linkbait can be:

• Insider information
• White papers
• “How-to” videos
• Interviews
• Ridiculous commentary
• Funny pictures or video

In Part 3 of the Secret SEO Ranking Factors Unveiled series, you’ll find out about the king of Internet marketing.