It is hard to imagine do-it-yourself search engine optimization actually working. It is even more difficult to believe that it can be done using mostly free tools. But then that is one of the really wonderful things about the World Wide Web - there are so many different ways of skinning a cat or doing the same thing and knowledge can save you more than just a fortune.

Besides the truth is that so many web sites that are huge and popular today got where they are through the do-it-yourself search engine optimization efforts and skills of an individual.

Before delving into the techniques that can be used for search engine optimization, it is useful to appreciate what search engines really look for and the reason why most web sites find it so difficult to deliver.

What Do Search Engines Look For?

In most of the search engine articles you read these days, search engines are portrayed as being quite similar to some serial-killing monster with no clear motives other than to kill and destroy. For instance shock outrage and puzzlement are always expressed when leading search engines change their rules.

The problem is that most people forget that the competition between search engines today is so keen, such that their main motive can only be one thing - to become the leading search engine, and when they get there. To retain that position for as long as possible. It is rather obvious that to achieve this objective they have to remain very focused on the customer. The search customer or client, is the person using their favorite search engine to seek all sorts of information. Everybody prefers to use a search engine that is as quick and useful as possible in getting them the information that they seek. It's really that simple. All changes in policies and rules can only be driven by one thing and one thing alone - to become better in the eyes of he customer.

In deciding your page ranking, search engines will look for links to your sites and not just any links, but quality links meaning sites that have a higher ranking than you do. This tells search engines that other sites they rank highly are linked to you and therefore you must be a useful site and therefore deserve a high rank.

The Biggest Obstacle To Getting Enough Good Links To Please Search Engines

Folks are often advised to submit their sites to search engines and high pagerank directories. The problem is that many of these sites will charge you dearly for the privilege of being listed with them. Yahoo for example charges about $299 annually for a site to be listed in their high traffic directory.

The secret to bear in mind here and what most folks do not know, is that many of these sites that ask for so much money will list you almost immediately and for free if you have good quality links pointing to your site. It is that customer driven motive we were talking about again. Good quality links are links from sites that the search engine already ranks highly. The assumption here is that since you have received a vote of confidence from sites that are already held in high esteem by the search engines, then you are also bound to be a useful site that customers who use the search engine will find useful. The higher page ranking you will receive, as a result will mean better search engine visibility for you and naturally, much higher traffic.

Another strategy used to try and gain quality links is to make an effort to submit your site to various directories for free listing, but it will usually take months for one directory to accept your site.

A Powerful Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization Technique

The way to do it is to start off by creating a web page on your site with a list of links. The idea here is to be adding links to other sites on your links page in exchange for the sites doing the same for you. You will of course be careful to concentrate your efforts on getting links from high page rank web sites. It is advisable to find sites that are related to your product or service.

Usually, to make search engines happy, you should limit each reciprocal links page to 50 links only.

Most sites maintain their reciprocal link pages using LinkMan script from PHPJunkYard. You can download this php script from http://phpjunkyard.com. The really amazing thing about LinkMan script is that it allows a site's visitors to add their links immediately after they add links to the site on their own pages. What his menas is that using the LinkMan script you just need to find the desired sites, add their link to your reciprocal links page, and you can immediately add your link to theirs.

Be careful to meet the requirements of the LinkMan script one of which is to place a notice on your links page stating: "Powered by Link manager LinkMan 1.02 from PHPJunkYard - free php scripts."

The Easy Way To Find High Page Rank Sites

You can easily find sites using Linkman by searching on Google for the exact phrase; "Powered by Link manager LinkMan 1.02 from PHPJunkYard." You can also change the phrase to find sites using earlier versions of LinkMan.

Visit the link pages on the sites with a browser showing their Google pagerank. As soon as you come across a site using LinkMan that has a high Google page rank, simply add their link to your reciprocal links page and then add your link to theirs and you are done. You can then move on to find yet another site that you would like to link to.

It is difficult to beat this amazing, free and instant search engine optimization (SEO) technique that is quick, easy to use and extremely effective.

Article by David Callan. David is the leading search engine consultant with AKA Marketing.com's Search Engine Optimization team. AKA Marketing.com provide full SEO services as well as telephone based consulting for those preferring the DIY approach.