Anyone running a Website or Blog knows it's the prime directive and, at one time or another, everyone usually struggles with how to improve their visibility on the Search Engines Results Pages(SERPs).

Google get over 70% of the searches online, so it's the focus of most Internet Marketers Search Engine Marketing.

Each Search Engine indexes differently. Each uses a unique algorithm which they have designed to filter pages according to a unique set of criteria.

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is the pursuit of understanding the criteria and adapting strategies to comply to the Search Engines demands.

When a user searches an engines index, the algorithm judges and spits out a series of resulting pages which are ordered by how well each listing complies with the demands set forth by the engines algorithm.

Quite simply put - Each Search Engine rates each and every page online. These listings are generally referred to as Organic Listings but make no mistake about it - Search Engines have the power to list your domain or web page as the best listing, the worst listing, anywhere in between, or not at all.

Now this is all very dry stuff but because your site is judged and ranked, you had better comply or be prepared to fade away into internet oblivion. So you either learn SEO or pay for SEO Services or pay for an SEO Expert.

There are people who run into this roadblock, never get their head around it, and just quit. Some people, however, are not prepared to just go quietly into the night without a fight so they try to figure it all out for themselves. 

Other Online Marketers ignore the organic listings and turn to the world of Pay Per Click Advertising where they can buy their way to the top of the SERPs in the Sponsored Ads section. This is a whole new game and I'll get into it in another hub at another time.

But for now, I want to talk about Google because it is the Search Engine which handles the majority of searches on the web. If you've got any hope of getting ahead online, you have to understand Google and how to play their optimization game. You have to learn to do the Google Dance!

I guess you could say that Google wants to be the leader in Information Retrieval by providing the highest quality relevant information on the internet to it's users. Google at it's basis is an Information Retrieval System as are other Search Engines with their own set of criteria for answering queries.

If you head on over to the Technology Overview page on Googles Corporate Information Page, you'll get a good idea of the Google Goal.

There are two main ideas you'll need to understand to become a Google darling.

PageRank™ Technology: Google tells you exactly what PageRank™ is and how it influences their view of relevance. But to put this simply - Google believes that hypertext provides a citation to the destination url related to anchor text used to link out to that destination url. Some call these links BackLinks.

Hypertext-Matching Analysis: Again, you can read it yourself on the Google Corporate Information page but in plain words the concept is that Google analyzes every piece of your page content to make sure it's relevant. In other words - they compare words, headings, and the way your pages are categorized to access relevance.

If you look at the bare bones of the issue, the number one priority of Google is to provide best answers to queries that are ordered from the most relevant to the least relevant.

The first page is the gold standard and to get there the most important feature you are judged on is the relevance of your Link Profile to any given query.

So how do you use this information to improve your ranking in Google?

I'm sure you've read it over and over and over that you should be concentrating on building highly targeted backlinks to your pages. Well it's true but you'll need a plan, a Linking Strategy.

I've actually heard it said that anyone could get a blank page to rank number one for any term with enough backlinks to the page. I don't actually know if I believe it and it's a useless argument to begin with as a blank page is not worth the effort.

You'll also need to properly structure your site so humans and Google will love your content. This means that your page is google-bot-friendly and is easily consumed and understood by human readers.

I'm not going to say that content is king, but it is in the royal family.

A properly structured website with well-written content is a perfect recipe for success every time, especially when you have a killer link profile. 

So now that you know how much importance Google places on the linking structure of the web, you should have all the clues you need to plan a linking strategy. To form a successful strategy you'll need to gather market intelligence about the linking structure of the leaders in your niche.

Your first step is to identify the keyword terms you want to dominate and find out everything you can about where the top 10 listings are getting their links and what anchor text they are using and in what percentages.

Sounds like a lot of work doesn't it, it is, but if you are going to get to the top of the SERPs there is no other way unless someone at a huge authority site throws a few site-wide links your way.

So you must figure out where your competition got their backlinks. I use SEO Software for this task and there are several programs available to do it. There are also a few websites you can go to. And don't forget the various plug-ins for Firefox. All these methods will help you identify your competitors backlinks.

You also need to know the anchor text and the overall usage percentages. This can be hugely important because you link profile must appear natural and Google will access your profile against sites that they already trust.

Once you know the anchor text being used by your competitor, you'll incorporate these keywords, which is what they really are, in everything you write - your meta titles and descriptions, your headings tags, and your content.

Google scrutinizes your site to understand which search terms align with the words contained on your page and even the closely surrounding pages of your blog or website. They even go as far as mapping related word position to an exact reference location on your page.

That's right, Google knows which words are associated with search terms and where those related terms should appear on your page. Wow... sounds very complicated but don't worry.

The basic structure you should always follow for optimizing your page for content is to include your keywords in your Title Meta Tag and Your Description Meta Tag.

Although Google doesn't pay as much attention to Meta Keywords as you might think, you should still populate the Keywords Meta Tag with your main and related keywords.

When it comes to main keyword density within your page, your guiding principle should be the flow when read aloud. If it doesn't flow rewrite it until it does. A human must be able to read it easily. Incorporate the related keywords where appropriate.

When you structure your content it's always helpful to readers if you have headings and sub-headings which clearly focus the ideas within your overall topic. Google loves headings.

If you use a blog, use the tags as you would your keywords meta tag but using related keywords. This is a great way to incorporate long tail keywords you didn't use before in the meta tag.

The end game is to use Search Engine Optimization to get you on the first page of Google for your keywords. If you take advantage of all the clues Google provides you, you can certainly get there.

Information is a wonderful thing though, it can be a great asset and illuminate a roadmap to your success - Google domination, but information without action is entertainment so go do the work and put in the required effort and it will pay off.