Business websites are a necessity in today's society and the internet is only as good as its links. Without links, the internet simply would not be able to exist. To ensure a quality World Wide Web continues, you must provide links that your customers might be interested in. Linking to other sites helps tell the customers which products you use and trust. It also forms a bond of trust between you and other sites. Moreover, it can improve your own site by associating with other products that customers both know and trust and by giving you an increased level of visibility. There are two kinds of links you should include in your site. You should include a general links section for the benefit of your customers, and you should include a reciprocal links section to help you and other businesses as well as your customers.

There are several ways to decide which general links to include in your site. You might start by visiting competitor’s web sites. Check out their links section to understand what sites they provide links for. This might help you figure out what your customers are looking for. It might also provide you with a good base for a reciprocal linking system, which will be discussed in the next lesson.

Another way to decide what general links to include in your site is to consult with your customers. Internet-savvy customers will be able to tell you what they look for in a professional site and what they like and do not like about your links. This can help you control the quality of your links section. You could do this through a survey or by simply informally interviewing your clientele.

Be sure to provide general links that have a high page rank with internet search engines. This will increase your web traffic. You can do this by typing a key phrase in a search engine and look at the highest ranked pages that match your results.

General links are great, but reciprocal links are an essential part to the promotion of your website. You have a strong site that offers your quality product and you want people to know about your site. To make sure that you get the traffic you need, you must have other sites directed toward yours with links.

This process is fairly simply, but there are many ways to engage in reciprocal linking.

First, research the sites you might want to link to. You might start this process by making two lists. First, list the sites you think your customers might be interested in. For now, just write, you can consider narrowing your list down at a later time. Next, create a list of sites that would benefit your site. You can then compare the two lists and see what they have in common. Compile a list of common subjects, and list out three key words to fit with each subject.

After the research phase, it is time to go online. Find a Meta search engine and input all three words for each subject. Any site that comes back with all three keywords should be high on your priority list.

Once you've done that, it is time to start sifting through your results. Bookmark any sites that look promising.

When you've made your final choices, it is time to draft a letter to the webmaster of each site you're considering. Get to the point quickly and sell your site to them. Do not follow up if your original letter was not responded to.

The final step in this process is to negotiate the link and location in terms of both sites. As soon as possible, get their link on your site and send them a note letting them now you have a live link to their site. Check their site frequently to ensure they are upholding their promise to you as well.

The entire process of choosing links and reciprocal links increases your visibility to customers. Not only will they be able to find you through the use of a search engine, they will now be able to find you through the use of other websites. This can mean nothing but good things for you and your website.

Almost all of the most useful sites on the web use databases to organise their content, and they often use them to allow users to register and leave comments too. Any time you do something that a website seems to 'remember' the next time, the chances are that a database is involved.

Yet, despite how common databases are, they aren't very well understood. Every day, new webmasters become database administrators without even understanding the first thing about databases. When you use a database on the web today, you're not just using any database: you're using ones that rely on concepts built up over decades of database development and proven effective. Here are some of those concepts.

Relational Databases.

The most common database model in use today is that of the relational database – others include hierarchical databases (where data is organised in 'trees', like an organisation's management structure), and flat file databases (where data is stored in 'records' in a text document).

In a relational database, data is stored in tables. The columns are called fields and the rows are called records. So, for example, a table might have two fields: firstname and lastname. If you then added a record to this table, it could be 'Bob' and 'Smith'. Instead of just having that data, you have labelled it with what it is, and that lets you refer to it and search through it much more easily.

Where the 'relational' part is really significant, though, is when it comes to the way tables in a database relate to the other tables. Each record of each table has an ID number (technically known as the 'primary key') – for example, the Bob Smith record might be ID number 123. This then lets you refer to his record in a new table.

Let's say you were storing records of people's orders. You could have two columns: customer number and date. This lets you simply store 123 and the date in the table each time Bob Smith orders from you – the relational nature of the database will tell you later on that customer number 123 is Bob Smith. When it comes to things like, for example, storing posts made by multiple authors, this is powerful.

SQL Databases.

SQL stands for 'Structured Query Language'. It's the most popular language for making queries to relational database systems. What's a query? It's basically a way of asking the database to find a record for you that matches criteria you specify.

Let's go back to our example firstname and lastname table – let's say the table was called 'names'. To get Bob Smith's name in there to begin with, we would have used SQL that looked like this:

INSERT INTO names VALUES ('Bob', 'Smith');

The ID number would be assigned automatically be the database. Then, later on, if we wanted to find out who customer 123 was, we could run this SQL:

SELECT * FROM names WHERE id = '123';

This would get us customer 123's record from the database – Bob Smith's record.

SQL might look complicated, and it can be, but that complexity is helped by the fact that there aren't very many SQL commands you're likely to ever need. Really, most websites can get by with just these statements:

CREATE. Used to create new database tables. You have to tell the database which fields (columns) you want, and what kind of data (text, dates, etc.) each field is going to contain.

SELECT. This command is used to search tables. You can use operators like = (equals), < (less than) and > (greater than) to find the record you're after. For example, if you wanted to find all your sales this week, you would work out the date a week ago and use SELECT * FROM sales WHERE date > – that is, "find all records in the sales table where the date is greater than…".

INSERT. Lets you add new records to the table.

UPDATE. Once you've inserted data, update lets you modify parts of it. Useful if, for example, Bob Smith tells you he'd prefer to be known as Robert Smith. Update lets you change the data without having to delete and re-insert it, which means that records get to keep their existing ID nun

DELETE. Removes existing rows from the table, using the same basic syntax as SELECT.

Alexa is a very powerful tool, used to rank website traffic. The relationship between how Alexa rates your website and how popular your website is, however, isn’t as obvious as it might seem. You need to consider your website’s ranking, links, traffic, and many other factors. Many of these factors are hidden and known only to the most experienced Alexa users.

Do other websites link to yours? If you want Alexa’s attention then you should make sure that they do. Don’t worry: usually, all you need to do is ask, as long as you offer a link to their site in return. Remember that your links need to be relevant to your site – don’t take links from an unrelated site, as they won’t be counted. However, if the links are on sites that don’t get much traffic, then Alexa will never hear about them.

The fact of the matter is that relevant links are helpful to your visitors. Search engines want to know if a site is worth going to. If it is, they are happy to index it in a higher spot. This is a general rule of thumb that you should keep in mind at all times when performing SEO operations. The difference between a site with a moderate search results and a site with high search results is that the site with the higher results is generally more user friendly. Alexa Ratings and other rating systems try to emulate how a visitor will see your site. Once they’ve determined the worth of your site to a visitor they index it accordingly. This is why it is so important to have relevant links. If you are linking to sites that your users would find interesting, Alexa will enjoy it.

By targeting sites that are similar to yours, but not exactly the same, you’ll get relevant links that Alexa will like. The best sites to link to are with content that complements your own. For example, if your site is dedicated to rock and roll and you link to a guitar sales web site, you’ll probably get traffic flow back and forth. One way of ensuring relevant information is to link to yourself from other sites that you own: why try to hunt down other webmasters if you have 20 or 30 websites of your own you can use? Traffic flow is the biggest factor, however, as most of what Alexa does is traffic-based.

After comparing your site to the other ones it ranks, Alexa will assign your site a ranking number. The higher that the ranking number is, the better traffic you are receiving. Many search results utilize Alexa Rankings in indexing their results, therefore, if you have a high Alexa Rating not only are you already getting a good deal of traffic, you will begin to accumulate even more traffic. If you’d like to see your Alexa rating, all you need to do is go to alexa.com and enter your domain name.

You can also view Alexa rating using the Alexa toolbar, which lets you see how much traffic the site you’re currently visiting has. For example, you might be considering whether you should exchange links with a site. If the site you’re considering has no traffic then a link exchange won’t be worth your time and it may even have an adverse effect on your Google Pagerank which is at least as important as your Alexa Rating.

Using the Alexa ranking system allows you to compare the traffic of your site or other sites with the traffic of the web as a whole. Number 1 is the top rank, so the larger the ranking number, the lower the traffic is likely to be. Let’s say that your site’s rank at Alexa is something like 1,578,459. No matter how professional the website looks, or how high the Google PageRank is, your website just doesn’t have much traffic – in fact, Alexa knows of 1,578,458 websites that have more traffic than you do.

It is, however, important to keep in mind that a high Google PageRank will almost certainly increase your traffic. If you have a high Google PageRank and a low Alexa Rating, your site is probably new to the internet. It will take your visitors some time to find the site via Google and the links from other sites. Generally, the Alexa Rating is the second rating that SEO managers should worry about. The Alexa Rating is very useful in analyzing a comparison between your site and others, but you must also keep in mind that because Alexa ranks sites based on visits by users who utilize their toolbar, these ratings can be inflated or under-stated..

So you've decided that it might be best to leave web design to the professionals, have you? Well, the unfortunate thing about web design professionals is that not all of them are exactly professional. Some of them are working from wildly out of date knowledge, and, well, some of them are working from their parents' basement.

How can you protect yourself when you decide to hire a professional? Well, here are some guidelines.

Qualifications are Meaningless.

Web design is a new enough industry that what qualifications there are have ended up being largely stupid and meaningless. I've never met a good designer who has a qualification in web design – a qualification in proper graphical design is, of course, something else entirely. You can guarantee that most people with web design qualifications did them at a community college to try and get rich during the dot-com boom. These people know nothing about web design.

What you should pay attention to when you're looking at web designers is which of their skills they think are important. If they're marketing their Flash expertise to you, you probably don't want to hire them. If they can competently explain what XHTML and CSS are and why they're good for your website, then they're a better candidate.

The Portfolio.

The easiest way to tell whether the designer you're considering is any good or not is to take a look at their portfolio. Good designers will have a diverse portfolio, with plenty of attractive sites that they've built for all sorts of customers, and they'll be able to explain to you why they built each site the way they did.

If the designer doesn't have a substantial portfolio yet, you shouldn't write them off there and then – but do say that you're going to need to see something before you commit yourself. A good designer will happily do a first-draft design for one of your pages just to show themselves off. If you're happy with what they've done, then the chances are that they've got the rest of the design in their head, ready to code up and send to you.

Usability is Vital.

You should make sure that the designer you're talking to realises that they're building your website for users – all users, no matter how they want to use it or which web browser they have. Amateur web designers have a tendency to come up with things that they think are impressive-looking, either visually or technically, while ignoring who the website is actually for – your visitors.

Some questions to ask the designer include: Which browsers are you going to test with? (They should reply with 'as many as possible'). What is the purpose of my website? (They should be able to explain the point of the site simply).

Setting a Price.

Many web designers simply have no idea what kind of price to charge for their services. If you post a project to a freelance site where designers can bid on it, you'll get bids ranging from $50 to $5,000. Both ends are pretty obviously ridiculous. At one end, you've got kids with no experience and Indians who don't speak English; at the other, you're paying pointless committees to have meetings for a week.

Your best bet is to find someone professional but independent, experienced but not corporate, and with a price that reflects the quality of their portfolio. As with all things in life, though, don't be afraid to negotiate – and never agree to let them do however much work it takes and pay by the hour.

Hosting Offers.

Finally, beware of web designers who are trying to sell you a whole package, together with a domain name, web hosting, and the rest. Operations like this are almost always flawed in one area or the other, since designers aren't really very technical people on the whole. They'll either be web hosting specialists who think design is so easy anyone can do it, or they'll be designers who are reselling some cheap hosting package for a premium. On the web, it's better to buy hosting yourself.

What can you do if your keywords are too common? Is there anything that can help?

Well, for a start, including misspellings in your meta tag keywords could help you to get visitors who don’t know how to spell or those who type too fast – this traffic is just as good as any other, after all. How many people do you know that use a dictionary when they don’t know how to spell a word? I certainly can’t think of many. Including misspellings will help you to some extent, but it probably will not provide you with a drastic improvement in traffic especially considering that many search engines now have built in spell checkers so that if a user spells a word incorrectly it asks “Did you mean <correct spelling>?” You can use tools like WordTracker to find out which misspellings are the most popular, and target those.

Try to think on the same level as your users, not always like a webmaster. Thinking like the average person will make you more successful – you should constantly remind yourself to think like the average person when you’re trying to pick what words people will use to find you. If you can get into the mind set of a lay person and think “What would I type into the search box if I was looking for the content on this web page?” You probably come up with the key words that are most important. Think of each group within your audience and try to come up with realistic search queries. Entering each word from these queries into your meta tags should help you substantially in terms of increased search engine traffic.

One of the things that will set you apart from the rest of the world is learning the special language of your trade. When you learn about your chosen trade, you start using acronyms and other words that would be foreign to most people, but mean something to the people who would be searching for you. Words that people outside your industry would search for aren’t the same as ones that people inside it would search for – targeting jargon words can help you to get highly-targeted traffic with little competition.

Another thing that will set you apart is using words that someone unfamiliar with your trade would use in an attempt to find content regarding your trade. You can’t target your site only to those who already know a good deal about what you have to offer. Your content probably won’t be fresh to people who are experienced in your field so you are much more dependent on your products at that point. If, however, you are able to target people who know little or nothing about your particular trade, you will be able to generate a good deal of traffic and probably move a sizable amount of inventory.

One last, but very important, method of providing good key word is to discuss the subject of your site with others and observe their reactions to your language. If they seem to suddenly understand what you are saying, that phrase may be a good one for your key words. Talk to your friends, your family, and other web masters about your subject and see what language is generally associated with your subject. This language is generally the correct language to use when generating your key words.

The most important thing to keep in mind when attempting to come up with unique key words is that there are huge groups of people out there who are interested in your goods but have not been targeted by other sites. These markets (known as niche markets) are basically ripe for the picking. If you can come up with a group that would be interested in your product but has not been targeted thoroughly by your competition, you will be able to drastically increase your traffic and/or sales. The ability to identify and target niche markets is an art and it can be developed by any truly dedicated marketer, but you have to be observant and patient in order to come up with valuable niche markets. After all, you are attempting to do what nobody has done before!

As an SEO, you will constantly be fighting with your key words. You will be trying to come up with more interesting or unique key words, and you will be trying to implement them more smoothly into your web page. The fact of the matter is that this takes time and practice. You have to get thoroughly engrossed in the community surrounding your market. Check out some forums relating to your market, look at the common forms of media coverage such as magazines and books. There are possible key words everywhere just waiting to be exploited for the sake of increases in your traffic and sales.