For a new web marketer Search Engine Optimization can feel overwhelming.  Everywhere you look (and read) there are new strategies, old strategies, strategies that help in the short term but could hurt you in the long term….maybe or maybe not and there are always companies willing to help you do it.  Taking some simple initial steps helps take away the “overwhelming” feeling and pretty soon you realize you know enough about SEO to be dangerous and successful with your online ventures.  Using Yahoo Site Explorer is a great first step.

I always say that SEO is like a High School Popularity Contest (think high school musical for a minute).  If everyone else says you are cool, you’re cool.  The football team’s quarterback is loved by all and even if you’ve been at the school a single day, because everyone else refers to Mike as the quarterback, you know Mike as the quarterback.  For websites, a fundamental rule of SEO is: what other people call you is what you will most likely rank for.  This is also where link building falls into play.

Blog posts about your product or service tell the search engines that people like your product (and your site).  Newspaper stories with a link to your product (on your site) tell the search engines that a trusted news source is describing your site a certain way.  Other sites linking to your site using words like “San Francisco Dentist” or “San Francisco Family Dental” (called anchor text) tells the search engines that you are a San Francisco Dentist.   Then search engines do their magic and when someone looks for a San Francisco dentist, they will look at what others are describing as a San Francisco dentist site, does that site have the content of a San Francisco Dentist site and how many other trusted sites recommend it as a San Francisco dentist site.  Now that we are all clear on “popularity” and how it relates to SEO, let’s talk Yahoo Site Explorer.

You know your competitors.  Go to Yahoo Site Explorer and insert their domain name (ie: www.jjcarlosdmd.com ranks #1 in Google for San Francisco Dentist) .  Click on the “inlinks” section (below):

click on the inlinks button