Don't obsess over your Google page rank.

There is a good bit the news floating around the internet about how many are loosing their page rank in Google due to the Panda algorithm updates. Somewhat hard to ignore when website traffic is the lifeblood of the internet marketer. Due to this, many are loosing focus on their main internet business but instead are working more on search engine optimization (SEO) for their affiliate marketing website instead of marketing their affiliate products.

An internet marketer should be aware of basic SEO guidelines for their affiliate marketing business so as to help, no hurt, their page rank but not obsess over it. In fact I've read that some sites will start loosing their positions if the Panda page rank system deems them to be overly optimized. This would include a higher than average use of keywords and back links, or anything well beyond what would normally be expected from the average internet marketer.

What are some of the basic SEO guidelines for an affiliate marketer.

Take a look at your web page. Each page should basically be on a different subject and keyword usage, and all original content. Meta Title, Meta Description, Meta keywords. This is what is shown on a search engine results page (SERP) when you perform a search. Keywords in those should match keywords used in the content of the page. No hidden text or links. Use anchor links pointing to your other domain pages in each document when appropriate.

Unfortunately a new site or sites less than one year old are put under more scrutiny than older sites so it is important not to do too much all a once. Having a sudden increase in back links will through up a red flag and not seem natural to the search engine. Your link popularity should increasing naturally over a period of time is what will improve your page rank. Also add a site map to your domain. XML is preferred but an html sitemap is fine. This helps the engines better navigate your site. Just do a search for a xml site map generator. Most are free and simple copy and past the results onto new page in your domain obviously called, "sitemap". You may be surprised to see you have more links than your realize.

Getting your page indexed. If you are an affiliate marketer then you should be writing articles with links to your pages. Article directories are of high PR value so generally your article is index by Google within hours, if not minutes. Google with see the links in the article or bio, follow it back to your pages, and index your site. Once your article is published then "ping" your article. This will alert other directories there is new content posted somewhere and they find your site the same way. Do the same with blogs, etc. Ping O Matic or Pingout are free services to ping your pages. Only ping for new or updated content.

Those are some very basic seo guidelines for affiliate marketing that should be done but what are some things not to do. I'll just list a few.

• Backlinks. Never buy or submit to services offering multiple links back to your pages. Free or paid. Is obvious and not natural. Most would be from poor and unrelated sites. Will drop you from the rankings as many are finding out now.
• Keyword Stuffing in Meta Tags. Repetitive keywords here doesn't help much. May get you dropped from the index. Just use natural titles and descriptions on the theme of your page.
• Hidden Text and Links. An old practice was to add many keywords on bottom of pages and make that text same color as page background. Not visible to reader but is to search engine. Worked for a time but will get you banned now. Same with hidden links. All links should be obvious. Not added to one letter or character.
• Duplicate content from other sites. Another No-No. Original content only.
• Fake content and Blog farming. Over time one could create hundreds of mini pages, stuffed with keywords with little content pointing to your site. Will get you dropped from the rankings.

These are just some of the basic SEO guidelines for affiliate marketers. Only choose quality sites to market your business which will give quality links and target traffic back to your domain. Google may be #1 now but they are not the only game in town. According to Alexa rankings Facebook is #2 and I hear they will be upgrading their search function soon. Yahoo, Bing, and a few other search engines are still big players in the business and all have different ways of indexing pages. Concentrating on marketing your business is what will make it a success, not where your page is indexed by a search engine.