Some time ago I saw an image which represented the weights of pages in the search engine optimization process. It gave the highest weight to the ordinary pages and it considered zero weight for the main page. Is this right for any SEO?

I don’t think so. Let me explain the mistakes of the previous theory. All pages are well-optimised for two or three word phrases and these word phrases should attract visitors. OK, this isn’t a bad idea, but where is the optimisation for one word phrases? This optimization process will result in many visitors and good income, but it won’t mean getting the most visitors. You probably know that people still search for one word phrases at first. Only about 40%-60% of internet users search for two word phrases. In some areas, this number’s value is only about 20%. It all depends on the competitor’s structure, including the number of search results, the quality of given pages, and the availability of free services in the area.

Let me give you an example. You have a site dedicated to SEO. Your site is new, so you could focus on three word phrases at first. But don’t forget to implement the one word phrase strategy. Imagine that you want to be no.1 for the phrase ‘free SEO services’. Now, you should complete the on-site optimization process as well as establishing a few quality links pointing to your site. If you’re experienced in SEO, you know that all inbound links should contain your keywords/phrases. Working this way will result in incoming visitors and raising your site’s popularity. Even if you get top10 rankings for the chosen phrase, you will get better rankings for the phrases which are included in the links names pointing to your site. In our case, you will get better rankings for the phrases ‘free SEO’, ‘SEO services’ and ‘free services’. It’s simple. Generally, you must establish two times more links in order to get top10 positions for two words phrases. Continuing this calculation, you will find out that you need about four times more links in order to get top10 positions for one word phrases. Of course, this might be a very hard task, since the top positions for one word phrases are usually taken by very old and quality rich sites with a great pagerank.

So what would you do if you want a complete SEO on your new site? Firstly, focus on a real quality content. Take your time and spend two months on writing the original content. Don’t expect a high income in a first few months. A website is a business. Some businesses need ten or more years to get the investments back. Of course, a website is the cheaper option. So only if your site has really quality content, start with building links. Why only if your site offers quality content? It’s because many webmasters would like to link to websites offering huge content available free of charge. Even if this looks like an easy task, bear in mind that your website should be dedicated to the area where you’re skilled at. Don’t write about printers if you don’t know anything about them. Basically, you can start a site dedicated to printers even if you don’t know anything about this area, but you will need to study something about them.

So your site has a huge content, it offers a free membership, it includes many features. Now you should start with link building. As above, focus on the one word phrases, but include these one word phrases in logical and natural link names. For example, don’t call your link ‘SEO’, because you will find out that many webmasters will change its name into ‘SEO site’, or ‘SEO website’, or ‘SEO dedicated website’. This way, you will lose some links, because search engines will consider the words ’site’ and ‘website’ as very important for you even they’re not.

I guarantee you that one hundred or more incoming links will bring you a good amount of visitors even if it won’t mean beating the competitors. Your main page should contain the phrases you’re focusing on. But the main page isn’t the only one you want to get the most from, so include your phrases on the rest of the pages. In the sense of creating a good site, don’t forget to link to the main page from the other pages of your site. Imagine that your ordinary pages which include content, will send phrases to the homepage via links. On the other hand, don’t try to stuff all links but use only natural looking content, however you could play with the link names.

Generally, your content pages will bring the visitors to your site. If you use my strategy properly, then the visitors will come to your site through the homepage too. It’s necessary to bring more people to your site via the homepage, because people who visit a site and only see some article, will usually exit from it. From my experiences, people like to open the homepage first and if they find your site interesting, they stay and they surf it. On the one of my webpages, about 20%-30% of visitors exit it when they visit the homepage. When they access my site through the articles and other ordinary pages, the exit percentage raises up to 60%.

The conclusion: Optimise your main page as if it was an ordinary page with some article. Always use natural looking content beside the quality links and quality anchor text. Build your site focusing on only one theme and bear in mind that people aren’t looking for everything on one place and it isn’t bad if your site is dedicated to very concrete theme. People will visit it, will usually find it very useful and they will come back. The content is the king! The links are the queen. And all doubles if they’re of good quality.