Perhaps the best way to achieve top ranking with Google and other search engines is to attract a large number of relevant and authoritative links back to your site. Because Google, for example, interprets each link as a “vote”, the number of votes becomes key to evaluating (ranking) your website. When many sites provide links to a website, that website is understood to be significant. These links, however, should be relevant and from a reliable or authoritative source.

Many Black Hat search engines practitioners create “Free For All” sites with tons of links pointing to other sites. This tactic does little to increase traffic since in the majority of cases the originating site is neither relevant nor authoritative. How, ever, when an organization such as a local Chamber of Commerce site links to your business, then you have an authoritative link. Thus I encourage all businesses to join their local Chamber and make certain that the Chamber links back to their sites.

The Branford Chamber of Commerce takes this strategy a step further by creating micro sites for all of its members. These sites are by definition authoritative, because they are connected to the local Chamber. Thus for the cost of annual membership, Branford Chamber of Commerce members automatically get a huge boost with Google and other search engines.