I have written a book and a number of informational products about search engine optimization and improving a website ranking on Google. The question I often get is, “Whats the secret?” Aside from solid search engine optimization best practices, there are just a few truly secret techniques that make the difference to anyone looking for number 1 rankings.

My reason for believing that some techniques are really best kept secrets is because they are not talked about in SEO forums or within even some of the top SEO products. You might ask yourself why these aren’t discussed. The answer is simple. Some secrets, if shared may dilute the effectiveness of the technique.

If you are thinking about SEO and you are anything like me, you probably want the fastest, quickest, most effortless way to put your website on top of search engine result lists. You think about the value of having the number one position. The result is traffic, higher ad revenue, sales, and so on.

For someone makes their income online, I can promise you that being ranked number one for a competitive keywords makes a huge difference in your online performance. The difference between a number one ranking and lower rankings comes down to making a living online or making nothing at all.

Okay, so what are some of these “secrets”? I would be happy to share one at no charge. Let me begin by saying that not every secret is complex or all that unique. Often times, secrets are simply techniques that applies in a unique way, create a significant difference. That is how I view these SEO secrets simply because they probably wont move mountains but can have a dramatic impact on your search engine rankings whether you have a website, blog, or squeeze page that you want to promote.

The secret is simple. If you want to achieve number one rankings for any keyword, then you simply need to follow the same strategy being used by the top ranked website for that keyword. Does this technique sound too simple? If you answered yes, then I ask you to ask yourself if you are using it today. This technique may be simple but it is not easy. To be as successful as the number one ranked website you need to discover what he is doing to be ranked number one. Top rankings do not happen by chance.

Start taking advantage of this by analyzing the links into your competitor’s website. This can be done using Alexa or Google. When links are made to your competitors site, this is referred to as back links. These in-bound links often contain text inclusive of the keywords you are optimizating for. Attempt to get links from the same sites with your keyword phrase included. This will help you to quickly match your competitors linking strategy.

The key to success is to find all of the sites linking to your competitor and then get links to your website from the exact same sites. The obvious challenge is finding who is linking to your competitor and then getting links to your site from the same web pages. The good news is that there are tools that can help you do this. In fact there are tons of them and some work better than others.

By duplicating this technique, learning which sites are linking into your competitor, you can dramatically enhance your website ranking. This can be done for one keyword or many. This takes a good deal of work so begin researching the inbound links to your competitor and start your link building campaign using the sites they use. Your SEO results will improve quickly.