A high ranking in search engine results from Google is also more difficult than from Yahoo or MSN, simply because Google is bigger. Google has over 60% of the search traffic compared to its nearest rival Yahoo, whose share continues to shrink. Also things that worked 6 or 12 months ago are no longer as effective, particularly with Google. Google has been applying a lot of patented technology to its search engines in the past year, like latent symantic indexing or LSI. LSI is used by Google to look for word patterns and related words on a web page. This enables Google to discriminate between pages using the same words but with an intended different meaning, like link (in a chain) as opposed to link (to a website). There is also a lot more still to come that will change the way sites are designed in order to get a high ranking in search engine results.
In the Ultimate SEO Guide more than 50 pages has been devoted to the patented technology Google is using and could use in the future. It makes for interesting reading on what Google could have in store. Take reciprocal linking, the benefit to be gained from exchanging links is no longer what it once was. The emphasis is now on gaining one way links, or exchanging links but not pointing to the same web site.  Having the right links from the right sites has become a top factor for high ranking in search engine results.
The emphasis has shifted from on the web page optimization factors to off the page optimization factors like linking.
The picture opposite shows how naturally formed links connect sites on the Internet.
Whilst on page optimization is still important it no longer dominates the factors that determine whether a web page for a competitive term, will achieve a high ranking in search engine results. Many web pages now hold top ranking for highly competitive terms and have no on page optimization at all. They simply don't have a single word of text on the page that a search engine can read. A good example of a page with no search engine readable text is irobotmovie.com which has a high ranking in search engine results ( top 3 ) for the highly competitive keyword "robot." In Google there are over 150 Million other web pages using the term robot. The web page is completely made up of graphics and even the graphics have no text Alt Tags. What makes this page rank so highly is that over 65% of the links pointing to it use "robot" in the link text. For low competitive keywords ( less than 10,000 web pages ) on-page optimization is generally enough to get a high ranking in search engine results without too much attention to linking. As keyword competition increases the need for quality links from relevant sites becomes more important. But doing the research to find relevant sites to request a link exchange can be very, very time consuming and unrewarding.
One software I have used for many years, in fact since Version 2 is SEO Elite. Whilst it's not perfect, it does enable you to do a wide variety of SEO related tasks, including link research, using the same software, and it does save time. You need to look past the hyped up claims made for SEO Elite. Although I don't agree that the results they claim, can be obtained quite so easily or in the manner they describe, it's still a good piece of software. To really count for anything, links need to contain a high percentage of keywords in the link text and be one way links from pages with related content that are ranked well. This form of linking has become an increasingly dominant factor in obtaining a high ranking in search engine results. Gone are the days when linking to any website will do, these days it has to be the right links from the right websites. Gone are the days when linking to any website will do, these days it has to be the right links from the right websites. | 
