To keep your website on top of the search engines you can simply do these five daily tasks.

1. Manage your links.

If your site has quite a few links, make sure they are not getting out of control. To do this, check for any dead links or any sites that might be linking to yours without your knowledge. This can be time consuming but there are tools, plugins and addons for any kind of site that can make this an easier task. For example: Your site is built with Wordpress. Search for a plugin in the Wordpress dashboard using the keywords "manage links" and see what comes up. There should be a nice selection of plugins for you to choose from.

Also, check any sites that you are purposely linking to. If you have negotiated with another site to backlink to one another, make sure they are still backlinking to your site.

Tip: All incoming and outgoing links should be related to your site’s content. This will ensure higher rankings in the search engines.

2. Link re-ordering.

Categorize your links and list them putting the best ones first. If you have a page that consists of 30+ leads I suggest putting those links into a directory. This will keep your site looking clean and make it easier for your readers to locate what they are looking for.

3. Link Exchange Requests.

Try to respond to any link exchange requests as soon as possible. Check the site that wants to exchange links. If you decide to decline the exchange, politely respond to the request telling the web master your reason(s) why. This is only common courtesy and it is best to try to do it within a few days of the request. This way, you look like a professional. Your reputation will benefit from good ethics.

Warning! Before exchanging links be sure to run these checks:

Some sites use robots.txt to stop search engines from indexing their links pages. To see if they are doing this, just retype their URL with robots.txt on the end.

Example: http://www.websitename.com/robots.txt

If that page says ‘Disallow’ and has the URL of their links page, that means they are not letting search engine spiders index their page. Do not exchange links with that site.

Be sure to take a look at how many links are on the page. There shouldn’t be more than 30 links. If the site has more than that, don’t link to it. There is no point in having a link from a site that takes links from just anyone.

4. Link exchange forums.

This task is more difficult to manage due to the high volume of link exchange requests you will receive. Beware of spammers and dead end sites. The forum administrator or moderator appreciates when you let them know about any of these kinds of sites. They want to keep their forum clean due to the fact that search engines will think they are a link farm rather than an exchange service. For the most part, this is a good way to get backlinks but remember to be cautious.

5. Quality Content.

Always add quality content in a consistent manner. Do not spam your site with junk just to add content. This is very bad. The search engines will pick up on this and will ignore your site. Try to keep fresh content and add it daily. Search engines love this and will spider your site more often. This helps your site's search engine ranking considerably. I can never stress how important regular updates are and good quality content.

Most importantly, have fun! Use your imagination and try to come up with unique ways to engage your readers into staying on your site and making them come back for more.

Carrie Krishnek