The importance of content and links in the design of your pages:
Google's search algorithm goes far beyond the number of times a keyword or term appears on your pages. It looks at many aspects of the page's content to determine if relevant keywords are combined with a rich source of relevant information to reinforce the subject matter of your page.
Webmasters can improve the PageRank of their sites by increasing the volume of high-quality, relevant sites that link to their pages. Links from sites that are themselves important and related to your content weigh more heavily in improving your rank than those that are poorly ranked or don't match the content of your site. Avoid link 'schemes' or large numbers of links that are not relevant to your content.
Create an informative site with pages that clearly describe your subject. Use words that users would use to find your pages and write for the human reader. Use text instead of images to support and display important content and links.
Avoid hidden text or links and do not use cloaking or redirects. Make pages for users and not search engines.
Make sure that each page is reachable from at least one static link from another page and that there are no broken internal links, but keep the number of links to a reasonable number. Have a clear page heirarchy that flows from one idea to another between pages. Avoid duplicate content on multipe pages or within subdomains and avoid so-called doorway pages.
Affiliate Marketers
If your site is intended for affiliate marketing make sure it adds value by providing unique and relevant content. Avoid "cookie cutter" approaches that provide little original information. Concentrate on creating product reviews or ratings and comparisons.
Avoid automatically generated content as these pages often consist of random paragraphs of nonsense that is keyword rich but means little to the person reading them. Likewise, avoid 'scraping' text from other more reputable sites just to increase the volume of content.
It is well worth the time and effort to create content that sets your site apart. Not only will it provide good search results and higher rankings, but it will instill trust in your visitors and keep them returning again and again.
Hope that helps someone. (BTW...this is my original material and not copied)
