Before I begin writing this article,  I have to brag just a little. My website here at thisismyurl.com has a Google PageRank of 5, as does my website at getawaygraphics.com but Chris’s website (which I reviewed yestaurday) has a Google PageRank of 6 … that completely destroyed my ego. He’s killing me, it’s like that scene where Annie totally destroys Obi Wan, it simple shouldn’t have happened. So why did it?

Simple, his kungfu was better than mine.

Actually it’s a lot more complicated than that but not by much. First, to truly understand why bavotasan.com is a higher ranking, we should first understand some of the mechanics. Google PageRank (as we’ve talked about before) is just one measure of a web site’s success but it’s a critical one. It measures how much Google believes your website is worth and in the process, how much value they give to it. A high PR value means a better placement in the results, so getting a high PR is the first step to getting a great SEO value.

Getting a PR of 0 is easy, everybody starts with one. Getting a one is still fairly simple, a two is what most should aim for, a three means Google has faith in you, four means you’re pretty impressive, five … you’re on fire and six? Now six is something you should envy. It means that you’re heads and tails above the rest, so how do you get a PageRank of six?

Step one … have a website people care to read. I’m always impressed with how great the content on Chris’s website is. It’s not just good, it’s great. He takes the time to research his posts, he puts a lot of effort into it and in the end he works hard. That’s the first step, make sure the content you write is worth writing.

Step two … get people to link to you. On this step, Chris is a master. My website has ~216 people linking to it (you can always see it here) but bavotasan.com …. 5,370 people link to his website! That’s right … Chris has over 5,000 more people linking to his website than I do, so it’s no wonder that he’s kicking my butt with a PageRank of 6 vs. my PageRank of 5.

So, the secret to successful online marketing?

1) Write things people want to read

2) Get people to link to your great content

3) … there’s got to be more right?

Well … as for #3, I want to hear from you so here’s my idea …

Win a Free iPod

Chris’s website (http://www.bavotasan.com) is one that I truly love, it’s a great site with a lot of useful information but that’s not why he’s kicking my butt so here’s my challenge to all of you.

Write a post on your blog and tell me why Chris’s website is kicking my PageRank ass and I’ll enter your name to win an iPod, it doesn’t even have to be purple. I’ll order a brand new iPod Nano from Apple’s website and ship it anywhere in the US or Canada for one lucky winner.

Include a link to this article as well as at least one article on Chris’s website and leave me a comment below with a link to your submission. Posts must be submitted prior to October 31st and will be tallied between the 1st and 15th of November, you can enter multiple times from different domains but there’s only one iPod to give away. If you’d prefer to email me your link, feel free.