When considering how offpage characteristics effect your sites ability to rank well for given keyword terms It cannot be stressed enough that "Page rank is Page to Page, (NOT SITE TO SITE) and independent of URL designation". What this means is that once your site enters into the PR system ie: indexed by Google by virtue of backlinks from and external source domain, then a link from an internal page with "X" amount of PR contributes exactly the same PR weight as a page from a different URL with "X" amount of PR weight to distribute (all other factors being equal).

Getting the link popularity started - what does it take?

In order for pagerank to be calculated by Google's algorithm for any page on your site that page must first have been found by the Google spider (robot) through a backlink. ("Backlink: a link from one unique URL designation to another - alternatively: a link from one page to another.")

Once you have recieved a backlink from a page that has been indexed by the Google spider you are eligible to compete for PR.
A link counts twice

Whether it’s a Sphinn, a digg or a StumbleUpon, a bookmark and its associated comments and codes posted by users can be likened to a vote of confidence for the page in question. The more votes a page has the more valuable it is seen to be and the more a search engine will sit up and take notice.

For very new sites, an extensive bookmarking campaign is also a secondary route into the search engine indexes. Again, there are similarities with link function as a bookmark paves the way for search engine spiders to enter into a site they have not previously indexed.

With the more bookmarks you can collect seemingly having a direct impact on the perceived quality of the site in the eyes of the search engines, consider adding these bookmarking tools to your marketing mix…

Keyword density is one of the main keys to search engine optimization (SEO). Keywords are vital to achieving a high page ranking. If there aren't any keywords on our pages to find for the search engines to index, there is literally nothing to find in the search engine results pages (also known as SERPs).

One of the most common mistakes that new entrepreneurs make when they are first starting a small start up ecommerce site is to only submit keywords to the search engines. They either forget or just don't realize that those keywords also have to be placed somewhere in the text of the site or the search engines just won't have anything to "hook" onto when someone uses one of your keywords to do a search.  So do make sure that whatever you do the same keywords you are using out of context to promote your site are also used in-content inside your site.

You also need determine how many keywords or keyword phrases should appear on your web site. The number of keywords appear on the page, makes a difference to all of the search engine algorithms. They simply pick on the keywords that are most dense in your pages.

SEO may sound complicated and expensive, but there are a number of things you can do to improve your search engine ranking that won't have you spending a dime or tearing your hair out. Here the 10 simplest SEO tips and tricks for Joomla sites.

1) Don't install any sample data when you set up a Joomla! site.

When you launch your Joomla! Site, it's very easy to forget to delete all the demo articles that come with it. That will give you pages, links and newsfeeds that are irrelevant to your topic. Delete your sample data and don't forget to empty your trash as well!

2) Your Site Name should be your site's name.
There can be a temptation to cram as many keywords as possible into the "Site Name" field. It doesn't help and when users register at your site, they get an email saying "Welcome to Widgets, Buy Widgets, Cheap Widgets, Bargain Widgets!" You don't want that.