Those in the Internet business, especially those in SEO, are very familiar with backlinks. One particular reason why backlinks are important is the way they are used by search engines. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN use backlinks to determine just how important a website is. They use backlinks, among other factors, to assess if a website is relevant enough to appear in the page results of a particular search inquiry. The more backlinks you have, the better the chances that Google of Yahoo will consider your website relevant. It follows then that the more backlinks you have, the more visitors you will get.
The issue with backlinks is quality. For a backlink to be counted by a search engine as good an that will help rank up your site it must fulfill a set of criteria to prove its quality. While search engines do not give out their code on this matter it essentially comes down to three things:
- Relevance - The site the backlink comes from must have some relevance to your site. Links from sites that are similar to your own will be counted more highly than those from sites that have no relevance to your site.
- Page Rank - The popularity of the site that the backlink comes from it very important. If a very large popular site links to you it is seen as a bigger endorsement than a bunch of very low page rank sites backlinking you.
- Originality - The content of the site that backlinks you must also be original content. Google punishes copied material and links from sites that are punished are punished accordingly also.
So now you know what a quality backlink is how do you get more of them? There are many ways this can be done. Some people advocate writing and submitting articles, posting on forums, making comments on blogs. Others talk about submitting their website to various internet directory. One directory that has an excellent reputation is called DMOZ, or the “Open Directory”. This directory is probably the most respected directory online today. The websites it contains have all been placed there by human editors; there is no “automation” to this directory. The only drawback that’s been discussed about this directory is that it takes so long to have a website included.
Another way that many people build backlinks for their website is to use Social Bookmarking websites. A “Social Bookmark” is a website that usually has a very popular ‘community’ aspect to it. Users sign up and create profiles on the sites that contain photos and information about themselves. They then can save “bookmarks” of favorite websites which can be itemized by ‘tags’, which are one or two word descriptions of what the sites contain, and these bookmarks can be saved to a list that’s private or can be listed publicly, so that everybody can see it.
