Just as you may have links on your site to other sites, backlinks are the ways that your site can be found throughout the internet.  Aside from search engines, backlinks are a very important part of your marketing program on their very own.

But the real magic takes place when search engines find your backlinks.

Backlinks are probably most important to your website because they help to indicate how popular your site is—and this in turn may help with your search engine rankings dramatically.

Of course, the search engine rating process is complex and uses many variables to help determine your ranking.  Some search engines use the number of backlinks in the rating process.  The more backlinks you have, the better the ranking will likely be.  While ranking is not based on this alone, it is a major factor in most of the popular search engines. 

Backlinks are also an important part of any online marketing program for the exposure they provide.  The more links that you have to your site, the more traffic you’ll be able to drive to your website.  The more traffic you can get to visit your website, the more money you can make by selling your products or services.

What about reciprocal links?

Reciprocal links are an easy and free way to get more potential customers to your site and should still be taken seriously.  However, it’s apparent that many popular search engines are no longer giving them much weight.

That said—the best links are those that are between sites that are in the same or similar type of business as yours.  For example, if you have a site that sells gardening tools, your backlinks would be well-placed on a site that sells garden plants. 

Here are some additional important things to keep in mind about backlinks:

• The best backlinks are from other sites within your industry.
• Find other websites and make a list of those you’d like to link with.
• Having quality backlinks will improve your search engine ranking.
• Reciprocal linking is a great way to use the marketing efforts of others to help your own website.
• Think of innovative places to put your links online—plenty of great options out there!
• Consider using forums, blogs, and social networks to place backlinks for your site for free.
• Review your backlinks online to see which ones are working for you.

That’s about it for now!

Until Next Time…
George Chaney
President
SEO King, Inc.

A Look Back At PageRank And Backlinks
 
Just a few years ago, having high PageRank was extremely important.  It meant that a website was popular, thanks in part to incoming links (commonly referred to as backlinks) and a variety of other algorithm calculations and probabilities.  The thing is, webmasters and online marketers became so obsessed with building their PageRank, that they began to resort to unnatural and unethical means to trick their way to a higher score.  Because the trickery more or less defeated the purpose of the PageRank score, the model quickly adapted.

Actual PageRank Versus PageRank Displayed
 
While the precise details are proprietary information, Google’s internal PageRank system is now reputed to be completely separate from the displayed indicator available as part of the Google Toolbar or via other browser plug-ins and add-ons.  This means that Google likely uses a totally unique internal page ranking system as part of its search ranking algorithm.  The PageRank indicator available to the public is not even nearly as accurate or robust as the actual ranking algorithm.

Is PageRank Still Important?
 
The answer in one word – yes.  While it’s difficult to determine how exactly the PageRank system is used to factor a site’s search rankings, the publicly available PageRank indicator still reflects a site’s popularity and reputation in many ways.  A large portion of web savvy visitors rely on the PageRank score for a certain site as a way to gauge the site’s trustworthiness.  They assume that because Google has placed confidence in a site through a good PageRank, that they can confide their own personal confidence in the site as well.  People have become conditioned to the system.

How Can A Site’s PageRank Be Improved?
 
Simple – by providing value to visitors and building relevant, quality incoming links.  In other words, the best way to improve PageRank is to be a good steward on the web and attract natural links and traffic.  Buying high PageRank external backlinks from other sites for the purpose of improving a site’s own PageRank might have been popular in the past, but today the same tactic is very frowned upon.  This is considered to be tricking the PageRank process by playing unfairly.

In a nutshell, it’s still a great idea to keep a close eye on the PageRank indicator for a site.  After all, it can help reveal is something has gone awry, and many visitors certainly place their trust in higher ranked websites.  That said, trying to trick or manipulate the process is just a really bad idea.  Win in the long run by always being ethical and playing fairly.