A backlink is a link to your website from another website.  The search engines view this as a ‘vote’, the more votes (backlinks) you have and depending on the importance of the sites ‘voting’ (linking back) to your site.  You will recieve part of their trust rank factor.  Building quality backlinks is the best way to get indexed by the major search engines and to drive quality organic traffic to your website in the long-term.  Building web links also helps to increase your page rank and search engine position rank.

Building back links can be a very tough process and requires lots of patience or money or a bit of both. You want to add your URL to many quality web directories, in relevant categories, exchange links with relevant websites and also purchase text links from relevant sites. Submitting your site to every directory under-the-sun is not necessary or even advisable, because many don’t offer any benefits. So be picky about the URL listings you get.

Quick pop quiz on backlinks:

1. Do you want more traffic to your websites from the major search engines (backlinks can help)?

2. Do you want more targeted traffic (backlinks with relevant anchor text would help)?

3. Do you want to rank higher for relevant keywords in the search engines (again backlinks are an important factor)?

4. Do you want a higher Google page rank on your website (backlinks help increase yoru Google toolbar page rank)?

5. Do you want to earn more revenue on your website (more backlinks = more traffic = more earnings, simple)?