A Basic Guide to Backlinks

Backlinks are the text links from one site to another. In effective they create the web element of the World Wide Web. Backlinks to a website tend to be either be reciprocal or one-way in nature.

Reciprocal links are so called because they require reciprocation, that is they are from websites that require a link back to their site as part of the deal for listing your web resource. Some sites may charge a fee for the listing in addition to the reciprocal link requirement. Special care needs to be taken that the site you are linking to (as well as from) is relevant and is of a suitable standard. This is because your site is in effect providing a vote for this resource to say you regard it as a quality resource and that you are happy to promote it.

Determine on what page both the outbound and inbound links are to be placed. You want to make sure you are getting a fair deal. So for example, you don't want an outbound link on your homepage (which will have decent rankings in the search engines) and only receive an inbound link from a links page well hidden on the other site. The chances are that this page will be several clicks away from the homepage, it may not have any authority in the search engines and it could well contain links to one hundred other websites apart from yours. In this instance you would not be getting a good return on your time and effort, and possibly money.

A variation on straight reciprocal linking is something called three-way linking. This is where a website will offer a link to your site. In return they will require a link from your site to a third site. This way there is not a direct reciprocal linking arrangement. The same principles apply as those mentioned for reciprocal linking above. Only take the time and effort if it is beneficial for you.

One-way links are seen as much more valuable than reciprocal links because they do not require a link to be placed on your site in return. The link is voting for your site as a quality resource but not get a vote the other way. There are many sources for obtaining one-way links in a range of genres. For example there are numerous free and paid web directories. These tend to either general (covering all topics) or niche (focus on a specific sector). They may also be specific to a country, region or town.

Additional sources include article submission sites, press release submission sites, classified ad resources, weblogs and forums where links can be obtained. The links tend to come from author biographies or footer links in a particular post. As ever review the sites for suitability and quality and the better the site, the better quality the link. The link or vote will count more than from a lesser regarded site.

Overall, as a general rule you want to build inbound links from relevant sources, including relevant categories in directories, whilst limiting the number of outbound links, particularly on the homepage. Therefore the success of a link building campaign is to obtain one-way rather than reciprocal links.