You've probably heard about backlinks before and we have written plenty about backlinks before. The reason why we would bother revisiting the topic is because they really are important. Out of all the hundreds of things you can do to get higher on the search engines, getting backlinks is one of the most important if not the most important.

What is a backlink? For those who don't know, a backlink is a link from another website back to yours. We could get into the specifics of why backlinks are seen as valuable, but all you really need to know is that Google sees where people are hanging out on the web and who is linking to who. If 1,000 reputable websites have links leading to your website, its a safe bet that Google will think you are a reputable website as well.

Getting backlinks

If you've spent any time researching backlinks, you've seen 'get 100 backlinks in a day' and similar offers. While they may actually be able to deliver and setup 100 links to your site from some other site, this is not necessarily valuable. Google values honest and legitimate interaction with other sites so these 'get backlinks quick' scenarios often don't help and sometimes even hurt your search engine ranking.

So what are some proper ways of getting backlinks? Well, think of the internet as a community of people. These people are writing articles, blogs, advertising their businesses, and communicating with each other. If you can get someone else to mention your website, then there's a backlink If you comment on one of these blogs and include your link, then there's a backlink. If you post in a forum and use your link as your signature, then there's a backlink. There are plenty of free websites out there that provide a list of places to post your link but remember, Google will know if you are spamming your link and not providing anything useful to the community.

So get your link out there. The sooner you begin adding to the internet community and linking back to your site, the sooner you will find that Google rewards this behavior. Participate in link exchanges, comment on blogs and forums, and get others to write about your site.