Backlinking helps search engines to rank your keywords and the concept is as simple as coffee black and egg white. It is what it sounds like – getting other websites to reciprocate the referencing you’re doing for them as well. However, you don’t want just anybody linking your site because search engines must qualify them with a ranking algorithm that determines the quality of the contents within the sites, its page rank, the value of the link to the search engine and the link text.

So what is the right kind of site your site should be publicly proclaiming its relationship with? Let’s start with the link. Assume your fictitious business sells champagne, with a particularly wide selection for pink champagne at echampagnestore.com. Ideally, you’d partner up with a champagne enthusiast to blog about your product reviews and include pink champagne in those links. (i.e. For the best Pink Champagne deals online, check out echampagnestore.com)

Because your blog will have an excellent set of keywords since it is specifically pertaining to your business, it gets more authority from the search engines. Now in order to start listing the right kinds of site on your blog, try searching for the top hundred sites on Google and try to link as many of those who are not your direct competition as possible. It will be helpful to find out who your sources are linking to and to connect with those as well.

And what good are the right links if there aren’t the wrong kind? Paid links (not PPC or adwords), links that only list links and dead links are intuitively the ones to stay away from.

Although backlinking is but ONE thing one can do to help search engines gauge your keyword ranking, I leave you with several other things you can do:

1.       blogging,

2.       getting news releases

3.       participating in discussions by leaving valuable comments on other forums and blogs

4.       viral marketing via link bait with a good association to the keyword you’re trying to rank

Happy Ranking,