A backlink is a one-way inbound link from another website to your own.  The algorithms that determine the search rankings for the major search engines are in a constant state of change and therefore the value of each attribute of a website as it relates to the rankings is also in flux. In recent history however backlinks have been one of the most important factors to the algorithms and to this day they continue to be an essential part of search engine optimization.

Article Marketing is perhaps one of the potent methods of backlink building available to the online entrepreneur  just starting out. The way this works is that the sight owner either writes his own articles or pays someone to write articles for him. These articles then get posted on Article Directory sites.  The standard practice is for the Article Directory site to allow a single backlink to be included, usually at the bottom of each article. There many Article Directories out there, but I would suggest that you start with EzineArticles.com.

Blog Commenting is another way for you to build backlinks to your site. Most blogs allow comments to be left by readers on a portion of their posts. It’s usually the case that the comment form allows you to submit a URL (web address) with your comment. In addition to a URL the comment form usually also asks for a name. Chances are that whatever you put in for a name will become a hyperlink for the URL that you entered.
                                                                                                                                                                                   Forum Posting is also viable method for building backlinks. There are two ways that you can build backlinks with forums. The first is thought the use of a signature file. Many forums allow you to include a signature at the bottom of each of your posts. In these signature files you are usually allowed to include a link. The great thing about forums that allow signature files with links is that you create a backlink each time that you write a post, automatically.

It seems that the search engine don’t give you much credit for a whole bunch of backlinks coming from a single site, so forum posting with signature files might be better for getting direct traffic as opposed to improving your search engine rankings.

The second method for building backlinks with forum posting is to create a link in the post itself. As long as you are posting on a forum that you have not created many links from on the past, this can be a good method for building backlinks for the purpose of optimization.

Social Networking is the fourth method of backlink building that we will cover in this article. Social networking sites include sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and many others. One of the factors that the algorithms seem to consider in evaluating the quality of the link is the quality of the website that produced the link. Google has a trademarked term for this quality that they call “PageRank”. One of the great things about social networking is that most of the big players like MySpace and Facebook have high PageRank.

When using social networking sites you want look for as many opportunities to promote your site as possible. This includes leaving backlings on your own profile as well as the profiles of others when appropriate.

The methods described above are just a few of the many possible ways to build backlinks. We hope that this discussion has provided some food for thought and a starting point for further exploration into this topic.