Sometimes called inbound links, backlinks are the lifeblood of Search Engine
Positioning. In order for a website to be on the top of search engines like
Google without the webmaster having to pay big money for advertising, the
website has to have a large number of backlinks. Backlinks are links on one
website that lead back to another website. The more established, high quality,
and high Page Rank the website that contains the link has, the more power it has
to help the linked website with its search engine position. If the website that
is getting backlinks gets many High Quality and High Page Rank backlinks, the
better the chance it has of being in a high position on the Search Engines.

How does a webmaster go about getting high quality backlinks to his or her
website? There are many ways this can be done. Some people advocate writing and
submitting articles, posting on forums, making comments on blogs. Others talk
about submitting their website to various Internet directories. One directory
that has an excellent reputation is called DMOZ, or the "Open Directory". This
directory is probably the most respected directory online today. The websites it
contains have all been placed there by human editors; there is no "automation"
to this directory. The only drawback that's been discussed about this directory
is that it takes so long to have a website included.

Another way that many people build backlinks for their website is to use
Social Bookmarking websites. A "Social Bookmark" is a website that usually has a
very popular 'community' aspect to it. Users sign up and create profiles on the
sites that contain photos and information about themselves. They then can save
"bookmarks" of favorite websites which can be itemized by 'tags', which are one
or two word descriptions of what the sites contain, and these bookmarks can be
saved to a list that's private or can be listed publicly, so that everybody can
see it.

With the advent of what is known as Web 2.0, gaining backlinks is easier now
than in any time in the history of the internet. Most sites now have an
"interactive" quality to them nowadays. Readers can often sign in and create
profiles. They then are often allowed to post comments on the stories or
articles on the website or blog. In many cases, the website or blog owner
responds to these comments; thus making this section of the website or blog a
conversation.

Backlinking strategies can be easy and fun and the website owner who is
working on getting more backlinks for his website can learn new things, meet new
people, and have a tremendous amount of fun doing something that was once a
chore: building backlinks.

Backlinks