Back in the "old" days of a couple of years ago, search engine optimization (SEO) was all about keywords. Repeat the same phrase fifty times on your homepage and your site would pop up when that phrase was searched in Google. Thankfully for consumers and entrepreneurs alike, the search engines have wised up to such practices. With the creation of more detailed and precise algorithms, Google has come up with better ways to highlight the most relevant and trusted websites.

Just Because You Build It...

Creating a beautiful website with groundbreaking information does not guarantee high site traffic. Once the website is ready to be unveiled to the public, it is time to begin a serious marketing campaign to attract the eyes and ears of interested consumers. The best way to get this kind of exposure is to rank high in the search engine results pages (SERPS), and the best way to climb in the SERPS is to build backlinks.

Backlinking to Your Site

A "backlink" is a link from a website that leads readers back to your website. Sometimes it is a highlighted link in the middle of an article. In other cases, it may be the link in your Resource Box, at the end of an article you have written. When that article is distributed and published on other sites, the link leads readers back to your site.

The importance of backlinking can't be over-emphasized. When a backlink to your web site from a popular and relevant site is created, Google tags a date to it, and records the actual phrase used in the link. Google then saves this information in order to establish rankings.

Getting the Most Out of Backlinks

It's important to understand that backlinking is more about quality than quantity. The search engines operate under the assumption that not all links hold equal weight, and a backlink (also known as an "inbound link") from a highly popular or well known site has more clout than a link from your Uncle Ted's garden photos.

Here's what Google has to say about how it uses backlinks to determine your page rank:

"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves 'important' weigh more heavily and help to make other pages 'important'."

So while having every member of your extended family create a link to your website from their own sites might be a great way to keep Aunt Alice up to speed, it won't get you much love from the search gods.

How to Get Other Sites to Link to Yours

So you know how Google uses backlinks to come up with its search engine rankings. You also know that backlinks on popular, respected sites will boost your SERPS. Now the question is: how do I get those sites to link to my site?

Article marketing is an incredibly effective way to do this. When you create informative, unique content in the form of reprintable articles, websites pay attention. Plenty of well-established websites publish content from article marketing databanks, to constantly offer their site visitors fresh information. When one of these sites, or any of their visitors, publishes one of your articles, an automatic link back to your website is included and bingo, a backlink is born.

Distribute more and more articles around the Web, and you gain a steady stream of fresh, highly relevant backlinks over time. The search engines will notice, and you page rank will go up. It's that simple.

And higher search engine ranking means more eyeballs on your website. Link simple.