To help the new webmaster launch into an effective link building campaign, I've outlined 5 important linking concepts.

Links are votes: A link is a vote that one website (the "linker") casts for another website (the "linkee"). The vote is giving credence or credibility to the linked site. But, unlike politics, each vote does not hold equal weight. The link voting system more closely resembles a high school popularity contest than a presidential election.

Each vote has a different vote strength: Think of it this way, if the high school quarterback befriends me, and I'm a nerd, I'll be seen as "more popular" by the other kids. Why? Because a "vote" by the quarterback holds more weight. His vote strength has more power than most of the other kids. What gives each site its voting power? The search engines do. We can know a lot about how a search engine bestows vote strength but we can't know everything.

A lot of bad links doesn't equal good linking: Getting back to the popularity contest vs. a presidential election, remember that not all links carry the same weight. In fact, some links carry little to no weight. It's safe to assume that the easier it is to get a link from a site, the less value, or clout, that link holds. That's why most link exchanges don't work. Because everyone involved is so eager to get links, they freely give links.

Linking must be natural: When you start getting links, the search engines start gathering information about your site. How many links do you have? How fast are they growing? Where are they coming from? Where you get into trouble is when you're building your links, get tired because it takes work, then buy a service or piece of software that can get you 500 links in a few days. So, all of the sudden, your linking profile jumps. You were moving along at a good pace and them, bam, you're not so natural anymore.

Linking is a hands on process: As a new webmaster, it's easy to buy every linking software or service on the market. Consider this when you're evaluating software or a service: if it's faster, gives you less control, and costs less, then most everyone else has tried it. If everyone is trying it, it's not working or will soon not be working. Put yourself in the search engine's shoes and ask, "What would I do with a site that went from a few hundred links to several thousand, in just a few days?"

These 5 concepts are meant as a starting point for new webmasters. Link building is a part of an effective SEO strategy but it's a very important part. There are things you can do to get quality backlinks without having to resort to bad linking techniques. A good rule of thumb is to think and do the opposite of what most other webmasters are doing. If you do that, you'll set yourself apart from 95% of everyone else.