One-way links or links from other web sites to your own web site are valuable web promotion tools for two reasons. First, they boost your page rank because search engines usually include link popularity in their search algorithms, so the more one-way links you have and the more relevant the web sites these links are found, the higher your link popularity is. Second, links from other sites that point toward your web site increase your web traffic because the visitors of the other web sites are exposed to your links and may consequently click them to get to your site. Link building and one-way link building in particular should be done by any web master who is serious about promoting his or her web site.

--- Basic one-way link building ---

The best way to get other web sites to backlink to your site is by making their web masters want to link up with you. The way to do this is to maintain a professional, tasteful and highly desirable web site.

Your web site should have creative, well-written, and exceptional content so that other web masters would covet your content for their own or would want to provide their visitors with a link to worthy content that they themselves don't have. And since these web masters want your content for their own web sites, it is reasonable to assume that their web sites are related to yours. Therefore when these web sites link back to you, you will get the most effective type of one-way links or backlinks, which are those that come from relevant web sites.

--- Link building through article or content submission ---

A variation of the above is actively seeking one-way links using your own web site content or other specially written content. This is done by submitting articles to article directories, forums and blogs that contain anchored text that would direct the reader to your site when clicked. Another way to do this would be to submit articles and/or RSS feeds to other web sites.

This method of backlinking is very effective in getting your web site valuable one-way links because you provide the other web sites, the article directories, the forums, and the blogs content that they need for their own visitors' use. Web administrators welcome your content. And your links go where your content does, of course.

You have to remember, though, that you have to be very careful in choosing the websites, article directories, forums, and blogs you post your content to. First, they should be relevant to your web site so that the one-way links you obtain carry more weight; and second, they should be indexed by the search engines or your backlinks will be wasted.

--- Web Directory link building ---

Web directories are an important source of one-way links. You must submit your links to popular web directories like Yahoo and DMOZ because backlinks from them give your link popularity and therefore your page rank a big boost. There are web directories that are free but you may have to wait months before your links are posted.

When you submit your links to web directories, make sure to include the categories you want your link to be part of. Choose the categories carefully because search engines still consider this in link popularity and page ranking.

--- Link building through web news flash ---

There are sites that are specifically for web news and announcements and you can submit your own press release for free or for a minimal fee. However, you must have something newsworthy to post before you can make use of this link-building avenue.