If you're a business owner just starting out, you probably have a pretty idea of who's linking to you. Either you've posted to a directory or you're part of a link partnership, or you've personally asked other website owners within your niche to link to one of the pages in your website. But after awhile it's easy to lose track of who's linking to you. Google Webmaster Central has made it much easier to determine who's linking to you by giving you page-by-page report. This begs the question, what do I do with this information now that I have it? Here are 6 ways to make backlink information work for you.

1. Find your link-bait. You might find that you have several links to an article that you never even promoted. This is a hint that the article may be of interest to a wider audience and that you should spend some time promoting it to get even more hits.

2. Create More Good Stuff. Once you've discovered which pages attract links you didn't even intend, figure out how to create similar pages with similar content and form that might attract an audience. The hard work in this scenario comes from discovering the characteristics that your popular pages have in common and duplicating it rather than promoting your articles.

3. Optimize. If you find that a page you haven't intentionally promoted has garnered a lot of links, capitalize on the link strength of that particular page. Optimize it for other keywords, or just optimize it if you haven't done it already.

4. Identify Those Linking to You. Some of the sites that link to you won't come as a surprise. After all, they're in your niche or they're interested in the same things you are. But you might be surprised by some of your links. Google sites related to those that are linking to you unexpectedly and see if you can get similar sites to link to you as well.

5. Find Out What Pages Others Are Linking To. If another site is linking to one of your pages, maybe they'd also be interested in other pages as well. Why have them link to just one page on your site when they can link to five or six?

6. Use Article Directories. If you're serious about SEO, then you should be submitting articles to directories religiously. You may find sites that have picked up your articles without you knowing it. Find out if those sites would like you to submit articles right to them and eliminate the middle man of the directory.

Backlink data is an invaluable tool for SEO and for your overall internet marketing strategy. If you're not sure how to take advantage of it for your business, consider consulting with an SEO expert or internet marketing professional. These professionals will be able to help you figure out even more ways to use backlink information to optimize your website and to get your valuable information to a larger audience. The only real mistake you can make is choosing not to use this information, and choosing not to hire a professional to help you determine how it can best be used for your purposes. So figure out how to make backlinks work for you and your business. You'll be glad you did!