To discuss about importance of link (read back link) is a waste of time because there are few who does not know about it because giants like Google also openly endorse its importance in enhancing a site's position in SERPS ( Search Engine Results Pages ) . Same may be said about Yahoo and others . So back link is the single most important and the most challenging tool in SEO .

Who gives away links and why ?

In an ideal situation a webmaster can provide links from their site to website pages containing relevant information because that way they help their website visitors with an opportunity to learn more the about particular topic or issue contained in their site as well . These kinds of links are considered as most important by search engines and considered as genuine endorsement or vote to websites , the links were provided to . This gesture of webmaster giving away links are viewed are not viewed negatively either by search engine rather they get reward for this genuine approach though the sites getting back links gets more value in respect of page ranking .

Different search engines has different ways of judging genuineness. Following are the areas which are common to all .

1. Content of the page giving links from should be related to the content of the page getting the links .
2. Hyperlinks text should contain a keyword of the page links are gong to in an ideal and most coveted situation .
3. Back links should not be in a page containing list of various links .
4. Page giving away links should not contain too many links .
5. Links from the links are not at all advisable even sites are not panelized for the same .
6. Reciprocal links are acceptable so long pages or at least the sites are related .
7. Links to the home page always not considered very advisable as well since search engine may not value it equally as it does in case point 1 and 2.

Various kinds of links and their value in the eye of Search Engine:-

Apart from the normal and genuine situation as described above there are various ways of building links which are being adopted by SEO experts world wide to better the position of their sites in SERPS.

1. Reciprocal links :-

Reciprocal link is nothing but exchange of links . This could be done by requesting to webmaster of a related site provide links in exchange of similar links provided his site . Here also, as discussed above , some of the things needed to be considered before agreeing to such proposal . First which needs to be ensured is that PageRank of the page giving links got higher rank value than yours or atleast equal . Its always better to go for related pages rather than always with home with page rank value either higher than yours or atleast equal . PageRank is google way judging a pages worth . Please refer to my earlier article devoted completely to PageRank .

2. Links from link farms:-

There are various link farms offering services to find sites of similar nature or other and of similar page rank value against a payment of a small fees . They also offer free service in restricted way . But extreme caution needs to be taken before engaging any such farms as the many of them are panelized by search engine. Over all it is not advisable or recommended at all to go for such service .

3. Links from article directory :-

There are a huge number of directories offering free and paid service of listing articles under various categories . Advantage in article submission in directory is that you can select your own category which is a huge advantage since it is satisfying the search engine requirement as discussed above and further you can have total control over sending links from within article to whatever page of your site you want to .

4. Links from book marks sites:-

Relatively new but this new area has become hugely popular with SEOs. There are a huge no of such sites apart from Google and Yahoo also like , digg, stuble upon, tweeter , facebook, newsvine, furl ,linkedin just to name a few . Every time content from site is bookmarked in these sites a back link is earned from highly ranked portals like these ones.

5. Links from blog:-

Blogs can be used in a big and effective way in search engine optimization program . Every Search Engine has special fascination for blog .Some search engine maintain a separate database for blogs and netizens are given options to search only blogs like Google . There thousands of blogsites and all of them are free . Effective back links can be obtained from these blog sites by writing blogs with inbuilt links to the sites .

6. Links from social net working sites :-

Like Bookmark sites using of social net working sites is relatively a new concept . Like these site are free and highly ranked in all the search engines. Here also back links could be obtained in inserting links in the signature .

Deep Links :

Deep links are normally referred to as the links from within the site . Links from different pages of the sites to the home page are the most common form of deep links. Deep links has tremendous importance in optimization of the sites . Page rank value improves with deep links as well . Interlinking of various related pages can be suitable worked up to great effect for over all site position in SERPS.

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