Last week we discussed the importance of using targeted keywords for improved search engine optimization. Today I want to look at another important factor for SEO: backlinks. Backlinks, or inbound links, are links from other pages to your Web site.

Working with backlinks requires a basic understanding of Google’s PageRank algorithm. Google assigns every Web page a value, or a PageRank. This value is an important factor in how high the page ranks in Google’s search engines. Whenever you link to a page, you are passing along a portion of your own PageRank to that page. Don’t worry, you don’t lose any of your own PageRank when you do this; rather, it’s like you are giving a “vote” to the target page. You are telling Google, I am linking to this page because I find it to be of high quality.

Remember that the words you use when linking to another page are also important. The link text tells Google what the target Web page is about. So if I were to link to my own Web site in an article, the link text Karen Eisenbraun tells Google that my target URL is about Karen Eisenbraun. Or I could use different link text to tell Google my Web site is about freelance writing.

Here’s an interesting example to illustrate this: run a Google search query on the words “click here.” What do you see at the top of the page? The first result in organic search is the download page for Adobe Reader. If you click through to this URL, you will not find the words “click here” anywhere on the page. So why is it #1 in the search results? Because thousands of Web pages link to this page with the text, “To download Abode Reader, click here.”

So obviously, the number of links pointing to your site is important. But so is the quality of these links. Links from pages with a higher PageRank are more valuable than links from pages with a low starting PageRank. Links from so-called “link farms” that have nothing on the page but a bunch of links are not going to be of much value to you and could in fact be detrimental. The smart folks at Google know that you have no control over which Web pages link to you, so they won’t penalize you for links that come from link farms or other questionable pages. But if they see that you have a reciprocal linking relationship with a site of this nature, they may ban you from search results. So be wary of entering into link-exchange agreements unless you believe the site to be relevant and of high quality.

So, how do you build quality links? There are a number of ways to do so. Post your content on social bookmarking sites such as delicious, which allows you to enter tags that describe your Web site. Post comments on high-quality blogs and forums and link back to your site. Submit your site to various Internet directories. Building backlinks is a relatively easy way to get your site noticed. Try to spend a few minutes a day on smart backlinking practices to start building your Web presence and increasing your PageRank!

To check inbound links pointing to your site, use the backlink checker from iWebtool. Just enter your URL and it will return the number of backlinks, the URL of each one, and the corresponding PageRank for each site.

For an in-depth look at Google PageRank, visist Google’s Page Rank Explained and how to make the most of it.