Getting Ahead in 
Getting Inbound Links
Getting as many other sites to link to yours as possible is probably the single most important factor in your ranking on Google.
These links are called back links (since they link back to your site).
First, you want to concentrate on getting your site listed in quality directories like the Open Directory Project (ODP). Back links from quality directories like ODP is very important for Google.
A good article was recently written about the ODP and how to submit. You can read it here. (will open in a new window)
Now that you've submitted to the ODP, try to find other directories to submit to. Don't forget to look specifically for directories that specialize in your subject or field.
We have started a couple directories that you can add your site to. Check out FizzFuzz.com and 1DigitalSolution.com and add your site today.
Next, you want to get other websites to add links to your site. Not all back links are created equal - some are more important than others. If you have the Google toolbar installed, it will give you a rough estimate on the page's 'importance', or PageRank (PR), on a scale of 0 to 10. You can get the google toolbar here.
This is what the PR looks like in the Google Toolbar:
While the sheer number of back links to your site is very important, links from pages with higher PR is better, and links from pages that share your site's theme are also important. So here is a list of different types of pages you want to get links from, in order of importance:
Pages with high PR and the same theme as yours
Pages with high PR but different theme
Pages with lower PR and the same theme as yours
Pages with low PR but different theme
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Important note about PR: Up until mid 2004 Google has historically updated the toolbar PR about once every four or five weeks. But they have slowed down considerably since then, with the last three updates occuring on October 6, 2004 (106 days after the previous update), Jan 1, 2005, 87 days later, and April 22, 2005, 111 days later. It now appears that PR updates are occuring closer to quarterly rather than monthly. Just be aware that any new pages put up after the last update won't show any PR in the toolbar until the next update.
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Finding High PR Sites to ask for links
Searching for sites that match your keywords with high PR can be very time consuming. You'll probably spend days doing this if you are serious about boosting your own pages' PR. There is a new tool, PR Prowler, that automates this task. We use and highly recommend PR Prowler since it is the easiest way to find the highest PR sites to seek links from.
PR Prowler is great, because you can uncover high PR sites that you probably never knew about. Some of these new sites may be willing to provide a link to your site without a reciprocal link in return, especially if your site would be of interest to their visitors. Many of these high PR sites would likely go undiscovered by you without the help of PR Prowler. Read more about it at the PR PRowler website. (Will open in a new window) 
The Google Toolbar will also show you some (but not all) of the back links a particular page has:
As you increase your number of backlinks, don't expect to see a change here immediately. Google updates this only occasionally, and shows only a representative sample of your backlinks.
You can also check your backlinks directly in Google by typing the following command in the Google search box:
link:http://www.thisismysite.com/
Remember that Google won't show ALL your back links, just a random sample. Some people prefer to use the following command in Yahoo!, since Yahoo! will show all the backlinks it knows of:
link:http://www.domain.com
Stay Away from Some Links
There is one kind of link you definitely do not want - and that is from link farms. These are sites who's only purpose is to provide links to its members. Link farms can be recognized by the fact that there are hundreds or thousands of links on each page, and the links are not catergorized. there is little or no content on the site other than the links. Google doesn't like link farms and your site can be penalized if you participate in these.
So how do you go about getting links from other sites? The first way is to build a quality site with lots of great content. If you provide valuable content, inbound links will naturally occur over time. But we want to jump start the process and get these links now!
The quickest way to get links from other sites is simply to ask. A site owner may have several reasons to link to your site, but they need to know there is a benefit for them as well. The most direct benefit you can offer, besides your great content, is a link back to their site! This is called reciprocal linking. Both sites benefit because they each gain a back link.
You'll want to suggest a specific link to your reciprocal link partners, using your most important keyword or key phrase in the link text. Using our example site offering ringtones, here is a good link:
| Polymorphic Ringtones - Ringtones-R-US.com has hundreds of downloadable ringtones, pictures and screens for your phone. |
Do you notice that the key phrase 'polymorphic ringtones' is the linked text, not the site name or url? It's important to include your keyword in the actual link.
Now that you are ready to start getting links, you need to learn about two types of links - one way, and reciprocal.
Next: Link Types
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