In this article we will look at ways in which building back links to your website helps make it more popular with search engines and thus results in more direct referrals (people visiting your site by clicking your back link) as well as improving your search engine ranking.

Building back links is a process where you obtain inbound links to your own site from other external websites. However, this can be very difficult to get the best type of inbound links for your site but hopefully the methods which have been proven over time should help to build these back links which will then help to improve your sites search engine rankings in the future.

The first method you can use to get those essential back links to your site is by writing an article on a topic that relates to the site you have built. Once you have written your article (make sure that it has a minimum of 250 words in it) and then submit it to a number of free articles sites. Once your article has been published it can then be reprinted all over the web as long as it always contains the back link to your own site.

The next method we are going to look at is press releases. These can be very effective in alerting the media to your website and thus getting you the essential publicity you need through media coverage. Remember it is important to include a link to your site when doing your press release and then submit to a press release site (there are many around the web just carry out a search for “press release sites”).

The third method of getting back links to your site and increasing your popularity as well as improving your sites search engine rankings is free directory submission. Using this method you will be able to receive a free inbound link to your site just by submitting it to a number of different free directories (there are hundreds out there on the net). However, when using this method it is important that you follow the site submission guidelines at all times and then just wait (patience is a virtue where this method is concerned) as it can take several months before your site will get listed.

The fourth kind of way of getting back links to your site is by submitting its details to a paid directory. But why pay when there are other directory sites that are free? There are many reasons why people will buy directory listings and the first and probably the most important is that you will generally have your site listed within 24 hours of your submission. Also by paying for your submission you will get a higher quality link than you would normally get through a free directory submission as most directories where you have to pay will have a higher page rank than free ones.

The next method we are going to look at is three way link exchanges that unfortunately were not as helpful as they use to be, but they are still a great way of getting your search engine ratings improved. This method works by say you won Site A and this will then provide a link to Site B and Site C which will then result in providing you with inbound links to Site A.

Now we are going to look at a method called forum posting. This method is quite simple all you have to do is join a forum that relates to your site and become an active member. What is great about this method is that you can include a link to your site as part of your forum signature so every time you make a comment you will be providing a back link to your site.

The final method we are going to look at is blog posting and this one I have been looking at very closely in reference to sites that I have built. What you need to do is find blogs that are relevant to your site and leave comments in their blog posting and include a link to your site within these comments. During the last few months I have been looking for a blog posting system that will help find the right sorts of blogs that relate to the sites that I have and wish to get back links to. One such blog posting search system is called Comment Hut and what makes it so good is its simplicity. With Comment Hut all you need to do is key in a specific word or words and then ask it to check the URL’s at any one of 5 blog platforms including LiveJournal or WordPress and after it has produced this list you can then get it to define this list further by what page rank the blog post has.

Then you can visit each blog and leave a relevant comment with a link back to your own site or blog.