When I first started building websites, I thought that I could just create a website, and visitors would simply find my site and buy whatever I was selling.  Pretty silly, right?!?

Actually, now I know that I am not alone in this thinking.  We all think this way at first.  None of us know how to check backlinks, let alone what a backlink is, or how we can create trails for visitors to find us, or anything really about the inner workings of internet marketing.

Backlinks are simply a link from another website to yours.   Here is an example of a backlink:

<a href=”http://www.yourwebsite.com>Best Widgets</a>

They are important because search engines like Google are looking at backlinks to determine how really important and relevant your website is.  For example, if you have a lot of backlinks with “Best Widgets” in the anchor text as pictured above, say more than any other website, Google will put your website on the front page.  And we all know what front page Google rankings mean - Traffic, lots of it..

The number of backlinks reflected in the search engines will give you a general idea of where your website is ranking.  In my own experience, I don’t think any of them are exact.  I have also read that getting backlinks from high ranking websites is best.  A couple of easy ways to check your backlinks in the search engines include the following.

For Google, I will enter the following “site:http://www.yourwebsite.com”(without the quotes).   You can also sign up for a webmaster tools account too, and Google will tell you what keyword your website ranks for, and provide you will a good estimate of your website’s backlinks.

In Yahoo, you will want to go to Yahoo Site Explorer, and type in your website URL as, http://www.yourwebsite.com.

If you are using Firefox, which you really should be as an internet marketer ;), check out the SEOQuake Add On.  It’s amazing because it will give you a little toolbar that you can easily toggle on and off to check your backlinks in Google, Yahoo, and Bing along with your Alexa ranking, age of site and more.

Of course you build backlinks by writing articles and submitting them to article directories like Ezinearticles, or by creating mini sites like Squidoo, or Weebly or any of the thousands of others out there.  You can also submit your website to directories, add comments to other blogs, and use social bookmarketing to create backlinks for your website or blog.

Just remember that what anchor text you use for your backlink will be noticed by the search engines.  It is best to use a keyword that you are trying to rank for.  And don’t use the same keyword every time, switch it up.  Make them natural.

If you are like me, and dread building backlinks, try 3WayLinks.  The creator Jonathan Leger is an amazing software creator, and his service 3 Way Links will build your backlinks for you gradually on autopilot.  The service is only $7 to start the first month, and then $47 per month after, and of course you can cancel at any time.  His automated backlink building service is excellent, and you can track your progress.  I like it, and it has increased traffic on a lot of my niche blogs.

Related articles by Zemanta

• What You Should Know About Backlinks (ronmedlin.com)
• List of 17+ SEO and Webmaster tools (techmadly.com)
• Making On Google - How Can Google Help You Making Money On The Internet (ronmedlin.com)
• WooRank Attempts to Analyze Your Web Site for Improvement, Fails (techstartups.com)
• 30 SEO Problems & the Tools to Solve Them (Part 1 of 2) (seomoz.org)
• Synonyms, search and SEO (vator.tv)

Related posts:

1. Free Search Engine Ranking Software It is rare to find free search engine ranking software...
2. Researching Keywords - Step Two: Getting the First Page of Google Researching keywords can be an easy process, and it doesn't...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.