The web is based on links. The reason the phrase "surfing the Net" came about is because you could move smoothly from one site (wave) to the next, simply by following links. A website without any outward bound links is a dead-end that spoils the surfing experience.
Because links are vital to the web's existence, the number of links a website has pointing to it is one of the most important factors used by search engines when working out search result positions. Even if you have all the right keywords in place and your website is content rich, without links pointing to it, it still won't rank as well as it could or should.
Once upon a time, link exchange schemes ensured that webmasters had enough links pointing to their websites. The result was website links pages that were full of links that bore absolutely no relevance to the subject the website itself was concerned with. These links pages were mostly useless to the visitor - after all, if you've visited a site about business banking, would you really want to follow a link to a site about cake decorating or space travel? Probably not. The chances are you'd want information that was relevant to either business or banking and before long, the search engine administrators started to realise this.
These days, link exchanges are of very little use to webmasters who are looking to improve their search engine result positions - commonly known as SERPs - because two-way links are no longer given any weight in the algorithms that search engine software uses to calculate positions.
If you want links that will bring you as high up as possible amongst search engine results, what you need in one-way links from sites that are relevant to the subject matter covered by your site. In other words, if you're running a website about office furniture, a link from a site that deals with business insurance would be relevant whereas a link from a site about pig farming would be of no use at all.
But it doesn't end there. If your competitor also has a link from a site offering business insurance, the linking site that has the highest page ranking will be given the most weight so for the very best results, you want sites with a high PR (page rank) linking to you.
Web pages are ranked from 0 - 10 with 10 being the highest rank. How this is worked out is similar to how the search positions are calculated - relevant content, inbound links from relevant high ranking sites and the level of traffic to your site.
Obviously, inbound links are far more difficult to arrange than the old two-way links were. It's difficult to approach a webmaster asking for a link without offering one in return. Of course, you can offer one, but as far as search engine positions are concerned, one will cancel out the other.
The best approach is to ask for a link and wait to see whether one's given without a request for a reciprocal link. If such a request does arrive then give a link back. The inbound link may not be valuable in terms of search engine results but it will still be a way into you site and that's valuable in itself. You'll also be building up a useful link resource that your own visitors will find valuable, too.
To find out how many sites are linking to you, type link:http://www.youwebsite.com (changing to your own URL, of course) into Yahoo! and you'll be given a list of all websites that Yahoo! finds linking to yours. There may be some that Yahoo! misses, but although Google also has a backlink search facility, Yahoo! is considered to be the more reliable of the two for this particular use.
Remember:
As more sites link to yours, you'll be able to see your own page rank increase. Remember, a page rank is exactly what it says, the ranking of an individual web page, not the entire site. Every page on your site will be ranked differently, depending on its content, links and popularity.
Never underestimate the value of links. They're what keep the web connected and without them, your site simply won't be found.
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Sharon Jacobsen is a full-time freelance writer living in South Cheshire, England. For a competitive fee she