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All About
Google Backlinks
When you have the Google Toolbar
(See the MyMommyBiz article The Google
Toolbar for more information), you will be able to see one of
the more important things Google uses to determine your rankings in the
search engine.
Google also thinks it is important
to know how many *other* people think your site is worth by giving you
a link on their webpage. Every site that links to you that has a PR of
4/10 or higher counts towards your Google Backlinks. (PR=PageRank in webmaster
talk) However, recently Google began mixing things up by showing only
links which where lower than a PR4.
When you go to your main index
page of your site, to the right side of your PageRank, you will see the
little blue "i" with "Page Info". Click on the button,
then select "Backward Links". This will show many of the pages
that Google has found that deem your site worthy :)
Now, Google has a few "rules"
so to speak, before it will include a certain page in your backlinks and
count it towards your PR.
1 - Only sites with certain
PageRank values are listed.
The linking page must have a PR4 or higher (although occasionally a lower
PR ranked page will show). If the site's index page has a PR of 6, but
the page your link appears on is only a PR of 3, it won't count in your
backlinks. However, the opposite occurs during the times when Google is
displaying backlinks that are lower than PR4.
2 - Your link must be coded
a certain way.
A link such as http://www.yourdomain.com
will not count towards your backward links. But if the link is coded so
that you can click on "My Fabulous
Website" and it will take people to your site, that will count.
If the URL doesn't point to your website per se (ie. it is coded with
a tracking code from the other persons site such as "http://www.theirdomain.com/links/yourdomain/jump.cgi")
it usually won't count either. For more on determining whether your backlink
will count or not, the article Checking
the Validity of Link Exchanges is much more detailed on this.
3 - Choose your linking
text carefully.
To add to #3, if your target search term is "Candles", it will
help you in your search rankings if your link has the word candles in
it. (ie. people can click on "My
Fabulous Candle Site" and go to your webpage) To learn more about
selecting the best link text to use, the article Using
Link Text for Better Results
has more information.
4 - Higher PR sites are
better than lower PR sites.
When you link to *other* people's pages, it helps your PR to link to someone
with a PR6 rather than a PR2 - and you should always be wary of linking
to someone with a PR0 because if that site has been penalized (rather
than just being new) it can actually hurt your rankings because Google
sees you are linking to a "bad neighborhood", so to speak.
5 - Check your link partner's
PR value.
When you do link exchanges, you should also check to see what *their*
PR is first. You would be surprised at the number of sites that have been
banned, and you will want to be careful you aren't linking into too many
bad neighborhoods, as that can also get you banned by association if you
have lots of PR0 links to and from your site, but very few higher PR links.
6 - Check the PR values
of sites you advertise on.
When you advertise online, check out the PR of the site and page where
your ad will appear ~ if it is a PR4 or higher, and it appears when Google
does its monthly crawl, it will count as a backlink. And again, be wary
if the page your ad will appear on is a PR0. And also be aware that only
certain links will count towards you backlink value, since certain sites
use advertising programs that will route your link through a hoplink first.
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