Backlinks - Why They are Important

Just what are backlinks and why are they so important?

Backlinks are links from important Web pages to your page. Every page has zero or more backlinks.

You can find the number of these important backlinks to any of your pages by entering link:YOUR-URL in the search box at Google.

For example, to see the number of backlinks to this site's main page, click link:http://www.web-smart.info

Backlinks are "important links." Just what does that mean?

Google determines the importance of each Web page by the number of other important pages linking to that page. Google "ranks" each page according to this measure of importance.

Every page has a Google "Page Rank" or PR value. That value is a measure of the number of other important pages linking to it. A Page Rank of 10 is the highest level of importance. For example the main page of Google (http://www.google.com/) has a Page Rank of 10.

A brand new page will start out with a Page Rank of zero because nobody else is linking to it.

Each page that links to your page contributes to your page's Page Rank. The amount of this contribution is thought to depend on the Page Rank of the linking page. The contribution goes something like this:

Contribution to my page = ( Page Rank of linking page ) / ( Number of links on linking page )

Thus, if a page with Page Rank of 5 has 10 links on its page, and one of them points to your page, the contribution of that page to your page's Rage Rank is:

Contribution to my page = (5) / (10) = 0.5

This is probably a "first approximation" of the actual algorithm. Most people believe that the value of Page Rank is actually a logarithmic computation rather than a simple addition.

While the exact algorithm (computational method) for computing Page Rank is not exactly known, we believe that Google thinks important pages have a Page Rank value of about 4 or higher. Those pages with a Page Rank of 4 or more are shown in a query like: link:http://www.web-smart.info

If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can download the "Google Toolbar" that will display the Page Rank of each page you visit. Click to get the Google Toolbar.

When you enter a search phrase at Google, the sites that are displayed in the search results depend on:

• Relevance to the search phrase
• Importantance (Page Rank) of the page

Again, we don't know exactly how Google picks pages to be at the top of the search results. But, it's a good bet that for equally relevant pages, the page with the higher Page Rank get displayed above pages with lower Page Rank.

But, it's clear that the more backlinks you have, the higher your Page Rank will be and the better your chance of appearing in the top of the search results.

So, you need to both optimize your page for desired keyword phrases and get other important pages to link to your page. This will help assure you of a top spot in Google's search results.

You also should carefully choose the linking phrase (or "anchor text") that is used to link to your site. Google places emphasis on what other pages think the subject of your page is. Too often, Webmasters us the link "Home" to point to their main page, when that page is not about homes at all.

Always link to your pages using keyword phrases that you are targeting in the search engines. And, always request other sites to link to your page using your targeted keyword phrase(s).