SEO can seem like a daunting task, but articles like “Backlinking – Why Search Engines Think It’s Important” from the Vertical Response Marketing Blog help to make sense of it all.

What is Backlinking?

Plain and simple it is what it sounds like – getting other web sites to link back to your web site.

But the search engines don’t just count the number of backlinks you have, they QUALIFY them.

Google and other popular search engines use a ranking algorithm (which is a closely guarded secret that Sergey & Larry probably don’t even know) to evaluate the quality of incoming links, page rank of the linking site, the content on the site or blog linking in, the link text, and a whole host of additional criteria, to determine the value of that link to the search engine.

Bottom line? You don’t just want anyone linking into your site, you want the right kind of site with the right type of link.