These inbound links, or backlinks as some people refer to them, allow search engines to find your site easily, rank your pages and improve your rank on search engines. However, not all backlinks are created equal.

Links that come from legitimate sites are obviously the best, especially if you are linked to from a popular site like the BBC. Be warned though, purchased links from 'Link farms" might actually do more harm than good and we always stay clear of these types of backlinks.

You can build a good base of inbound links in the right way if you are patient and consistent in your efforts.

The first step is to set up links from your own domains (under your control) and this is easy to do - so create links from your blog, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and any other social media platform you may have. When you post entries on these platforms include links to your site to build your backlinks. There is also the benefit of people retweeting your message on Twitter which will get you extended coverage.

We would also find directories relating to your industry and add in entries that link back to your web site to boost your backlinks.

You can also ask partners and affiliates to add links to their web sites and it is a good idea to return the favour here - you'll be amazed at how these backlinks improve your ranking with search engines.

There is also another "trick", well not really a trick as such but there is a way to form your backlinks that gives an extra boost to your ranking. Try inserting keywords into the anchor text (the text that acts as a link, normally "Click Here" or "More ...") The best way to form the link is like this, Web Design Cheltenham, where Web Design Cheltenham is one of our keyphrases and this links to our web site - this will boost our ranking for this specific keyphrase.

This provides the most appropriate and powerful backlink for your web site.

For more information on promoting your web site with search engines email Robert directly at robert (at) tiger-fish (dot)com