If you're a new website or blog owner, and are not in the search engines yet, you might be wondering...why? And the answer is probably because you don't have any backlinks. What are backlinks? It's a hyperlink that is directed to you. The more quality backlinks you have the better search engine ranking you will have. But, I warn you to not go out and participate in link sharing programs. Also, have you heard people suggest you go and comment on blog posts, or post links in forums? Is that worth your time? Lets see.

Quality -vs- Quantity
Many people think the more one-way backlinks they receive the better page rank they will get in search engines such as Google. However, quality is better than quantity. It's way better to receive 5 backlinks from sites with an Alexa rank of 10,000 or better, than to receive 200 backlinks from blogs nobody knows about. The reason why quality is better than quantity is because google looks at what sites are linking to you rather than how many sites are linking to you. If you have a good quality backlink from CNN.com, you will probably get first page ranking on many of your pages. But if you get 50 links from no-name blogs, you won't get good results. So, remember to concentrate on QUALITY not quantity.

Also, don't go out and try to get lots of backlinks in one day. If search engines notice that yesterday you had 50 backlinks, but today you have 200, they will see that as spamming, and will penalize you from getting good SE ranking. The reason is because search engines think your website participates in spammy stuff.

So, remember to focus on gaining quality backlinks, and do not go out and spam you way into getting hundreds of links directing to your site. Not a good thing to do, because google will not like your site anymore.

Article directories
Probably the best way for you to gain backlinks is through article directories. There are some large article sites on the web, but the best one for you to gain backlinks is ezinearticles.com. The reason why ezine is such a great place to gain backlinks is because it's a quality site. ezinearticles does not accept every article, and they do not allow you to place many backlinks in the body of your post. Why is this good? Because google views links form ezinearticles as very high quality. Google knows that if you have a link from ezinearticles, it means you published good quality content, and that is what Google likes.

Keep in mind though, links in the body of your ezine article will have the nofollow tag (I'll explain more later), but in the author signature section there will be space available for up to 200 words, and you are able to place a keyword link without the nofollow tag. That is where you get the most link juice from.

There are other article directories available, but none of them offer the same link juice like ezinearticles does, plus most of them feature the nofollow tag, thus zero link juice. So, if you want to build some links online, article directories are a great way to go.

Sites like HubPages and Squidoo
Another great way to build links to your website or blog is through sites like this one! You can create quality keyword backlinks directing visitors to your website or blog. Squidoo has been the biggest source for generating quality backlinks in the past, but with so many people spamming out the lenses, Google has begun to notice HubPages backlinks more often. Thus, if you want to create links on wikis/mashups, I would suggest you use HubPages.

If you decide to use HubPages, remember that all your keyword links will have the nofollow tag until you reach the 74 point rating for your profile. NOT the individual article.

I have been in the blogging business for many years, that is how I make my living online. And I have actually never heard of HubPages until 2 week ago, so I am a newbie here on HubPages (would you become a fan?). And it's still another great way to gain quality backlinks. Even though my blog which teaches people how to monetize their website and blog has over 1500 backlinks, I'm always looking for ways to get more, because SEO is always changing, but backlinks always stay the same.

Link exchanges
I HATE link exchanges. I actually never recommend link exchanges to any new or old site on the web. They are often spammy, and search engines will look at those links and notice your site is full of spam, thus low page rank.

If you have to participate in a link exchange, pick very carefully which links you promote on your site. And make a deal with the other site to not put your link on a 'links' page or in a blogroll. Instead get a keyword link in the body of one of their posts, and you can return the favor. Keyword links without the nofollow tag are the best quality links you can get. So, if you have to use link exchanges, use that technique.

Blog commenting & forum commenting
This form of link building is okay, but with so many comment forums having the nofollow tag in place for all links, you will not gain backlinks to your site that SE's will notice. However, if you comment with quality comments, you do have the chance of getting real visitors to your site. It won't help your search engine ranking, but it could bring in more visitors to your site.

Social networks
Some people think that getting lots of links on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter is a good thing. Actually all links posted on site like Facebook and Twitter have the nofollow tag in place. Which means that search engines will not notice that link. For example, if you have 50 links on your Facebook profile page, but all of them have the nofollow tag, sites like Google will notice ZERO of those links, thus, those 50 links to not exist to search engines. So, you have not gained any backlinks to help your page rank.

Links are one of the best ways for you to get better page rank. So, work hard on creating quality content, and work hard on getting quality backlinks to your website or blog.