The links going back to your site or leading to your site has a major and important role in your PR (PageRank). It simply means your site is important.
One good example is the ever famous Blogroll. It is very seldom for a blog to not have a blogroll probably new ones but they'll have one in no time as they find new friends to add on that blogroll. Blogroll is like a shake hands and "Hey! I like you! Can we be friends?" and without even asking permission others put those links because they like to, because they are important. Most bloggers add their friends in their blogrolls, it is normal. So, does it help? Yes! It not only builds relationship but like I said it is the basis of how important your site is.
Have you read an article that really inspired you? Sometimes it inspires you a lot that you make the same post or copy the most inspiring part of that article and then you make a link to it - that link is just a normal link or a url. Did you know that there is a better way of telling that blogger that inspired you that his link is inspiring that helps his blog and yours as well? Well, not all bloggers use this feature called Backlinks. It is by the way available at Blogger, I think all blogs have this but you must activate it. If you don't know what it looks like, do the following:
- First, this topic must be selected exclusively which means you are not reading from the main page. You must select this topic first.
- If you are already reading this article exclusively, check below this article - even below the comments and look for "Blog About This Post" and you will find a link there "Create a Link". That is where the backlink is created. Of course if you click that and if you are logged-in to Blogger, it will open a new window where you can create a new post for your blog that contains the link to this article. I don't know what happens if you don't have a blogger account, I'll probably try it later to confirm.
If you did make an article, you will find the url of the post that you made on that area thus making a temporary link to your website. I said temporary because the blogger can remove this if they wanted to. I used to think this is a bad thing for my blog so I deleted those backlinks. Now, I am not expert on this matter but I believe the link can be permanent as long as the blogger did not remove it. So how does this help you? It will not just add PR to your site but it will also make you more visible in search engines. The more backlinks you have in your blog, the more visible you are in search engines and it is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization, but if you are marketing your site for money it will be called SEM or Search Engine Marketing.
A Quick Info: Backlink creates two links, one to your site which contains the link to that article and the article's backlink area. The ones you find in the article is the inbound link and the ones found in your article is outbound link.
Warning: Don't overdo it or abuse this feature because Google has many serious people who makes sure you are not spamming. So try to monitor the backlinks in your site, if it is not related to the article that you made then remove that backlink. You'll lose your PR if you abuse this.
Hey! Did you know by dropping as often as possible in my EntreCard will promote your site for free. Yes it is true and while the Top Droppers at Entre is on my widgets sidebar the top droppers will remain sponsored for free and they can't delete your link since it is a widget. So what does this say? OPPORTUNITY! Yes, if you find a PR rated website with Top Droppers at Entre widget, try to drop there as often as possible - it will leave a mark eventually.
So enjoy backlinking.