Many people overlook an important method to boost your rankings with the search engines. Google looks very closely at the sites that link to your site to determine the value of your site, these links are called “back links”. Back links are web links that point to your site. For example most businesses are members of their local chamber, and thus usually listed in the chamber’s business directory. Thus your local chamber has a back link to your site.
TIP: Double check your chamber site and make certain the information is accurate and complete.
Note Branford Chamber new website takes this “link juice” a step further for more info please see micro sites.
When the search engines spider the chamber site they will also discover your web address. You now have a link from the chamber site to your site. In theory the higher the number of links the better, EXCEPT quality matters. Links are similar to “votes” for your website. It’s better to have the NY Times post a favorable review of your restaurant, then 10 local bloggers, so it’s really quality over quantity. In fact it’s possible to be penalized for “low quality” back links.
Google analyzes both sites for relevancy as part of its algorithm to determine ranking. Example if a dog grooming site links back to your restaurant site, this is obviously a lousy link. However, if a hotel or a local wine store links to your site this would carry more weight.
It’s easy to check the number of links to your site, just go to siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/