So, how many backlinks do you have? Have you ever given that much thought, and do you know why the answer to that question is so important? If not, you’re about to find out why that needs to change – and fast!

Does this scenario sound familiar? You’ve built a great-looking web site with excellent original content, including images, video, etc., and you’re waiting for Google to show your site some love and give it a top position in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

And you wait, and wait, and wait…..and your site’s still nowhere to be seen, and is still stuck with a paltry Page Rank of zero (Page Rank is a measurement of respectability assigned by Google, from zero to 9, 9 being the ultimate Google accolade for a web site).

You’ve done all the things you were told to do – you’ve got your on-page SEO (search engine optimization) set up nicely, your affiliate links in place, etc. – and you’re left scratching your head and wondering what you’re missing.

Backlinks Are The Key To Google Love

Well, here’s what you’re missing – BACKLINKS, my friend! If you’re new to web sites and SEO, you may be wondering just what I mean when I talk about backlinks.

Backlinks are links from a site (preferably what’s called an “authority site” in your particular niche or market, an authority site being what’s regarded as an expert site in a particular field) linking back to a page of your site. This is what’s commonly referred to as “link juice”, which is the juice, or fuel, that drives Google to give web sites higher rankings.

The more backlinks you have leading from a site whose content is relevant to yours (and this is important for reasons which I’ll explain shortly), the more Google will regard your site as an authority site, and, therefore, will reward your site with higher rankings in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

What’s This Got To Do With Page Rank?

The short answer to that is – EVERYTHING! At least, so it’s thought – let’s face it, Google and its staff of mysterious superheros keep their secrets closely guarded, so nobody can state much of anything with any certainty where Google and its inner workings are concerned.

But, the generally held view is that, when it comes to the question “How many backlinks do you have?”, the answer you give needs to be “A LOT!”. That’s right – the more,…no, not the merrier (although that will be one of the side-effects when you look at your bank account as a result), but the higher.

However, it’s not just all about the number of backlinks you have, but also about the quality and relevance of those links. So, let’s look at those two particular attributes of the backlinks you need to please Google.

1. Quality Backlinks

Having backlinks is great, but, there again, not all backlinks are created equal, but what does that mean? Well, if you are involved in the pet niche and you have a backlink from a friend’s blog that deals with pet supplies, but that blog has only one or 2 posts on it and no backlinks. That wouldn’t be counted by Google as part of your score when it comes to ranking in the search results.

Now, if that same blog has a lot of pages and posts containing quality content and has backlinks from other respected sites in the pet supplies market, a backlink to your site from that blog would be rated highly be Google and so count as a quality backlink for your ranking score.

2. Relevant Backlinks

It used to be that in the “Good Old Days” when Google was working on improving the quality of its search results you could go out to what were known as “Backlink Farms”, and buy as many backlinks as you wanted and that would boost your ranking in the search engine results and also increase your Page Rank. These backlinks could be from any site on any topic in any market and it would still count.

So, you could have a backlink from a site selling baby products to yours marketing weight loss products, and it would be counted by Google. And just how relevant are baby products to weight loss products? Not very.

But, Google eventually got wise to this and started not only disallowing this type of irrelevant link, but also penalizing sites that had such backlinks. As a result, backlinks to your baby products site need to be relevant to the baby products market, whether it be baby supplies, baby health care, baby toys, etc.

So, in view of the information I just shared with you, let’s pose that question to you again, “How many backlinks do you have?“? Remember, we’re not just talking about any old backlinks here, but quality, relevant backlinks that Google will love and will result in Google showing you plenty of search results love as well.

This has been an introduction to backlinks and their importance, but there’s a lot more to backlinks and acquiring them than this, so I encourage you to take a look at the finest resource available online to help you with your backlinks campaign, namely Wealthy Affiliates. In fact, that’s the ONLY resource you need to help you with all your online business needs, from training to actual implementation of strategies and systems, including article marketing, PPC (pay-per-click), affiliate marketing, etc. For my full, unbiased review of all that Wealthy Affiliates has to offer, go here and see for yourself if this isn’t the best thing you can do to take your online business to the level you want.