Every owner of a web site wants his site at the top of search engine results but getting there is no easy task. A search engine like Google uses an algorithm (mathemetical language) that factors in huge range of variables to rank pages. Many would consider backlinks to site by other sites as possibly the most important other than the content itself.

By using an effective strategy for getting backlinks without using spam, you can eventually achieve the top rankings you desire. Using spamming techniques may get backlinks to your site but they are usually not quality links and search engine crawlers these days can figure out what you are doing. Search engines have penalties for websites that use spamming techniques to increase backlink frequency.

Here are some tips for getting backlinks without using spam:

Informative sites will get natural backlinks
For starters, don&qt;&qt;t rely on backlinks to market your site. Your over-reliance on them may cause you to get aggressive in getting backlinks, search engine companies may start to be suspicious of you. Remember, a web site does not necessarily replace the need for proven marketing techniques such as word-of-mouth. A good site will naturally gain links from other sites because web masters see your page/s as being important and it would help their vistors be more informed on a topic/subject.

Free and paid for directories
You can submit your site to the many free directories that are out there. Many provide links on pages that have some PR (Page Rank). PR is important in that higher ranked pages are considered more important in the eyes of Google (the most important search engine) and ranges from 0 to 10. Getting a backlink from a high ranked page gives the impression your page is also important because it has been given a "vote" by the high ranked page.

Ask for a reciprocal link
These is essentially a request by yourself to other websmasters if they would exchange links with you which would be mutually beneficial to both of you. This is usually done by sending an email to a site owner requesting the link and explaining why you would like a link. For a full explanation on the methods of exchanging links with another site and and how to get high PR sites to link with you, you should read this article.

Whe you ask another site for a link exchange, make sure it is a single link of one page. Avoid getting sitewide links. These are links that appear on every page of another site using the same anchor link (link title). These are a dead giveaway to a search engine because it looks highly unnatural and spammy.

Backlinks in Forums
If you post messages to forums and message boards and include your website in the signature, make sure that you are contributing quality posts related to the message thread subject. Search engine crawlers can figure out when links are not relevant to the posts and you may get tagged as a spammer.

Many times a provider of free website templates will allow you to use their templates royalty-free provided you include a link back to their site on your customized version of it.

Ask the webmaster of the site if he can include your link on his site in exchange for some price reduction or other compensation you may provide. Freelance forum and job sites will sometimes offer the freelancer a reduction in their fee in exchange for the coder including a link back to them on the freelancer&qt;&qt;s web site.

In any case, make absolutely sure that the strategy you choose will not make a search engine suspicious that you are spamming. If you even think that your strategy has a hint of spamming, don&qt;&qt;t do it. You may never get included into a top ranking on a search engine.