A backlink is simply a link to your site from another site. Backlinks are also referred to as inbound links, incoming links and inward links. Having a good amount of backlinks leading to your site can do a lot for your search engine ranking. Your goal is to have numerous backlinks from authoritative sites and sites that are relevant to your site.

One way backlinks are much more effective in improving your search engine rankings than the traditional reciprocal links. A reciprocal link is when two websites trade links but this method has been somewhat abused over the years so backlinks are much more impressive. Reciprocal linking will still help your ranking if done properly but you want to work on getting powerful backlinks.

Below are ten ways to help you get more successful backlinks to help improve your search engine ranking.

1. RSS Directories - If you have an RSS feed you will want to consider submitting it to some of the top RSS Directories. Submitting to RSS directories will get your updates indexed and back linked quickly. Some of the top RSS Directories are Feedburner, Blogarama, RSS Network and Golden RSS Feed. Do a search to find many more.

2. Social Media - What list would be complete without social media? Get involved with your social sites and post relevant content. Respond to people. Comment on other posts. The more relevant content you post and the more you get involved, the more chances you have of people reposting your content resulting in a backlink to your site.

3. Forum Marketing - Get involved on message boards, discussion groups and community sites. Become a valued member. Do not just post thank you and I agree with that type posts. Be sure to offer information and resources that are really helpful to people. With every post you will have a backlink to your site included in your signature.

4. Freebies - Write an information filled report or eBook. Offer it free to all your visitors. Add a page to your site highlighting this freebie and offer people permission to post it on their site as well for their visitors. People love good freebies so this strategy could give you a considerable amount of backlinks.

5. Commenting on Blogs - Some blogs will allow you to add your link for posting comments on their content. Make these comments count so the blogger will allow them to be posted. Bloggers want good solid content and comments on their blog to attract more interaction so don't just attempt to post one-liners.

6. Article Marketing - Write information-packed quality articles and start submitting them to authority article directories such as EzineArticles. Watch for article banks loaded with spam articles. You want your backlinks to mean something to the search engines. Write an effective resource box and add your link for a backlink people will click on.

7. Web Directory Submissions - Search for and find some of the top website directories. Be sure to read their guidelines so your submission is accepted. Some examples of quality website directories are: Web World Index, So Much, Search Sight and Direct My Link. There are countless more to which you can submit your site.

8. Link Baiting - Link baiting is a marketing strategy by which a person adds content to their site which is designed to gain attention and to get people to link to the content. A lot of the time, hype and controversy are used for this purpose such as celebrity gossip, news stories, human interest stories, etc. Using innovative or cutting edge content can gain a lot of backlinks as well.

9. Guest Posting on Blogs - Guest posting is similar to article marketing. Write relevant content for numerous different blogs and submit them for acceptance as a guest post. Getting your posts with your link on quality blogs is a great way to add to your backlink arsenal.