How I am testing backlinks 

Alot is being talked about when it comes to backlinks in SEO circles. Basically, they are the holy grail of the Internet. It's not the amount of them nor is it the link architecture methodology. It comes down to the quality of your link. Is it an ad? or is it information? Search engines like information as ads are usually looked at as spam and they want to provide their users with the best quality sites according to the user's search criteria.

What also matters is where the link is either coming from or going to. If  you link to a Page Rank 6 or 7 page, it actually improves your ranking as well. If a Page Rank 6 or 7 links to you, then  your page gets a higher value Page Rank.

Links to your page are treated like votes of assurance and it matters who is giving you that vote. If you go out and get only reciprical links, you know, where you either sign up or ask a buddy "if you point to me I'll point to you", it is believed that search engines frown upoin this. I say it is believed because typically search engines do not make their algorythms public.

Some other conditions search engines supposedly frown upon are non-related llinks. If you link off to a dog collar website from your fishing website.  

In addition if you link to a spam page or an auto generated system of pages then your 'worth value' as a linker or even as a link receiver depreciates. This is also believed in the case of linking to a site that has been banned or is illegal in nature, promotes hate, etc....

How your links are sent and received matters as well. If someone sends a link to your  site with the link anchor text "Domian Names"  then the first < h 1 > < /h 1 >  on that linked to page should have somthing to do with domain names like The funniest Domain Names or something along those lines. Do not forget that the information on that page also needs to deal with the topic.

For my backlinks for the my blogs, my forum and my SEO area I have used 3 different methods to test.

One is the Search Engine optimized way, I have written some articles and linked back to my sites tastefully with in the articles and  usually in the top part of the article. I have posted the articles on my sites then I modified them a bit and posted them on a few sites that accept articles. I posted some on some public blogs as well. I published the RSSs on these sites to various sites as well. For the links in the articles I have tracked the links to know where they are coming from, who, where, etc....

The second technique I am using is 1-way Resource list. You know, add-yourself type page. I have installed one here at http://seo.peuan.com/ls  this is a page you are list your web resource, or test one way back link or just add one. I am told that these pages do not rank well I am using this install to see the how the page rank of that page matures. included at the top of that page is a Page Rank Tool. Feel free to go and see the results of this add-a-resource page for yourself.

A third way I am currently testing backlinks is via reciprical links. You put a link on your site to me and I will put a link from my site to you. Again, these are not the best Page Rank type pages. I am using an install of a Top 10 or top 20 site. You sign up to them, add your website, they give you a small graphic button link back to them which you have to put on your site like this.

 For each hit you send them the hire you go up in their top 10 or 20 or whatever lists.  I have installed one to try out here: http://seo.peuan.com/ts/ This site lets you list your website. Gives real-time stats on visitors, hits in and out and impressions, etc... You can vote on sites and you can actually review sites. So, this type of reciprical link is a bit more interactive and dynamic than a normal reciprocal link. Again there is a Page Rank tool in the top of that page you can see for yourself how these types of pages Page Rank over time.

As I learn more I will test other methods of backlinks, such as social engineering methods of just asking website owners and if any ideas you yourself might have. Feel free to post any suggestions or corrections.