What is a link? A link (or hypertext link) is a powerful web protocol where text or images on website pages can be "clicked-on" and then the user is taken to another page.

Links are one of the key elements that make the internet work and analyzing links and anchor text is one of the key ways search engines deliver relevant results to users.

What is anchor text? Anchor text is the text that you click on in a link. So if I wanted to create a link to my homepage, http://tribeswell.com, and I create a link in a block of text that says "website design experts", then the "website design experts" is the anchor text.

When a search engine scans the web and adds pages to its index, it also takes note of all the links on each page and the anchor text included in those links. If the search engine sees a link with anchor text that says website design then it infers that the page that is linked-to is important for the term "website design".

The first links to think about are the links on your website that link to other pages on your site.  It is important to have a strong internal linking structure within your website. Here's an example:

• Let's say you're a real estate agent and you have the following pages on your website: "Selling Your Home", "Buying a Home", and "Current Listings".
• Let's say you're working on the "Buying a Home" page. It would be beneficial to include a link on that page to your "Current Listings" page, and the anchor text for that link might be "see all our current real estate listings".
• You'll want to do this same thing across all your pages and throughout all your content.
• Go back to your keyword research and make sure that your anchor text contains the keywords that you'd like to rank for.

Another important factor in your search engine rankings will be links from other sites. When a search engine comes across a link to your site its algorithms infer that your site is important.

But not all links are create equal.

If you receive a link from a site that has a large number of links, it will receive more weight than a link from a site with fewer links. Another thing to consider is having links from a wide diversity of sites. If all of your links come from the same sites, it's not as effective as having links from lots and lots of sites.

So how do you get sites to link to you?

Are you a member of any professional organizations or your local chamber of commerce? Often if you are a member of an association, all you have to do is contact them and ask them to link to you and they will do it, especially if you are already listed on their website.

Another great place to find links is with blogs that cover your industry. Contact the owners of such blogs whenever you are doing something newsworthy and ask them to write a piece about you. Just be sure to be polite and personal. Don't just blast out impersonal press releases.