Link building is the practice of creating links to your web site from other sites.
In the recent past, the value of building 'inbound' links was to create a perception that your site was of higher value than that of your competitor.  The simple rationale was little more than 'more links = more importance = higher placement in the search engines' .  This is not quite valid today.

Linking is still important and of value. 
However, its impact on favourable search engine ranking has become much more sophisticated.  Search engines have placed tighter controls on the value of these links.  My interpretation of the real world value of link building has been simplified to 5 'logical' guidelines.  Stick with these and you will not run into any issues with the Search Engine gods.

My 5 tips for a Real World Approach to Link Building

1. The linking site must be contextually relevant to your site.

2. The linking site must have value for the site visitors.

3. The link text and 'surrounding' content should make sense to  your readers.

4. Stay away from link farms, link lists and other link manipulation schemes...you will get penalized.

5. The links do not need to be reciprocal. 

Paul Mark

2006-02-10