Reciprocal Link Development Procedure

A growing number of search engines use link popularity in their ranking algorithms. Google uses it as its most important factor in ranking sites. HotBot, AltaVista, MSN, Inktomi, and others also use link popularity in their formulas. Eventually every major engine will use link popularity, so developing and maintaining it are essential to your search engine placement. Link popularity can do a lot for your site. Not only will many search engines rank you higher, but links from other sites will also drive more traffic to you. Link popularity is much more than a measure of how many links point to a site. Search engines use far more sophisticated formulas to gauge how popular sites are. In general, however, link popularity is measured by the following factors:

1. Number of Links - The more, the better. Although lots of irrelevant links are less effective than a few relevant ones, they're better than nothing. Inktomi, a company that provides search results to engines like HotBot, still values the number of links more than nothing else.

2. Link text - The text used to describe a link can also affect your rankings. These links all point to the same URL but use different text: Yourwebsite.com Your Keywords Click here Search engines' spiders figure that any words other sites use to describe your site are particularly relevant. So, if lots of sites linking to you use keywords in their link text, search engines will boost your ranking for those keywords.

Source: http://www.softzsolutions.com/seo/linkbuilding/