The nofollow tag has been taken on as a way to prevent spam by all the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN as well as minor search engines. It was initially created for bloggers who had to face too much of spam in the comment box of their blogs. It orders the search engine to ignore any particular link because it is not trustworthy. Whereas, the dofollow tag simply acts as a removal of the nofollow tag from blogs. It promotes posters to build communities though you may have to fight more spammers.

Google PageRank (PR) is a numeric value that is used by Google to determine the importance of any page on the web. Although, it isn’t the only factor that Google uses to rank pages, but no doubt it is an important one when it comes to determining the search engine rankings of any page. According to Google, when one page links to another page, it is in fact voting for that page. The more the number of votes for any particular page, the more important the page must be. Also, the PR of the page that is voting for any page determines the worth of the vote itself.

Automated directory submitters are software programs that can simplify the process of submitting your website to web directories. The submission process is mostly semi-automated because most directories require that a capcha code be entered before the submission will be accepted. The submitter program completes all the fields with your sites details and you then need to type in the capcha code. The submitter software then completes the submission process.

While backlinks from forums and blogs are usually considered “low quality”, it’s still a good way of promoting your site as you can expect to recieve some direct traffic coming to your site from the links you post. Note that many blogs and some forums place the nofollow tag on links which won’t help with your sites link popularity.

Join relevant and popular forums and blogs in your niche and start commenting on the posts. But do not spam for links instead focus on building a relationship with other bloggers in order to get quality links. It is also a good idea to post or write relevant topics and invite other bloggers to comment on it. You can do it yourself or hire some freelance writer to do it for you on a regular basis.

Contacting other webmasters is a good way to increase the link popularity of your web sit. But these days, webmasters get many link exchange messages and it’s really difficult to get noticed. Below is a list of things to make sure that webmasters reply to your link exchange request:

• Don’t expect too much action from the other webmaster.
• Don’t teach the other webmaster about search engine optimization.
• Remember the K.I.S (Keep It Short) strategy when writing an email to other webmaster.
• Don’t ask for a link if the other site is not related to your niche.
• Link to the other website first.
• Make sure that your website has a professional design.
• Be polite and humble.
• Never praise your own site. It’s enough to mention your site URL.
• Don’t use free email addresses when sending email to other webmasters.

Backlinks are the links given from one website to another. These links enable you to keep track of other sites on the Internet that link or point to your site. For instance, suppose webmaster A has a site that webmaster B finds interesting. Webmaster B then goes to his own site and write something of his own, linking back to webmaster A’s site. Now webmaster A’s site will automatically show that webmaster B has linked to it.

Link popularity is a general representation of the total number of sites and their quality which link to a particular site (or individual web page). Almost all the major search engines including Google, Yahoo & MSN support the “link:” operator. Type in link: in front of the URL about which you want to know.

Link popularity is important because it plays a major role in the visibility of the website and is used by search engines in determining the ranking on a site in search results. Generally the more inbound links, the higher will be the position of the site.

We know that backlinks are one of the most important factors in determining the worth of any website on the search engines. And, buying backlinks is one of the easiest and fastest ways to build backlinks. So, there is no question of Google penalizing any site just for “buying backlinks.” BUT, you must ensure that the backlinks you bought contains your targeted keywords. For instance, if you are targeting the keyword ‘acne skin’, then these two words should appear somewhere in the text of your backlinks. Your backlinks must be concise so the search engine spiders won’t get confused. Another important factor to consider is if the website you are buying your backlink from is banned by Google or not. If it is, chances are that your website could get banned too if it links to yours. So beware!

Yes, forum signatures are a good way to build links. You should join popular forums in your niche, make a signature and insert a link to the homepage or some inner pages of your site and start contributing to ongoing discussions.

The nofollow tag does not allow trading PageRank with another website. That’s why it is not recommended in reciprocal link trading where you not only have to trade traffic but also the PageRank with other website. On the other hand, the dofollow tag allow you to trade PageRank and reward those who comment on your blog or message board.