In this blog, one of my favorite topics to blog about is backlinks because of their importance for generating free organic traffic. Some marketers get the concept of generating backlinks but fail to grasp the full understanding of how they work. There is a reason why the site with 5 inbound links outranks the site with 500 inbound links.

The answer lies in the anchored text links being used and the quality of your inbound links.

To get better results which your incoming links, you need to use your keywords as the anchored text. For example, if your keyword is “get money fast” and you are using your web address alone for you backlink, then you won’t be making great use of your inbound links. Even though you have 500 inbound links, you competitor may still beat you with 5 inbound links with the anchored text “get money fast”.

Another factor involved in determining your search rankings are the page ranks and outbound links from the websites that are linked to yours. When you think of it, it should all make sense. If for example you have 500 websites with a PR 0 rankings and no outgoing links linking to your site, the inbound link will not be as relevant as having 5 sites with PR 5 rankings and 150 outgoing links each.

The quantity of inbound links is important for search engine optimization, but the quality and your choice of keywords will prove to be the determining factor for increasing your search engine rankings.

Article marketing is a great way to generate quality free backlinks and increase your page rank with the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The only setback is the dreaded duplicate content issue that loom so large in the back of every marketers mind.

For example if you write a great informative,keyword rich article and submit it to let’s say, fifty article directories, you will have created the possibilities of getting thousands of backlinks. In case you didn’t know, articles directories distribute your articles to several other sources and that’s how you can create so many backlinks.

The problem of duplicate content rears it’s puny little head when you check your statistics and see 7 listings in Google with the same article. The good news is that your backlinks are safe and you will get credit for them. The bad news is that your backlinks will not be as relevant due to the duplicate content.

To avoid the duplicate content issue, there a few thing you can do to increase the relevancy of your backlinks. One is to submit your articles to article submitting services that circulate your articles to hundreds of directories at one time. Google does not penalize you if you article gives credit to the article directory that circulates your article. So instead of submitting to 50 directories, you can submit to 2 to 3 of these services which will minimize the amount of articles you have published without giving credit to another directory.

There are few article directories that provide this service. Some of them even offer a creative way to spin your articles for even more security from the duplicate content bug. These directories are as follows: Isnare, Article Submission Service, and Free Traffic System.

When you look at it, it all makes sense. After all, if someone wants to print your article on their website, that means that your must be providing good content.