Building backlinks - long term strategy?

[christianwins]

What is a good source to check your backlinks?

http://tools.seobook.com/
The toolbar plugin tells you what yahoo site explorer has for the # of links on each site.

[areaK]

DEF MUST HAVE LINKS TO INCREASE RANK. How many links and how long you'll have to build depends on the competition in your niche/keywords. Even once you rank well, you need to do some 'maintenance linkbuilding' so that competition doesn't end up outranking you.

You need to have a good mix - links from various sources...blogs, forums, bookmarks, articles, web 2 properties, even directories and other places. This tells Google you're 'well liked' and not just liked by one place and it makes it look more natural.

[deannatroupe]

Karen, thanks for the tips about varying the sources of backlinks. I think we get hung up on one method vs. another, especially if one seems easier than the other one.

[areaK]

Well it's a long-term strategy but I can't lie, my team is hired all of the time to speed up the backlinking and rank process.

It's the fun Google game =) You'll get there! Just keep at it and try to dedicated time to consistent link building, get 'em built up!

[RichAvery]

I've checked my backlinks and have noticed that a few sites where I've commented have "no follow". Why would someone want to do that? Because they obviously want to comment on other people's sites to get traffic built up for their own site.

Also, I've noticed that very few of my internal links are listed when I search my site in Yahoo. Have I done something in my site to prevent the from showing? Thanks.

Rich