Links are an essential part of the web.
They allow us to easily navigate from one page to another.
Links are also used by search engine algorithms to determine page relevancy.
For example, the famous PageRank algorithm to rank pages is based on links.
Therefore, there are many strategies how to create links and improve ranking positions.
Unfortunately, not all links are the same and getting high quality links is not so easy.
The first difference between links is the so called "nofollow" attribute.
Links that use this attribute are not followed by search engines and such links also do not contribute to the PageRank calculation.
Another difficulty with web browsers is that you can not easily determine which links are nofollow and which are normal.
This is because browsers do not make distinction between them.
You can solve this problem with a plugin which somehow labels nofollow links.
The nofollow attribute is used to mark backlinks in user generated content or on pages where it is not desired that the link passes the PageRank value to the target page.
Most backlink hunters ignore pages which have nofollow links.
This is not a good idea because in order to have a "natural" profile you need also some nofollow backlinks.
Another mistake made by many webmasters is to use this link attribute for most of the links.
You should understand that links connect pages together and other webmasters and page owners also don't like nofollow links.
Links have also another property that is too many times overlooked.
The anchor text--the text that actually links to another page is also important.
This text describes what the linked page is about.
This information is also used by search engine algorithms to additionally determine the page content.
Therefore, it makes sense to use words that describe page you are linking to.
The reality is that many webmasters create pages with the "click here" anchor text.
This is not wrong--it only creates a link without any useful information.
Anchor text is important for search engine optimization.
When doing off-page optimization you should try to create backlinks that have relevant keywords for anchor texts.
Try to avoid using only one or two word phrases.
Use all relevant synonyms and related words.
Another important parameter is the authority of the page where the link is located.
The page authority is passed also to all the links on the page.
This means that links on pages with high PageRank are more attractive than links on other pages.