Fly the Flag and Get a Back Link for a Buck!

Webmasters the world over now realise the importance of getting links to their websites placed on other internet sites to help indexing and ranking by the major search engines. So I thought it a good idea to mention a new site I've come across that you can guarantee getting your link on for just a dollar!

Take a look at myPCtime.com . As you will see it is a simple take on the million pixel idea but, this time, you get to name a national flag you want to sponsor. By sponsoring a flag for a dollar you get the little flag of your choice appear on the site together with the link to your website.

While it may be a simple idea it is none the less effective as a method of getting a back link to your website published.

Why are back links so important to your website?

Well, there are two principal reasons. First is the process of getting your site indexed by Google and Co in the first place. A new site remains almost invisible on the internet until it has been indexed by the automated 'spider' programs used by the search engines. These 'crawl' websites, following links to find more sites, and build up the basic indexing of the internet.

In many cases it can be quicker to get your site indexed by having links placed on other sites for these 'spiders' to find than it is to submit your site's details manually to the search engines. Typically with manual submission it can be weeks or months before your site appears in their search results.

But even once your site is indexed by the search engines back links are valuable. Why? Well you need to understand the page ranking methods employed by many engines.

The logic is that the more times your link appears around other places on the internet the more 'popular' your site must be. Therefore a higher ranking is given by the search engines.

Why is ranking so important? Quite simply, the top ranked sites for any search will appear first on the search results given to users. The bottom ranked sites are given out last, perhaps hundreds of pages down in search results. Thus, as your ranking improves because of increasing back links, you can expect more traffic to come your way via the search engines.

Optimizing your site to achieve a good search engine rankings can be the difference between success and failure. While many webmasters do a great job detailing the key words and basic 'Meta' information contained in web pages, fewer seem to realise the importance of getting links out and about elsewhere on the internet.

So, back to where we came in, if you fancy a back link for a buck, skip over to myPCtime.com now and sponsor a flag!

The author is founder of website directory Net Store Search.