As soon as Google the search engine optimization service, announced its link popularity based PageRank system, the technique of link building took off and became popular everywhere. All competing websites began targeting more and more inbound links in order to increase their page ranks. The idea behind Google's PageRank is the higher the number of links a page has, the greater is its popularity and thus shall receive a higher PageRank according to the search engines.

The system of inbound links was used earlier by a few search engines too, but it was Google that made it prominent. Accordingly, the evaluation of inbound links to a website was also altered by the latter. Earlier search engines also counted the number of inbound links that the page had, but now, each inbound link to a page must itself carry a few inbound link in order to be considered important. There are a number of ways in which these important inbound links can be attained so that they show valuable results in search engine optimization.

Acquiring one way link to a website is more beneficial than the two way linking system. Directories are one such place that provides the option to link one way. Many web masters find submitting to directories time consuming and boring, but the fruits of benefit are reaped only when they transfer traffic from one website to another.

Another effective place from where you can pull inbound links is through Forums. There are several forums that are functional in the web. Join as many of these forums you can and place your website link in your comments or signature lines. This will not only provide a source for your inbound link but will also help you participate in important discussions. Such open forums form an important pillar of search engine optimization and help in ranking websites.

Link exchange can also be attained by email requests. All you need to do is check the websites that are linked to your competitor's website, and then send them emails requesting them to link with your website. If they agree on your terms, you will not only be able at par with your competitors, but will possibly move higher up from where they are.

There are several link selling websites too. These websites sell link on behalf of other websites that are medium of high PageRank sites that link o several pages in the website. There are also many link brokers who offer links on behalf of other websites.