When one website links to another using a hyperlink this will be used by the search engines to basically vote for the linked website. Unlike a democracy were the votes are all equal, the search engines believe some links count more than others, and this is basically what the Page Rank algorithm determines; by giving different web pages a score based on how much Page Rank has been passed to them. There are many details of the Page Rank algorithm, which vary constantly. To explain it in detail is almost futile. In order to fully understand how to properly build a natural looking link portfolio, one needs to understand two important concepts: Link Popularity and Link Reputation.

Link Popularity is just the sheer number of links you have pointing to your web pages. It could also be thought of as how much Page Rank is being passed to your web pages.
Link Reputation is what types of keywords were used in the anchor text. This is used to determine relevance for certain search terms in the search engine.
So there are two battles to be won. The first is to get as many highly valuable links as possible. And the second is to build relevance for the keyword phrases you are targeting.
Not to totally minimize the on-page SEO factor, it has its place. By experience, it could make up for a lot of poor on-page SEO with excellent off-page SEO.

After becoming more familiar with back links, take heed that the following secret techniques are considered to be in the "dark arts of SEO." The use of this knowledge should be used with discretion.

Using this secret technique with care will yield much better results in the long run. A good stand point to take is to fly under the radar and appear as natural as possible when using these techniques.

The following information could allow a website to explode in page rank - and online income - in no time.

Links are important to online success because they act as "spider food." Links are essential in order to get new sites crawled by the search engines and get web sites indexed so that they can begin to rank for the specified target search terms.
The greatest product on earth won't be found if no one knows about it!

Links help to build page relevancy, as well. They are a major way search engines determine how relevant web pages are for certain search terms. Building links from relevant websites ensures that a site will get crawled by the spiders and indexed by the search engines, thus, being ranked accordingly.
Building relevant links to a web page is the number one thing that improves search engine rankings.
Obtaining high search engine rankings is not all about having as many links to your site as possible. Having quality and relevant links ensure a high search engine ranking.

To further explain this concept, take a close look at...

The Google Patent
Why is the U.S. Google Patent one of the single most important documents published in the past decade?
Here's why: This paper reveals a great deal of information on how to rank in Google and gives some understanding of the direction Google is going and what they are going to be looking for in the future.
What is known about Google is that they rely heavily on inbound links to help rank websites for given search terms. The good thing is that through the Google Patent they have now explained how it all works.
Google has long been known to look at the number, quality, and anchor text as factors in weighing the value of a link. But it has now come to light that Google also considers historical factors in their computations.
This explains the theory of the "Google sandbox" or what can also be described as the aging of a new website before it will begin to rank in the index. This countdown begins the minute links to a brand new site are discovered.
Google apparently records:

•   When the link is first discovered
• If that link changes over time
• And the speed at which a site gains links
  

Why is this new information important? Because it's now clear that obtaining too many links too fast can cause your site to be shoved in the sandbox and possibly be taken out of the Google index.
There is a certain way to go about avoiding setting off any alarms when building links.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to build up enough links to make a difference in the search engines. There is continually more competition and Google is continually improving their spam filters to penalize over done link building efforts.
To succeed today, growing links steadily and slowly keeps from setting off any alarms. Being mindful of where the links are obtained accounts for relevancy is better than just having a lot of links to random sites.
Obtaining thousands of links to a brand new site is a sure fire way to get the site shoved in the sandbox and possibly ignored. A goal when building links should be to make that link growth appear as natural as possible.

In the following sections, there are 5 insider strategies to use to help ensure that a sites' link growth appears natural and to prevent websites from "setting off any alarms." After the tips is a technique that will allow the fulfillment of each one of these 5 requirements to appear as natural as possible.

Appearing Natural Tip #1: Find Relevant Links
The first thing to do when starting out is to build links to relevant websites. A relevant link is appears on the linking webpage and either mentions a hyperlinked keyword or a synonym to that keyword.
As of right now, it does not appear that Google, Yahoo, or MSN are using relevancy in their ranking algorithms but they soon will.
Everyone is starting to prepare for the coming changes now, so when the changes are made, rankings will reflect the relevant links, thus giving more credibility instantaneously.
Relevant links might also cause traffic flow from those links if they are related to the theme of the site they are on. In the future, these links will be viewed by the search engines as more valuable and will make web pages appear more relevant for the target search terms.

Appearing Natural Tip #2: Anchor Text Variety
Non Natural Anchor Text
Anchor text is the readable portion of the text that is usually underlined and in blue. Here is the html:http://www.golfclubs.com/"Golf Clubs
The portion that says "Golf Clubs" is the anchor text. This is important because this anchor text is how the search engines determine relevance for search terms. So to rank for "Golf Clubs," obtaining links with this in the anchor text is vital.
Many people go out and get 1,000 links all with the exact same anchor text. The problem is that this would not occur naturally. Back link analysis will show that back link anchor text is not 100% pure.
It could have "click here" or "http://www.golfclubs.com/", etc. It looks very suspicious to the search engines if the anchor text is all exactly the same.

Natural Anchor Text Linking
Build links using a variety of anchor text in order to appear natural. Change up the anchor text; even if it seems overkill, it might help with rankings.
Using the top targeted keywords plus variations of that or those keywords has proven effective. Also, throw in some "click here" and some "http://www.mydomain.com/" .. this will ensure natural looking links.
Having a list of anchor text variations to be rotated through websites is essential so as to keep it varied. This will ensure the link portfolio looks as natural as possible to the search engines.

Appearing Natural Tip #3: Deep Linking
Non natural Inbound linking, where 100% of the links go to the home page
This is an important tip and could be the difference between success and failure of any newly launched site.
Deep links are links to internal pages of a website. Most people will aggressively build links only to the homepage. This is definitely not the most natural looking linking profile. Instead, split inbound links between the home page and internal pages.
About 50% or so of the links should point to the homepage, but spread the other links out across the other pages. This is a great time to use the variations of the arget keywords, as well.

Natural Inbound Linking - the benefits:

• This will result in a site getting deeply crawled, which in turn will cause the search engines to find and index more pages quicker.
• Internal pages will begin to rank better for their target keywords.
• The site has a better chance of staying out of the "Google sandbox."
  

Appearing Natural Tip #4: Unique IP Addresses
Non Natural Linking from single IP address
Every website is assigned to an IP address. An IP address can also be thought of as the equivalent of a street address or a phone number for a computer or other network device on the Internet.
Just as each street address and phone number uniquely identifies a building or telephone, an IP address can uniquely identify a specific server or a website.
Here is an example IP Address:
123.456.789.000
A Block: 123
B Block: 456
C Block: 789
D Block: 000

Natural Linking from various IP Addresses
When link building, get links from a variety of IP sources, this will ensure the most natural looking back link portfolio.
This may sound like a simple tip, but getting site wide links from a high PR website is not a good idea for this reason. Of the 1,000's of links, if they are all from the same IP, it will in short order hurt the rankings instead of improve them. This of course is mostly in Google, MSN may be more forgiving.

Appearing Natural Tip #5: Link Building Velocity
The Google Patent says that Google pays attention to the speed at which links are acquired. This is why it is highly recommended to build links slowly and at a consistent velocity. The reason to do this is because a site that is naturally popular will consistently gain new links just from people wanting to share what they have found.
In order to duplicate this, we must resist what can be a very strong urge to acquire as many links as we can as fast as possible.
Building 10-20 quality links per day is a good number in the beginning. Then eventually the number goes up as time goes by.
Building 10-20 links consistently, finding the time and the energy, to do so every day for several websites can be overwhelming. There is however, a 100% automated process. Keep reading to learn more about this simple solution and how to begin using it too!