Since Google did its game-changing Penguin Update final month, it seems like everyone is talking about links and backlinks. Now, more than ever, it is rather crucial that you have the right linking structure in place - both with interior links on your site and with external backlinks pointing back to your site.

The key phrase the following is "natural" - no pun intended.

All your links must appear natural to Google if you would like to rank for your aimed keywords. Any links which suggest you're trying to "game" or "manipulate" the system will send up warning flags and may get you penalized by Yahoo.

SEO experts are already directing out some apparent linking mistakes like using the same keyword phrase in your links, getting site-wide links from one source, using spammy blog networks and blogroll links, over-optimizing your site with keywords, linking so bad neighborhoods... and the list goes on.

Links have become very important to the success of your online site or business - so you must have a simple way of finding suitable link partners or backlinks. Certainly, you want backlinks which will help your website's rankings, not harm them.

You require a simple way to check or examine any potential backlinks or even the current backlinks you have flowing again to your site. Yahoo's old Site Explorer could be used (if you have a Bing Internet marketer Tools account) but this service is now relatively limited. We all need a substitute for the old Internet site Explorer...

So here are 3 simple ways to check your backlinks:

one PageRank - I know everyone claims Google PageRank is dead and not very important anymore. But if you ask those who have a site, if they would turn down a direct link from the homepage of a PR7 or PR8 site and you will probably discover that Pr is alive and well.

PageRank is the position score (0-10) of how important Google believes any site or page is on the web. Obtain a link (dofollow or even nofollow) from an important site and a little amount of PR runs to your site based on how many links are on that page.

Whilst PageRank is not that important any longer for getting your keywords ranked, it can still give you a simple way of judging the value of a site or page. That is still something you can use to examine your linking partners.

2. MozRank - This is another way to uncover how important a website or page is on the web. This ranking product is run by by SeoMoz. com. You can access this method by using the OpenSiteExplorer site, but it will surely give you a Page Authority and Domain Specialist number for the site or page.

It will also give you other vital information about a page or site with a detailed link analysis, however full access to this ranking system is very limited unless you get the paid option. But still worth seeking for a very simple assessment of any page or site. http://www.seomoz.org

3. Citation & Trust Flow - This evaluation system is run by MajesticSeo. com and provide you valuable information in regards to a site or your backlinks. This site has created two new "flow metrics" which tell you the number of links pointing to a web site, but more importantly it gives the number of trust moving through that site.

These types of days, it's exactly about getting a vote of trust from a related high ranking site, to increase your rankings. These two metrics will help you find good linking lovers. What I really like, they put all this information in a graph - so you can quickly see how important a site is on the web.

One major disadvantage, in order to get this info, you have to sign up for a free account but I discovered it worth it. Presently there is also a paid option but I don't have tried this yet. No matter, I am finding this ranking system very helpful for finding backlinks. http://www.majesticseo.com

There you have it, 3 simple ways to better choose your connecting partners or to look at your current backlinks. Of course, I possess always recommended you also use the free SEOQuake toolbar, which you can place on your browser. As you surf a site, you can quickly see the PageRank, Alexa amounts, Age of site... and so on.

Utilized in blend with the other analysis methods mentioned above, it will give you a terrific way to check and evaluate your backlinks and linking lovers.