A backlink is the link or attachment that someone links to you. What are backlinks? Well, a backlink means the submission of a URL, and this can be done either by people submitting it, or by the search engines doing it for you.
Firstly, we should understand what a link is. In simple terms, a link is the submission of a website url that points to another site, to another website, or to another type of resource.
Usually, one way backlinks are possible, but this is not advisable, as you could not sub-domain yourself. Thus, one type of backlinks is called authoritative. This is where the submission to a particular authority website.
The most common way is when people submit their website to search engines. In some cases, they may submit to one specific website, but to more. For example, if your website is on the first page of Google for a keyword, you could submit to Google, with the hope that Google would pick up your website, and that it might rank well.
Alternatively, some websites offer an opportunity to submit to the company that they work for, or to the company that have the particular authority website, and possibly others. These can also help.
One way to increase the probability of your site being noticed, is by submitting to a search engine. Search engines will in turn, look for submissions like this, which are the keywords you chose. This is a very good practice.
It also helps if you have linked to a specific website. If you do not, search engines might not see your submission. In fact, some may even reject it, as it does not meet their submission requirements.
However, there is also the problem that a link from one site may not always work the same as a link from another. For example, you link to a website and then later on find out that the submission of that website has been denied. For this reason, it is essential that you do link to more than one site, because it will ensure you are able to get your website to be seen on all search engines.
Submitting to directories is another way of getting yourself noticed. For example, websites that list websites, as well as other sites that are related to the ones you are submitting to, and some directories are directories of content websites.
Another way of getting links is to make the submission of your site a contest. You could have some members post comments on the website, in exchange for some kind of prize, or another thing. For example, this might give you the possibility of having your website on the website, but maybe only at certain times, for a specific period of time.
You could be the only website that gets listed on the website. For this reason, it is important to remember that you need to submit to as many directories as possible, so that you can generate a lot of authority backlinks to your website.