What is the definition of a backwards link

What links can goggle find - or best attribute to your site?

[t2dman]

I have just started a website (sep02) and obtained a number of affiliate backward links. ie?a=domainname. Only problem was that google used that link as its url rather than the base domain name. Two affilate sites would alternate weekly on page one of my search term using their tag. I quickly changed the backward links to have no tag, and in php detected where the visitor came from rather than use the tag. They use the tag when linking from emails and new windows and so far this has not proved a problem.

Now I have several sites (Nov/Dec02) linking to me with links that first go back to their site, look up their database for my url, then redirect to my url. This method is great for counting how many times people click on links, but does google pick it up for:
1) page rank
2) showing on backward link stats.
3) can googlebot follow them?
4) and more importantly should it improve where I'm listed on page one of my main search term.

I probably have not been around enough to see the above. Maybe I need to have a real good look at the visitorlogs to see (3). I currently have a pr rank 5.

[Brett_Tabke]

First, welcome to the board.

Most feel there is some pr transfered between redirected links. However, it is not as much as a raw href style link.

GB will follow redirects.

The number of backlinks shown by google depends on the pr of the page where the link exists. Seems to be in the pr5+ range.

Improve? Yes, but not as much as a raw link.

Make sure to insist on quality link text from the sites linking to the main one.