do sites with backlinks to themselves get better rankings?

[yoderfarms]

I've noticed a few sites where typing link:www.site.com produces a set of links originating from www.site.com to itself. First off, how is this possible, doesn't google know better? Secondly, does this improve rankings? I've seen some sites that have 5 versions of the same store each of which links to the other 4. And this is a reputable company, very large in the industry I'm interested in, and google doesn't seem to notice or care. Is this process considered a bad practice that can get one banned?

Thanks,
Frank Yoder

[webdoctor]

Is this process considered a bad practice that can get one banned

Do your sites have internal links? Mine certainly do. Can you think of any successful sites with no internal links?

It's well known that Google doesn't show ALL the backlinks when you search using the "link:" operator - so don't assume that Google has missed links that you know exist, they just might not be showing them to you.

[WiseWebDude]

The better linked your site is the better the search engines can find your stuff. There are no problems, for users and search engines alike, for linking your own site properly for ease of use by all. The only thing they really get from your OWN backlinks are what you tell them the link is...in other words, you say www.example.com/this/> This Is What I Am </a>

Now, whether they take it as fact or not depends on if they believe you and know it is what you say it is.