The importance of Linking

It is best practice to include relevant linking in your SEO campaign in order to achieve results. Link popularity, reciprocal linking, inbound links, etc. are all examples of the ways the search engines (Google especially) may determine your site's relevance. Each various link popularity analysis determines a ranking criteria based on your linking relevancy as well.

While linking is great overall, you must be careful to avoid link farms and "link to us - we don't mind" sites. I have been a witness to see that websites may be banned with flags of spam. Best practice states that you need to have links to your site that have original and useful content - otherwise, the search engines may penalize you for engaging in linking strategies. Still, one way links to you site are the best to have though more difficult to receive than a reciprocal link. Researching your competitors is also an idea to see what linking strategies they have that may be contributing to their high rankings. Keep trying because over time ... it is worth the wait for quality.