Until the recent past, your website could get higher rankings on Google with increased number of inbound links, no matter from where they came.
With Google and other search engines seeking constant improvements to webpage ranking methods, it becomes imperative for getting the right links so as to ensure being listed on the first page of search results.

Your Google rankings could go down with unnatural links

Following are the unnatural linking patterns that Google is known to detect and hence such practices don’t work out well:

Automated linking systems and Link farms

There are online services that allow you to put some code on your website or to join a system, so that, your site gets hundreds of links in a very short period of time with little effort involved.
Google detects them and considers that you are spamming.
You could be penalized for such an act and your websites position in the search results will be lowered.

Paid links

Google has made it clear through its anti-spam guru Matt Cutts that paid links would be considered spam.
You should hence be very careful when buying links. With paid links, you might lose your rankings on Google.

Your Google rankings improve with natural links

Natural links are sensible links.
If you have a website about Sassy Baby products, a totally unrelated link to a Vacation Rental website would just look strange.
With more related websites linking to your site, your website ranking on Google’s search result pages would get higher.
Your website should be linked to related websites and must have links from sources that seem to “naturally” link to you like blogs, social bookmarking services, internet directories, etc.

5 Steps for getting better links to your website

1. Your website has to be worthy enough for links

It is easier it is to get links from other websites if your webpages are really interesting.
Webmasters will link to your site only if your website is replete with good content and not with just a collection of many affiliate links.
With “Top 10” lists, “How to” articles, or even a controversial statement, you would end up with web pages that get good inbound links.

2. Related websites and blogs have to be contacted

Include an article on your website that solves a specific problem.
Initiate contact with related websites and bloggers who have written about that topic, and make them point to that and other interesting content on your site.
You could well be on the process to excellent link building.

3. Submit your website to related Internet directories

You can get easy inbound links by submitting your website to related and relevant Internet directories in the right category. This would bring about a positive impact on your Google rankings.

4. Have the social bookmark services to facilitate adding your website

Create an easy option for visitors to bookmark the link of your website.

5. Link to different pages of your website with varying link texts

Links to the home page of a website quite often helps to get direct links to the web page that need be promoted on search engines.
Links can e to different potential pages as well.
Such links from the related websites should use different but relevant texts to link to your site.
Web pages using same text to link to your site would look quite unnatural.

You have to make sure that your web pages are user-friendly and interesting by creating interesting and link worthy web pages with optimized content.
It is extremely important to have the right kind of links for higher ranking on Google and other search engines.