I have a puzzling question about URL's and search engine rankings. It's been said that if your site is linked from other sites, that it will raise your search engine rankings. The thing is, I know people who have linked my site to theirs but if you type in their domain name and mine next to each other in google search, my site doesn't come up, because my URL is not spelled out exactly on their link page. Instead, they put the name of my site without the URL and just create a link to my site with those words. So, I'm wondering, does that count? I mean if someone puts a link to your site but doesn't spell out your site URL, does that still raise your site ranking? I don't get why Google doesn't index your site on their page if it's not spelled out by exact URL, even if it is linked from it? One guy put a banner on his page and linked my site to it, but when I type my site and his together in google, nothing comes up. Does anyone know why? Does a site's URL have to be spelled out to count?