Whence the "it" in "I like it here"?
It's called a dummy it, and according to Wikipedia it's used "when a particular verb argument (or preposition) is nonexistent (it could also be unknown, irrelevant, already understood, or otherwise not to be spoken of directly), but when a reference to the argument (a pronoun) is nevertheless syntactically required."
It’s known as ‘dummy it’. It has no antecedent and is meaningless, being used merely to provide an object where otherwise there would be none. It is also found in subject position (‘It’s raining’).