Link Building Strategy

By now you should be aware that a comprehensive link building strategy is essential for ranking your site highly in the search engines. We know that this is not conjecture because Google explicitly states in its webmaster guidelines that a sites position in the search engines is to a certain degree related to the quality and quantity of external links. Therefore it is your job as a website owner to develop a comprehensive link building strategy, so that you rank higher and attract more traffic.

Now many people seem to struggle when it comes to attracting inbound links, either they have no idea where to start or they just can’t seem to do it properly. Well I have some good news for you because I am going to outline a comprehensive link building strategy that is guaranteed to improve your websites search engine rankings. Next time you are struggling to attract links, read this post for new ideas and inspiration.

Step 1: 20 Simple links anybody can get

Step outlines simple links that absolutely anybody can get with a little bit of time and effort (money will make this happen even quicker).

1. Press Releases: Issue a press release, this is a great way to promote your website and attract backlinks.

2. Article Directories: Write a quality article and submit it to Ezine articles, you’ll build credibility and a nice backlink. There are literally hundreds of article directories you can submit to.

3. Directory Submissions: Pay someone to submit your site to SEO friendly directories.

4. Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking is an excellent way to attract traffic and links. Many are no follow but some are do follow (don’t worry about this because you need a mix anyway)

5. Forum Signatures: Many forums allow a do follow signature, this can help drive some traffic and pass a little bit of link juice.

6. Blog Networks: You can submit your articles to be published on blog networks, which is an excellent way to attract high quality backlinks.

7. Video Sharing Sites: You Tube isn’t the only video sharing site, there are many others that you can upload you videos to and get links back to your site.

8. Wiki’s: There are a huge number of wiki’s that you can use to attract links back to your site.

9. Web 2.0 Platforms: Create pages on Squidoo, Hub Pages, Wordpress, Blogger etc. Fill them with lots of useful content and get a nice backlinks.

10. Blog Commenting: Leave a relevant comment on a blog, get some niche traffic and a backlink.

11. Free Link Sites: Believe it or not there are actually many sites that will allow you to post a free do follow backlinks.

12. Guest Posts: Write a guest post on another blog, increase traffic and exposure and get an additional link.

13. Profile Links: Sign up to a website, create and profile and include a link in your profile. Very easy to do and can help funnel link juice to your site.

14. Local business directories: Easy to do and great for promoting your business.

15. Friends Websites: I am sure most of you have friends and some of those friends are likely to have websites. Simply ask them to put a link to your website on their website.

16. Yahoo Answers: Ok so the link is no follow but it is still an excellent way to drive traffic your website.

17. Create an RSS Feed: Submit your RSS feed to feed directories.

18. Start a podcast:Then submit it to all the podcast directories, very easy to do and nice way to get traffic and links.

19. Create a list: People love lists, create one and then submit to some of the social bookmarking sites. You never know you may end up on the first page of Digg.

20. Offer Reviews: Review products, blogs etc and leave a link back to your site in the review.

Step 2: Higher Links That Require More Effort

These links require more effort and can be slightly more difficult, however you should be rewarded for your efforts.

1. Create Plugins/Tools/Widgets: Any excellent way to attract a stream of inbound links is to create a really useful tool or plugin. Put it on your site, submit it to Wordpress, and watch as the links just pile in.

2. Build your own network: Why bother worrying about getting links from other sites when you can get them from your own sites? People may debate whether this is ethical or not but if you have been in the IM game for a while and have a large number of sites why not use them to point to your money site.

3. Become really good at producing link bait: Learn how to write blog posts that naturally attract links, things such as quizzes, surveys, deliberately inflammatory posts. Do this and watch the links pile in.

4. Locate major players in your niche and swap content: Find who the biggest players are in your niche and write high quality articles for them, in return for a do follow backlink.

5. License Content/Software: In return for links, if you have particularly excellent content or software why not license in return for some links.

Step 3: Work On Continually Producing Quality Content!

You make think it is strange that I have left this to last, but truly if you are serious about your search engine optimisation efforts then you are going to have to work on continually producing high quality content. Anybody can get backlinks with some of the methods that I have outlined in step 1, however if you want to get continual links, you must work on producing really excellent content. You have read it time and time again but truly you will be rewarded with higher search engine placements if you have a sit that is filled with really high quality content. So make this a number one priority in your link building strategy.

To your massive success.

Guy P.S. Please link to us if you enjoyed this post on developing a link building strategy.