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.

Link building or backlinks are the life blood of search engine optimisation. You must get backlinks to your website in order to rank well in the search engines.

We established that there are 2 main ways of getting backlinks to our website.

1. Naturally – By producing quality content that encourages other websites to link to us.
2. Unnaturally – By actively building links ourselves.

We also established the first method of getting backlinks naturally took a series amount of time and effort.

I therefore concluded that if you wanted to rank well in the search engines is was essential to start building links yourself. Before I continue let me just be clear. I am in no way against quality content. I would encourage anybody who has a website to always strive to produce high quality content. The problem is that if you spend a lot of time producing high quality content and wait for other people to link back to you, then you could be waiting a seriously long time before you move up the rankings. In the meantime your competitors will be overtaking you and you’ll miss out on lots of money.

Wait for people to link to you – Watch Your Competitors Overtake You

I started this blog to help people like you make money on the internet. I really want you to succeed. If you are intending on using SEO to drive traffic to your website then the reality is that must actively build links yourself. Of course if you combine quality content with active link building then you are giving yourself every chance of serious success on the search engines.

Now that we have that cleared that up, a question you may ask is,

‘Will Google punish me for building backlinks?’

Ladies and gentlemen I am here to tell – NO! Google will not punish you for building backlinks.

Now I realise that this information is contrary to what you may have heard in some internet marketing forums or from some other ‘SEO experts’. However it is my opinion that you will never be punished for building backlinks to your website.

How can I say that you will NOT be punished for building backlinks?

It is very simple. If Google punished websites for building backlinks then Google would have a serious flaw in its algorithm. In fact the flaw would be so serious then the whole fabric of the internet would be destroyed.

Let me explain.

If Google punished websites for building backlinks then I would be able to destroy my competitors extremely easily. Think about it, if Google punished websites for building backlinks then all I’d need to do is find my competitors websites and then pay someone to build backlinks to them. Sooner or later Google would punish them (by delisting them) and I’d get to number 1. In fact if there was a business I didn’t like such as Amazon, I just employ a team of people to build a huge number of backlinks to them and wait for Google to delist them. The whole fabric of the internet would completely collapse. Unscrupulous people could wipe out entire websites. See a competitor’s website at the top of Google, build backlinks to it and then wipe it out.

Now of course you know this is not how the internet works. Google is a multi-billion dollar company; they have shareholders to answer to. Why would they destroy the very thing that has made it so successful?

They wouldn’t!

Therefore it is totally logical to assume that you cannot be punished for building backlinks. Now of course the Google PR machine is always going to do everything it can to perpetuate the myth that you can be punished for backlinks. That way it encourages people to produce quality content and the web gets better and better. Remember the people who run Google are very smart, they know that they cannot punish sites for building backlinks because as I have just pointed out, it would destroy the very fabric of the internet. Google will never let you know this because it is in their interests to keep perpetuating this myth.

Doesn’t this mean that Google is open for exploitation?

Now you know that Google doesn’t punish websites for building backlinks, you may be thinking, doesn’t this mean that Google can be exploited? Surely if Google doesn’t punish websites for building backlinks then all I’d need to do is build backlinks to my site and I’d get up the rankings? If you’re thinking this then you are right!

This means that Google can be exploited!

You can build backlinks and you can get up the rankings. Now I know that this may sound like a dramatic statement, but guess what?

Most companies, businesses and people who do SEO know this!

People know that Google can be exploited by building backlinks and that’s exactly what they do. Those companies who occupy position 1 for competitive keywords have got there to some degree (I would argue by a large degree) through building links. They maintain their position at the top of Google by continuing to build links. Do you honestly think that companies who have got to the top of Google for extremely lucrative keywords such as ‘loans’ ‘Jewellery’ ‘Women’s Clothes’ have done it by doing producing quality content and waiting for sites to link back to them. Absolutely not! They have done it in some part by building links because they know it works and they know they will not be punished for it.

If you don’t believe me, as an experiment ask an SEO firm to prepare you a proposal for getting your website up the rankings for certain keywords. I absolutely guarantee that no matter what firm you speak to, every single one of them would come back with a proposal that in at least some part suggests a link building campaign. SEO firms actively recommend to their clients to build links because they know that Google can be exploited and that link building works. Smart internet marketers also know this. You as a smart person needs to understand that you will never be punished for building backlinks to your site because essentially you have no control over. So if you have a website and want to start getting up the search engines then start building backlinks right now.

Extremely Important Proviso About Link Building

I believe that you will never be punished for building backlinks to your website. However there is a smart way to build backlinks. You don’t want to arouse suspicion from Google and you want to make your link building look as natural as possible. There are many ways to do this, I highly recommend that you read this brief report,

Smart And Safe Backlink Building Guide

It is an excellent report that gives you lots of useful tips about how to make your link building look natural to Google.

It’s a blog post in itself but some quick tips include,

1. Varying Your Anchor Text. If you have a website targeting “Dog Training” don’t only use dog training as the anchor text. Make sure that you mix it up a bit. For example throw in “How to Train a Dog” “Best Dog Training” etc, even throw in a couple of “click here” or “this website” to make it appear natural.

2. Link To Other Pages Within Your Site – Don’t just link to the homepage, link to other pages in your site and consider linking to articles which in turn link to your site. You have to mix it up a bit to make it look natural to Google.

3. Use your domain name as the anchor text – When other people link to your site, they are not going to always use the exact anchor text that you want. People may well use your domain name, so you must try and replicate nature and use your actual domain as the anchor text. They key is to mix it up and make things look as natural as possible to Google.

Even More Important Proviso – Please Read Very Carefully

While I believe that you will never be punished for building backlinks, I would suggest that you CAN be punished by Google if you choose to link to the wrong sites.

Make sure that if you decide to link to sites you are only linking to safe and respectable sites. Google understands that as a website owner, you have the power to decide who you are linking to. If Google finds out that you are linking to some nasty sites, then you may well be punished for it, as you decided to link to those sites. So please be careful if you do decide to link to other sites.

I hope that you enjoyed this blog post and I hope I have dispelled a common myth. For reasons I have explained,

You will not be punished by Google for building backlinks.

To your massive success,

Guy

P.S. If you liked this post please consider linking to me.

Understand that link building is very, very important. You can spend a lot of time and effort creating the most perfect search engine friendly website but if you don’t have links pointing back to your site then you are going to have a hard time ranking well. If you decide to learn nothing else about SEO then, please at least take this away –

Link building or getting backlinks to your website is the very essence of SEO (search engine optimisation).

You must get backlinks in order to rank well on the search engines!

If you don’t believe me take Google’s word for it. In its webmaster guidelines, Google explicitly states that the position of where your website ranks is to some degree related to the quality and quantity of links that you have pointing back to your site. According to Google’s webmaster guidelines,

“Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity”

So you don’t need to pay an SEO ‘expert’ to tell you about how to get up the rankings because Google are already spelling it for you!

Think of links like votes. Search engines have to have some way of measuring the importance of a website. If they see lots of sites, especially high quality ones linking back to a website they assume that that website must be trustworthy. The more links that you have pointing back to your site, the more votes you have and the higher you will rank. Which political party wins the election? The one with the most votes (well usually, assuming a democratic country and even then that’s not guaranteed!). Therefore it is absolutely critical that you work on getting as many backlinks to your website as possible.

So how do I get links back to my website?

The short and long answer is quality content. Google tells us that if we want to get backlinks then we need to produce quality content. This is taken directly from Google webmaster guidelines.

“The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page’s visitors?”

If we produce quality content then other websites will want to link back to us naturally. And that makes sense, right? I’m sure you have experienced this. For example when I read a particularly interesting blog post, I might share a link to that blog on a forum or I might bookmark it at one of the social media sites such as Digg or Mixx.

The more quality content a site produces the more links it gets and the higher it ranks. If you get enough links from a sufficient number of really trusted and authoritative websites, then your site will naturally grow in trust and authority. This is known as natural link growth or natural link velocity.

We can therefore conclude that if we want to rank high in the search engines, we just need to create a seo friendly website and create content that is so interesting,people will link to us naturally.

There’s just one problem.

Creating quality content and encouraging natural linking can take a massive amount of time and effort. Of course I would always encourage people to create sites with quality content. However If you are intending on using SEO to drive traffic to your website (and you should be) and want to make money sooner rather later you are going to have to start building links yourself. Really link building is the most important activity to start any SEO campaign. If you want to rank quickly then you must build your own links. If you put in the time and effort to build links, then you will be picked up by the search engines and you will be rewarded by higher rankings. Higher rankings equal more money (assuming your product or offer is relevant to the searcher).
So now you know that you need to build links here are some tips on where you can build links from.

1. Article Directories

Article directories are a good place to get backlinks from and can drive a lot of targeted to your website. Furthermore the articles themselves can get picked up by the search engines. However I would always suggest ‘spinning’ your articles, so that each article your submit appears to be unique content. As I understand unique content from different ip addresses, has more seo value than links from duplicate content.

Click this link here to find 100 article directories.

2. Press Releases

There are many sites that allow you to submit a press release for free and also allow you to include a backlink in the press release. Also press releases can get picked up by search engines, so can help to drive extra traffic to your website. You never know write something really newsworthy and could find yourself being talked about in national newspapers or radio stations.

Click this link here to find 20 free press release sites.

3. Social Media Sites

There are hundreds of different social media sites and they can all help to build backlinks and drive traffic. If you manage to get on the front pages of Digg then you could potentially drives tens of thousands of visitors to your website.

Click here to see the list of top social media sites.

4. Forums

These are great places to interact with other people and build backlinks. Although you must check the forum rules before posting links, as some have strict rules on posting links to stop spammers.

5. Blogs

It easy to find blogs that is relevant to your niche and post comments on them. You’ll get a nice backlink and may drive some traffic to your website. Just make sure that your comment looks as if you have actually read the post. It is infuriating to blog owners to have constantly monitor and delete spam comments. Also try to find blogs that allow that allow do-follow comments (I’ll do another lesson on this but do follow means that link juice will be passed to you).

6. Directory Submissions

There is some debate as to the SEO value of directories as many people argue that the search engines see directories as nothing more than glorified link farms. However I personally don’t believe that it can do much harm and may even help you drive some traffic. Just be aware of scams promising huge amounts of directory submissions.

7. Local Business Directories

You can list your website on many local business directories which can help to get drive some traffic to your site.

8. Friends Websites

If your friends that have websites, why not ask them to put a link on their site back to yours? If they are your friends then they’ll want to help you out.

9. Offer content in exchange for links

You can offer webmasters content in exchange for giving you a backlink. Webmasters are always looking for fresh content and if you are a good writer then many will be happy to accept your content in exchange for a link.

Final word on effective link building tips.

There are 9 link building methods that you can implement right away. However I just want to mention that when you are building links you should always try to get do-follow links from highly trusted, highly relevant websites. Backlinks from websites with a high page rank (the higher the page rank, the more trusted and authoritative the site is seen in Google’s) that are relevant to your niche carry a lot of SEO value. If you don’t believe me, why not take Google’s word for it. According to Google’s webmaster guidelines,

“It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links”.

Furthermore you should try and get a link within the actual text of the page. These are known as contextual backlinks (I’ll do another lesson on them). If you concentrate on getting contextual backlinks from highly trusted, highly relevant websites then you will get a lot of SEO value and you will be able to rank well.

Now, I’m not saying that this isn’t hard work because it is. If you product content that is interesting and compelling enough then overtime highly relevant, authoritative sites will link back to you. But as I mentioned this can take a lot of effort and time and you want to start ranking soon, so you can make money. So the alternative is to build links yourself or outsource the link building to someone else. One service that I highly recommend is Free Traffic System. Free Traffic System helps you get highly relevant contextual backlinks and best of all its free.

The guys running free traffic system really know their stuff when it comes to SEO. They have a lot of evidence to show that contextual backlinks from relevant websites help push up the rankings of a website. I strongly recommend that you sign up to Free Traffic System right now.

I hope you enjoyed this post and now understand that in order to rank well you must start a link building campaign.

To your massive success,

Guy
P.S. If you enjoyed this post please, please link to me.