Link building is not just a valuable tool to help improve SEO results but can increase exposure, improve online brand awareness, and generally improve the perception that you are an authority on your chosen topic. Link building strategies are usually best approached as exactly that, rather than specific SEO link building strategies, with each link being considered on its own merit.

• Will it drive surf through traffic as well as generate a little juice for your link profile?
• Does a particular link building technique warrant the time and/or money that you will need to invest in it?

These are a couple of questions that you should ask yourself before embarking on any new link building campaign.

Below is a list of 7 of the more viable methods of link building that offer some or all of the benefits listed above. It’s by no means an exhaustive list and we’re not suggesting that these are the most popular or indeed the most successful link building techniques but you should give each of them serious consideration before dismissing them.

Be Active On Social Media Sites

Social media sites continue to offer a popular attraction to many web users and you can benefit by becoming active on those that are relevant to you and your website. Unless you enjoy the privileges of more than 24 hours in day and 7 days in a week then you should probably limit memberships to a few of the most relevant sites and try to pick niche social marketing sites. Some of the broad topic social marketing sites are more popular with certain groups of people and with specific industries effectively making them worth consideration as a niche social media site.

Also, notice that we didn’t use the title Bookmark All Your Pages or something similar. By becoming an active member of the community on a social media site you will help to build a positive image of your business as well as generate links. Simply bookmarking or submitting links to your posts puts you in a very grey area of online marketing that will lose you as many visitors as it will gain.

Yahoo Answers

Question and Answer sites like Yahoo! Answers are extremely populous and some are incredibly popular. Testament to this is the fact that a lot of the social sites and informational sites are adding their own Q&A sections. A point of note worth considering is that Yahoo! Answers does not offer you any SEO benefit because they use the nofollow attribute in their links but with good on page optimisation (for conversions rather than spiders on this occasion) you can use Yahoo! To build active and targeted traffic.

Wikipedia If You Can Add Value

Who hasn’t heard of Wikipedia? In the same vein, what new marketer hasn’t tried getting a link to a new website on a Wikipedia page?

The fact is that a Wikipedia link can prove hugely beneficial, not least because it will give you the appearance of being a knowledgeable vestibule of information on a particular topic. If you offer truly useful information on a specific topic then you can try adding a link. Some will remain and therefore offer benefit while others will be removed almost as quickly as you can add them. Be honest with yourself over the value of the content you offer and, if you honestly believe a link to your page would provide insight and benefit to readers then you have a genuine argument for including your link.

Paid Directories

A lot of new and even experienced webmasters and marketers shy away from the prospect of paying for directory links but there are some extremely high value paid directories out there. The Yahoo! Business Directory and business.com are considered two of the better options. The principle benefit of paid directories is the quality – fewer people are willing to pay the £100 or so that it costs to buy a listing so low quality sites are less inclined to submit. Many paid directories are also hand edited ensuring that only the better sites make it into their listing.

Submit To Quality Article Directories

When done properly, article marketing can generate some good and powerful links. Knowing the directories that are used by popular ezines and newsletters is essential. Write an article and consider changing various aspects like the title, the anchor text and resource paragraph, and even some of the article content as you submit to each directory. There’s no point in submitting to the thousands of directories that exist online so find the most effective while also considering niche directories to be a viable source.

Submit Newsworthy Press Releases

We all have the occasional gripe about mainstream media and how media sources aren’t entirely trustworthy. However, the fact of the matter is that many people trust certain aspects of articles and reports that they do read in the media. This has further extended to a number of online media sources as well as paper and TV. Well written press releases without the usual marketing spiel can prove very popular and they may be used by other industry based sites and online news sites.

Creating linkbait content should be one of your website’s goals. While it sounds like an unethical means of SEO, linkbait is really just high quality content that has been created with the express intent of getting others to link to you. Essentially this means employing best practices in content creation as well as writing effective headlines or creating viral content. It may take a while to master the art of creating linkbait pages but once you are well versed it can greatly reduce the efforts you need to put into the more manual methods of link building.

Chances are, if you’re already building links for your website then you’ve probably tried some of these methods but the key with each one is to do it properly. The common mistake that many website owners make is to try and build thousands of links as quickly as possible using ineffective techniques. This tends to lead to poor quality links and results in very little positive impact on your website. Get involved, stay involved, and keep learning.

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