At this point it is pretty clear that an effective Search Engine Optimization campaign relies heavily on the authority sights that link to it. Attracting and a obtaining these links is one of the more difficult aspects of your SEO campaign. The goal is to acquire as many links from pages with high page ranks and relevant content. The other goal is to acquire links to more than just your home page. Make sure you create a linking campaign strategy that promotes linking to pages other than just your homepage. There are a number of strategies that can help to create an effective SEO linking strategy that will help your website to scale on multiple levels.
Create Quality Content – The most effective long term solution to acquiring quality links is to create content that engages readers and makes webmasters want to link to your site. Provide important, interesting, engaging, enlightening, and unique information.
Create a beautifully designed site, using CSS or other new technologies – There are a lot of sites out there that love to show the latest and greatest in web design and technology. If you can create a very unique site that grabs a user’s attention you are likely to grab links as well.
Talk to all of your business partners, clients, manufacturers of any products you offer, and even friends who operate websites.
Submit your website to directories. The most effective directories are:
- DMOZ
- Yahoo! Directory - ($299 Annually)
- Business.com Directory - ($299 Annually)
- Librarians’ Internet Index
- Virtual Library
- Best of the Web
- Starting Point - ($99 Annually)
- Web World
- Directory Journal
- Jayde
There are thousands more directories. Some that offer value, some that do not. The 10 listed above can help with search engine optimization. You can find thousands more on the web at sites such as http://www.greatdirectories.org. Just be careful. You should never have to pay to be “submitted to hundreds of directories”. Usually these have no value whatsoever and the major search engines ignore these types of sites.
Join your local chamber of commerce to get a .gov trust link directly from their website. These can prove very trustworthy.
Join the Better Business Bureau. They might not link to you but potential customers or users may.
Submit to social marketing platforms. These sites can help to drive a viral growth. If you have done your job and created quality, engaging content, other webmasters will see your site and link to you. Some of the more popular include:
Purchase / Rent links from trusted sources. Make sure to avoid the shady, “black hat” brokers. Some of the more trusted sources include:
People love to link to the “best of” lists. Any type of “best of” that applies directly to your content can be relevant. You can also create “100 best. . .” lists or even worst of lists.
Create a blog and utilize sites such as Technorati and Feedburner. Post relevant and interesting information that engages the user. Make sure you offer an RSS feed. Eventually you can develop a following and a group of people that will link back to you. You should also comment on other blogs and leave your URL as a link if possible.
Join social networking sites and share information with friends. Get your friends to help you favorite your site to help spread the word. Some popular sites include:
Link building equates to an integral part of an SEO marketing strategy but it takes time to accumulate high quality links. Competition for your keywords also adds to the importance of having quality links. Links also provide a great way to drive highly targeted users back to your site which is, after all, the goal of an SEO marketing campaign.
I have also come across some other great posts for tips on building links:
September 24, 2008