Friday, 5 March 2010

Ten Link Building Tactics

Link building is a hard task and should be seen as an ongoing long term effort, not a quick sprint. The best way to go about link building is to have a solid, yet varied strategy. Read below for my top ten ways to gaining inbound links to your site:

1. Creating Interesting Content

Creating great content is the best way to gain natural links back to your site. The aim is to publish content that your website users will want to link to. The search engines love these links as they produce a really natural link profile. Your new content could be anything from videos, to articles.

2. Giving Away Free Tools

Web users love free tools. If you can create tools that can really help people go about their work, you are guaranteed links. The idea is that whenever a tool is given away, it comes complete with a link to your website. Tools could include maps, analytical software, widgets and more.

3. Free Directory Submissions

There are thousands of directories on the internet offering publishers the chance to list their websites into relevant categories. This can be an effective method of building a large amount of links, especially for new websites. However, care must be taken to ensure that the directories actually pass value with their links.

4. Paid Directory Submissions

This is a very similar tactic to the one above, however in this instance you opt to pay for links in premium positions within the directory in choice. This can be a great way of gaining traffic, and most directories will give you multiple links if you pay for premium submissions. However, it is still vital that you make sure the directory has value.

5. Social Media

Having busy and active social media profiles will give you a great outlet for promoting your website and the content within it. With social media, the aim is to create an exciting online community that will generate interest back to your website. The more interesting content you post, the more interest you get, and the more links you should achieve. This also a very good way of increasing your traffic.

6. Blogging

Setting up a blog and keeping it updated can be hard work, but eventually you should end up with a base of regular readers. If you can create an interesting blog for your industry, this should help establish you within your field and generate interest and links back to your website.

7. Blog Comments

Finding relevant blogs and commenting on them not only gives you an opportunity to leave a link, it should also get you seen within the online community. Being seen as an active member of the online community in your field should make promoting your content easier.

8. Article Writing

Writing interesting and useful articles that are relevant to your industry is an effective way to keep pushing out new content. Leaving links within the article body should mean that when someone reposts your article, they in turn give you a link. There are many websites that allow you to post your articles, all of varying quality.

9. Press Releases

If you’ve got great content, shout about it! Taking care to write a carefully constructed press release should entice journalists and bloggers to write about your website (with a link of course). Try to target journalists and bloggers who write about your industry, and also make use of news wires that can distribute your press release to thousands of writers.

10. Forum Posts

Most forums allow their users to leave a link within their signature. Try to find relevant forums within your field and get stuck in. Don’t be spammy, just try to be useful and interactive. This should also lead to gaining some traffic.

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