10 Ways to Build Links to your Website

Links are still one of the best ways to increase traffic and authority status to your website, which will in turn increase your site’s search ranking.

The higher the rating, the more prominent you will be listed on the search engines, the higher the click thru ratio of your optimized title and description, and the more people will stop by your website, creating a snowball effect.

Let’s not forget that there are other great ways for you to build links without buying them and here are 10 of my favorites.

1. People Love Lists & Linkbait : Having a 101 list, a top ten list, or a list of tips for a specific niche category can help generate readers, links and bookmarks.

   Having lists of resources, experts, and other research necessities can attract people looking for more information on your subject.

   When people like your list, they will submit the article to Digg and other social news sites, which results in your site building natural inbound links because the readers of these social bookmarking and news sites tend to blog.

   Kick starting those submissions yourself or asking friends to also helps.

   [Note : Yes, I know I’ve been writing a lot of lists lately, but I’m kinda on vacation, so please I hope this is not overkill.]

2. Get Social Bookmarking! Do not forget the social side of the Internet. On Flickr, pictures of important events, particularly involving the top people in your industry, will generate interest. On YouTube, the same style videos will generate interest, and maybe even make it into the Google Universal Search results.

   Network in the real world with people in your field – network on Facebook or LinkedIn if you don’t have the chance to conduct face to face networking or attend industry conferences.

   Interesting, insightful interviews will also bring in readers. When you have interesting, relevant content, your site will be submitted to Digg and other social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Ma.gnolia.com or AOL’s Propeller, which will give you great links.

3. Blog for Links. Blogs are rapidly gaining in popularity and can help your business website become popular too. The great thing about a blog is the content publishing is instant and so is the recognition. A blog can give your company the freedom to communicate openly, even attracting more links and bookmarks to your blog itself than the homepage, which are stiill good if you market your company and services well on the blog (and link to your homepage from the blog pages… I can’t count the amount of internal blogs I see which link to http://domain.com/blog as the “Home” link in the CMS).

   Search engines have specific fresh bots that seek out new content, especially Google. Start a blog with great content, and the search engine bots will come back to index your site, including your links to and from other blogs.

4. News and Syndication Build Fresh Links : You can syndicate an article or blog post and submit it to good article sites, industry news sites, and other related media outlets : especially those indexed in Google News or Yahoo News (just do a search in these for your niche keywords and “submit”, you may find sites that accet guest articles or opinions. Doing so will generate authority links that boost your website’s standing.

   Take this to the next level by coming up with a press release highlighting new products, services, or upcoming events. Make it sound newsworthy and send it to journalists and bloggers.

   Your RSS feed or blog will also attract natural links, so get them kicking and submit to the top blog & feed directories.

   Keep track of the people who follow the press releases or your articles and offer them exclusives. Writing about companies in the news or doing surveys on hot topics can also help generate interest in your site.

5. Directories Will Help Create Links. Submitting your site to free sites is one way of developing links; however, keep in mind that you should go for quality, not quantity.

   Even creating your own niche directory linked to your website will generate traffic and prestige, especially if you make it useful enough to users and also include other resources amongst original content.

   Look beyond PHP Links and other directory scripts and try building something with Wordpress. Chances are, a directory in your nice with original content and internal pages will do better than a cookie cutter site.

   If you don’t have time to launch or market something of your own, contact a current directory owner about spinning off a niche joint venture (or just submit to the main web directories).

6. Network With Your Local Community. Your own local community can be a source of links. Get a link from your Chamber of Commerce or join the Better Business Bureau. If you have relevant city or state governmental resources, link to them. Other business may be willing to link with you if you are non-competing and in the same field.

   Better yet, donate to local charities which have an online version of their newsletter. A $50 donation can result in a high quality and relevant link from a well linked to non-profit organization or association.

7. Review Products or Businesses. Reviews attract people, especially if you can write about brands that have not been established online.

   Writing reviews on websites like Amazon.com can generate interest in your site if people like you what you have to say. Writing testimonials for products you use can also turn into links from others which find your organic review online.

   A product review may also land your site’s homepage a link from that product’s news room, so don’t always resort to paid reviews as natural ones can be more beneficial in gathering natural linkage.

8. Link Trading Works. Link trading is still a legitimate way to get links. The key to this is to swap with relevant partners and get linked in the content of relevant pages.

   Being just one link on a page full of links will not help your cause, nor will publishing some on-site link farm which is only reachable via some hidden sitemap page.

9. Experts : The Internet loves expertise and becoming an expert on your subject matter will generate interest, which leads to more links.

   Make sure that your content is easy to understand and grammatically correct, but not so “dumbed down” that it seems vague or uninformative.

   You will want to make sure that you keep your information up to date, and that you have information that is not readily available elsewhere. An About Us section and/or Privacy Policy will help lend authority to your site.

10. People Love Contests and Freebies. Spending a little money on a cash prize can save you money on advertising. Free samples, exclusive giveaways, and other items will attract people, and then your content can get them to stay and link.

    Go an extra step to make your contests seasonal… a smoked turkey for Thanksgiving, a product (thinking free iPod) when it launches or a trip to Cancun during its low priced off season.

All in all, the key is to not just buy links, but to create natural link building campaigns to compliment your link advertising. If you spend $1,000 a month buying links, chances are hiring a professional link builder for that same amount will result in a vast and diverse array of incoming links, which stick around permanently.