Link Building: Eight Techniques that Work

Every website owner knows there is no question about it, the more links to their sites, the higher their rankings in Google, Yahoo, and MSN will be. Here are eight ways site owners can get those links.

1. Sending link request emails to other website owners. It takes a lot of time to identify appropriate websites and send out the emails, but the potential rewards are high. Buying link building software can automate most of the process and greatly increase efficiency.

2. Submitting your site to directories can result in your obtaining a lot of links in a relatively brief period of time. If you can get listed in dmoz.org, you may get an immediate rank boost. No other free directory is as important, but those with high Google PR, like the-big-brain, will also help your site.

3. Article writing: like requesting links, article writing is a lot of work, but it is well worth it. By writing articles and submitting them to article directory sites, one article (with links to your website in the article box) may wind up on thousands of websites.

4. Writing and distributing news releases (which include your website URL) is another excellent way to build links. You can write releases or have them written for you, and you can use an online service to distribute them free or for a relatively modest cost.

5. All webmasters should have at least one blog on which he or she promotes and links to his or her website. Nothing could be easier…all that's required is a very brief article once a week on a topic related to the site owner's website. For folks with absolutely no writing skills, there are services which will write blog posts for as little as $10.

6. Some webmasters have enjoyed great success obtaining links as a result of their Facebook listings and inviting their website visitors to include their site on social bookmarking sites. There are dozens of such sites to which you or your visitors can submit your site.

7. Guest blogging, like blogging, is fast and easy. Offering articles to bloggers who share your niche is a great way to get links and reach your targeted audience at the same time.

8. Informative, on-topic posts in guestbooks, forums, and blogs (with your URL in your signature), will make you friends and produce links the search engines will generally count in your favor. Think "low hanging fruit".

There are other techniques you can try, but be careful about "black hat" tactics like buying links unless you are willing to risk being penalized by the search engines.