General Advice

1) Make content easy to understand and accessible

Quality content can attract links for your website. Make sure the content is easy to understand and accessible to your visitors.

Recommendation: Make sure the textual content on your website is easy to understand as well as grammatically correct. Your visitors should be able to access your content with ease and it should be organized in an effective manner.

2) Design as a linking element

Design goes a long way to attracting visitors and links to your website.
a) Web 2.0-ify your site, people love to link to anything with AJAX. Even in the narrowest of niches, there is some kind of useful functionality you can build with AJAX.
b) Validate and 508 your site.
c) Order a beautiful CSS redesign. A nice design can get links from sites like CSS Vault.

Recommendation: The image of your website is one of the most important aspects of running a successful Internet business. Invest in a good design if you don’t already have one.

3) Buy relevant traffic through PPC

When you rank well organically you will receive links from search engine users that will find your content relevant, the same can be said for ranking well in the sponsored results. The more your website is seen by targeted visitors the greater chance you will have in acquiring natural backlinks.

Recommendation: Purchase relevant traffic from the search engines and other sources. A link or advertisement doesn’t have to directly count towards increasing your rankings but it can indirectly increase the backlinks to your website.

Linking Guidelines

1) Varied anchor text

Acquiring links that contain the keywords you’re targeting in the anchor text of the link is a proven method of increasing your search engine rankings. Nevertheless, only concentrating on building links with the same anchor text can have a negative impact on your rankings. The search engines see all of your inbound links and can analyze them to determine if there is a natural variation in the anchor text.

Recommendation: Roughly 70% of your inbound links should contain your relevant keywords in the anchor text. The remaining 30% should be allocated to variations that contain your relevant keywords, less relevant keywords/phrases and variations of your company name.

2) Acquire links from related pages

A backlink is usually beneficial from unrelated pages of content but is much more valuable from related pages. The search engines are able to determine the relevancy of your content compared to the content of the page and website the link resides. The search engines also take this one step further and check the inbound links to the website your link resides and determine the relevancy of those links to both your content and the linking website’s content.

Recommendation: The quality of inbound links will help your rankings increase by a larger margin than links from non-relevant pages and websites. These links are harder to acquire and will generally cost more but they are well worth it.

3) Vary the position of links (top of the page, inside body text, footer, etc.)

The best backlinks are usually “inside body text” links. Although, the search engines still need to see natural variation in the position of your backlinks in order to determine that you aren’t artificially increasing your rankings through link purchases.

Recommendation: Acquire links from different positions on websites. Utilizing different types of link building methods and services will usually help you achieve this goal and provide greater variation in your link profile.

4) Build links gradually and naturally

The search engines know when you receive inbound links. An unnatural increase in inbound links can prompt a human review of your backlink profile.

Recommendation: If you don’t have a large number of existing backlinks, don’t acquire too many links at once. Gradually increase your acquisition of backlinks each month until you have reached your optimal monthly budget for link building. It is even better to build a small amount of links every month than it is to purchase a certain amount of links for a short period of time and then stop building links all together.

5) Varied PR value

The value of Page Rank isn’t what it used to be in the search engines. Nevertheless, there still is a small correlation between the PR of the page that a link resides and the value it provides to your link profile.

Recommendation: Don’t only acquire links from websites with high PR or low PR. There needs to be a natural variation in the PR of the links in your profile. The ratio of low PR to high PR links will always be much greater and should remain that way when you’re acquiring links. Only acquiring high PR backlinks could have a negative effect on your rankings.

6) Good Neighborhoods

The search engines organize every website into neighborhoods based upon their link profile and their relationship between other websites. You want your website to be in a good neighborhood and preferably in a high quality neighborhood. Usually your link building practices will determine the quality of your neighborhood. You also don’t want to link to websites that are in bad neighborhoods.

Recommendation: Place some outbound links on your website to high quality websites in your vertical. When acquiring backlinks, make sure the links aren’t coming from suspect verticals such as gambling websites. Try to acquire as many backlinks from high quality websites in your vertical. One of these links could make an enormous difference in the determination of your neighborhood and your ability to rank better in the search engines. If you are unable to acquire a one-way link from these websites, a reciprocal link will also provide great value.

7) Links from different C-class IPs

Severs that host websites have unique C-class IPs. Some websites are hosted on dedicated servers and others are on servers that are shared by multiple websites. The search engines detect the C-class IPs of the websites that link to your website. More than one link from the same C-class IP will not provide the same value for your link profile.

Recommendation: This is difficult to determine when you’re doing link acquisition. The best recommendation we can give you is don’t expect the same value from links if they are placed on multiple websites owned by the same person or company. Generally, you won’t run into this issue with normal link building methods.

8) Age/Trust

Links from old websites are better than links from new ones. Certain websites also carry a higher trust rank in the eyes of the search engines.

Recommendation: You want a mix of new and old websites in your link profile. Websites with higher trust rank are usually the same websites that are leaders and popular resources in your industry, great links, if you can get them.

9) Reciprocal links

Exchanging links with other websites can still help increase your rankings but it isn’t as effective as it once was. There is good value in exchanging links with prominent websites in your industry. There is also a method of 3-way linking that can be effective but shouldn’t be done in an easily identified pattern.

Recommendation: Try to exchange links with non-competing websites in your industry. 3-way linking can be very effective but you shouldn’t link out to unrelated websites or receive links from unrelated websites, which is a difficult arrangement to be achieved.

10) Inbound link pattern

Inbound links need to be directed to both your homepage and subpages of your website to replicate a natural linking pattern. Many websites make the mistake of only directing links to their homepage and wonder why they aren’t achieving the rankings they desire.

Recommendation: Direct links to your homepage and internal pages of your website. You can still send the majority of links to the homepage because that is more natural but sending links to various pages throughout your website can make a huge difference in your rankings.

11) Link Duration

Ideally you want inbound links to be permanently placed on the website they reside. In certain cases a temporary link can be effective, such as donating to a charity or school and receiving a link for a certain period of time.

Recommendation: Try to acquire permanent links when possible. Links that also reside on a page that will always be seen by the search engines is also a big plus. Donating to government agencies, organizational charities and colleges can be a great way to acquire powerful links but don’t go overboard. Donations are usually expensive and too many links of this nature is also unnatural.

12) Link Footprints

When the words “sponsored”, “paid”, “advertising” or other variations are placed near your link the search engines are sophisticated enough to reduce or eliminate the value of those links.

Recommendation: Review the locations of the links you acquire and make sure that only a limited amount of them have this type of footprint. A good linking service shouldn’t provide you with links that are always marked in this manner.

13) Language

You don’t want links to come from websites that aren’t in the same language as your own.

Recommendation: Make sure you aren’t receiving these types of links from the services you’re utilizing. An occasional miss isn’t a big deal but you do want to avoid a pattern.

14) Cloaked Links

Every search engine has a different algorithm to determine how well you rank. Google doesn’t like site-wide links but Yahoo and MSN do like them. If you cloak those links to not be seen by Google in the source code but still have them viewable by the other search engines site-wide links can be very effective.

Recommendation: This is a grey area tactic and isn’t recommended as a good practice of acquiring links to improve rankings in other search engines besides Google. A human reviewer at Google will still see these links and may wonder why they are blocked in the source code.

15) Google Alerts

This can be an effective tool to identify new subject specific and high trust link targets.

Recommendation: Setup alerts such as these (“useful travel sites” library ‐travelchannel site:.edu) or “useful travel sites” library ‐travelchannel site:.us).

16) Sponsor/Charity links

Add the words “sponsor” and/or “charity” to any of your link searches for keywords you’d like to rank for. These “paid links” fall under the “perfectly acceptable” category in most senses, and offering to sponsor an event or participate in a charitable donation or effort is usually a surefire way to get a link from some very powerful pages. For example, let’s say you wanted to rank well for “chicago real estate,” you might run a search like this (http://www.google.com/search?q=chicago+%22real+estate%22+sponsor+charity).

Recommendation: As explained earlier, these links can be quite expensive and shouldn’t be overdone. Don’t acquire more than 10 to 20 of these types of links unless you are a common sponsor of major events.

Content Development

1) Becoming an industry resource

Adding content to your website that provides helpful information to your visitors and your industry in general can help build links naturally for your website. Adding content to your website will add more weight to your website and the search engines may consider your website to be an authority in your industry, which will boost your rankings. If the content on your websites achieves good rankings, you will also attract backlinks from visitors who find your content valuable.

Recommendation: Create content such as “101 Lists”, “10 Easy Steps to Help You X”, “Extensive Resource Lists”, “Top 10 Myths for a Specific Category”, “List of Gurus/Experts” in your industry and other variations. These types of content are great for attracting backlinks and traffic.

2) Corporate Blog

Adding a blog to your website is a great way to add content and have pre-existing tools at your disposal to help you promote and syndicate your content. The content in your blog still does need to be interesting and worthy of attracting links though. Remember to link out to other blogs and other good resources within your posts. Only linking to other pages of your website within posts can have a negative effect on rankings. Commenting on other industry related blogs may also increase the exposure of your blog. Technorati tag pages rank well in Yahoo! and MSN, and to a lesser extent in Google. You can also submit your blog into the best blog directories to build links and gain exposure.

Recommendation: If you have an employee and/or the resources to consistently write good quality blog posts then this method of content development is highly recommended.

3) Conferences and social interaction

It is easy to take pictures of important events and tell narratives about why they are important. Pictures of “celebrities” in your industry make great link bait. Engaging, useful, and interesting interviews are also an easy way to create original content. And they spread like wildfire.

Recommendation: It is worth exploring these options if they make sense for your company and industry.

News and Syndication

1) Article syndication

This is a popular method of building links and driving traffic to a website. How effective syndicating articles can be depends on a couple of factors. The articles need to be interesting and news worthy, no boring press releases and general information about your website. The content needs to be fresh or at least different then the content that is on your website. The best results can be achieved through writing different content to all the article submission services and directories that are available. Don’t expect to receive an anchor text link in the article with all your submissions. Receiving a link with your company name is also helpful to your rankings.

Recommendation: Submit your articles into as many syndication services and directories as you can, as long as the content is different in each. You don’t want to duplicate content. Try to get relevant keyword anchor text links when possible but company links are also great to have.

2) Industry news

You can receive great traffic and hopefully some links if you can get your articles onto industry news websites. They might be less likely to posts a link in the article but all exposure has the potential to generate links.

Recommendation: Identify prominent industry news websites and submit quality articles to them. The articles should be helpful and news worthy to members of your industry and shouldn’t necessarily promote your products/services. Hiring a good publicist can make all the difference.

3) Journalists & Bloggers

Sending your articles to a list of handpicked journalists and bloggers in your industry is also a great way to get your articles in front of a targeted audience. You can also improve your chances of getting traffic and links if you can develop a good relationship with these writers.

Recommendation: Identify these important writers and start building relationships with them. Send them quality industry related articles written by your company or even articles written by other people that they might find interesting. Offer them free products/services and don’t ask for anything in return. If they are impressed they will write about them. You can also offer exclusive news to these writers if they are willing to write about your articles.

4) Article trading

Trading articles with other websites can also help with link building. This is very similar to reciprocal link building but with the addition of article content.

Recommendation: This can be effective if you can find a non-competitive industry partner to trade articles with. This practice is best done sparingly.

5) Industry news, surveys and studies on your website

Creating a section on your website where you write about industry related news, surveys and studies can also attract inbound links. Some people monitor information that is written about them all over the web. Make them feel important and flatter them enough and they might link to the article you have written.

Recommendation: This content would be perfect to include in a corporate blog but can also be generally added to your website to support your products/services.

Directories, Meme Trackers & Social Bookmarking

1) Directory Submissions

Submitting your website to directories is something every website should do but shouldn’t be taken too far. Yahoo and DMOZ are the best directories and are good links to have. Beyond those directories there isn’t big list of quality directories but they are helpful links nonetheless.

Recommendation: Submit your website into the most effective directories from trusted sources. They are easy links to acquire and can add value to your link profile. You can also create your own topical directory on a different domain and hosted on a different server then your website. This will give you a good directory link and it may have the potential to attract link juice that your website wouldn’t normally be able to receive.

2) Meme trackers

Utilize meme trackers to write about and link to popular topics.

Recommendation: Create a profile on meme trackers that are related to your industry or will accept topics that are industry related. In your profile you can place a link to your website and the more exposure your submissions receive, the higher potential of attracting links.

3) Social Bookmarking

Tag related sites on websites like Del.icio.us and other social bookmarking services. You can also ask your friends and colleagues to tag your website.

Recommendation: There are many social bookmarking services where you can make a profile that links to your website. Setup your profile on these websites and link out to websites that are industry related.

Local, Business, Free & Review Links

1) Local and business links

There are always some good links that can be acquired from local and business resources.

a) You can join the Better Business Bureau and get a link from your local Chamber of Commerce.

b) Submit your link to relevant city and state governmental resources.

c) Ask your manufacturers, retailers or other business partners to link to your website.

d) An affiliate program can also be designed to provide link juice as well as drive direct sales to your website.

Recommendation: All links help and you might as well get as many as you can.

2) Free links

There are many ways to acquire free links on the web.

a) Craigslist can be a cheap or free classified service.

b) Ask or answer questions on Yahoo! Answers and provide links to relevant resources.

c) Ask or answer questions on Google Groups and provide links to relevant resources.

d) If you run a fairly reputable company, create a page about it in Wikipedia or in topic specific wikis. If it is hard to list your site directly, try to add links to other pages that link to your site.

e) Set up a topical Squidoo page, which you can use to look like an industry expert. Link to expert documents and popular useful tools in your fields, and also create a link back to your site.

f) Submit a story to Digg that links to an article on your site. You can also submit other content and have some of its link authority flow back to your profile page.

g) Publish an RSS Feed.

h) Most forums allow members to leave signature links or personal profile links. If you make quality contributions some people will follow these links and potentially read your site, link to your site, and/or buy your products/services.

Recommendation: All these methods are worth exploring but free doesn’t necessarily mean easy. Some of these methods won’t make much sense when you consider the resources that need to be dedicated to utilizing them.

3) Review links

Getting involved in product and service reviews can also create exposure to your website that can attract backlinks.

a) Review relevant products on Amazon.com.

b) Create product lists on Amazon.com that review top products and also mention your background.

c) Review related sites on Alexa to draw in related traffic streams.

d) Review products and services on shopping search engines.

e) If you buy a product or service you really like and are good at leaving testimonials, many of those can turn into links. Two testimonial writing tips; make them believable and be specific where possible.

Recommendation: These methods are also worth exploring but they will require dedicated resources and consistency that may prove costly in the long run.

Buying websites, Renting Links/Advertisements & Freebies/Giveaways

1) Buying websites

It may be faster to buy an old site with a strong link profile, and link it to your own site, than to try to start building authority links from scratch.

Recommendation: If you find relevant websites to purchase, try to maintain their host and don’t make too many changes to the design and content of the website.

2) Renting links and advertisements

There are many methods of renting links and advertisements that can increase your rankings in the search engines.

a) Rent some high quality links from a broker.

b) Rent some high quality links directly from websites.

c) Become a sponsor. All sorts of charities, contests, and conferences link to their sponsors.

d) Sell items on eBay and offer to donate the profits to a charity. Many charities will link both to the eBay auction and to your site.

e) Pay bloggers to review your products/services or press releases.

f) Search the SERPS and make offers.

Recommendation: There are many methods of renting links and advertisements and working with an SEO specialist can help you determine the best options for your business.

3) Freebies and giveaways

There are also many creative ways to build backlinks to your website through freebies and giveaways.

a) Hold a contest. Contests make great link bait.

b) Build a tool collection.

c) Create and release open source site design templates for content management systems like Wordpress. Don’t forget the “Designed by example.com” bit in the footer!

d) Offer free samples in exchange for feedback.

e) Release a Firefox extension. Make sure you have a download and/or support page on your site which people can link to.

Recommendation: Choose the options that make the most sense for your company. Determine the options that also benefit your company regardless of backlink generation.