Link building is very time-consuming job which requires a lot of focus and dedication and can be even more confusing at times, yet people share a love and hate relationship with it. Why? It is because of the fact that it is still the key to achieve higher PR and helps a website to rank better in SERPs for relevant keywords and ultimately helps to attract a good amount of relevant traffic as well.

However, you could literally spend a lifetime building links and still have a feeling in the back of your mind as to how these links are helping with your sites’ promotion.

About five and a half years ago, I became, what you call in ‘medical term’, bedridden and my doctor had advised that it is better to take rest and do something from home. I was broken. I just could not get myself locked up in a room, twenty four hours. Initially, it was pure misery and it was then the internet came to my rescue. It was then I realized the enormous potential out there for website marketing, SEO and freelance writing. It was exciting to receive my first cheque; it was for a small amount, around $400, but still it was something borne out of nothing. Since then, I have a long-standing relationship with the internet. So, it is quite natural that I love link building and SEO a lot.

Ask any link builder, they would confess that they have a sort of love and hate relationship with linking and link building. Besides, it is a process that takes a few years to learn and look at it from an analytical point of view. Of course, content is important so is link structure.

Now coming back as to how I taught myself the basics of link building. When I began my link building process, I read a lot of info about article marketing, directory submissions, reciprocal linking, Blogging, paid links and just about anything related to SEO and link building. As a result, I ended up doing a little bit of everything. Gradually, I noticed my page rankings rose to the top. Believe me, there is nothing more satisfactory for a link builder as seeing his page on the first page of a Google search. I also came to realize that link building is an ongoing process, because, no sooner you stop doing your link building exercises, your rankings gradually drop.

Quality link building has nowadays become a necessity as the Google’s algorithm has become much more advanced making quality links the key to higher page-rankings in Google. we have over the years come up with various link building techniques to comply with Google algorithm. However, the Google algorithm has also devalued a staggering amount of links, For instance: it does not count ‘No follow links’; meaning links with ‘No follow tags’ and when you acquire links from web pages from the same domain, only one link is counted as backlink and not all, these are a few examples.

The fact is that Google loves natural link building and in 90% cases the method followed for linking is one way. And thus, one way link building becomes a primary method. Now, what are one way links? They are links that point to your site but do not have a link from your site. Basically, such links have more value.

One of the key factors to a successful link building program is to pay attention to the page quality, relevance and traffic of the particular sites that are linking to yours. There are different type of linking methods that include paid links, link baiting, link wheels, nofollow linking and the reciprocal linking methods. They have been discussed below.

Paid Links

Links purchased for advertising purpose are paid links. Paid links hardly have any value in SEO point of view when they come under the category ‘sponsored links’ or ‘Advertisements etc, but when acquired from relevant and popular pages they can drive a huge traffic to your site. However, there is a point to note here that paid links are generally considered as a violation of Google’s linking guidelines. Hence, it can have a negative impact on your site and its page ranking. But I personally feel that all paid links are not bad links. It is advisable to obtain links from pages that have back links from other sites. In other words, it should depend on where those paid links are coming from. It is said that Google engines stop spidering after going through over hundred links on a page. Hence, just having plenty of links does not necessarily make it an authoritative page.

Link Baiting

Link bait is generally a method to update website with good content or something interesting that attracts people to voluntarily to it. The page could contain just about anything; it could be shocking photos, funny videos, interesting content or anything. In short, link baiting is any content or feature, within a site that is designed specifically to get links.

Link Wheel

Link wheel is an interesting method. It is mainly used by SEO professionals to increase the overall link structure. Just like a flow chart, a link wheel is created which is an interlinked network of content pages from popular sites such as Squidoo, Hubpages, WordPress, and Blogger etc. A content page on each of these sites will have one link to your site and another linking to another page in their sites thereby creating a wheel like structure.

Reciprocal Links

Some time back, reciprocal links used to be the main link building strategy of choice. But, reciprocal links are fast becoming obsolete as Google generally disapproves this practice. This is mainly because there are too many link farms on the net and reciprocal linking has become way too simple. In fact, nowadays, one way links carry more weight than reciprocal links. Besides, reciprocal linking is too time consuming and is really not worth the effort. However, my personal opinion is that reciprocal link is quite useful as it is common for complementary sites to link with one another. If you get a link from a page that has a lot of people linking to it, then it carries much more value than getting a link from a page that no one else links to. In other words, a domain with good quality back links is a valuable link source. However, if those links are trashy, it has very little value. Hence, try and exchange links with complementary and reputable sites and not with just any site. Also, try and be judicious in your use of out-going links. You’ve just got those people in your door; don’t quickly send them away again.

Guest Posts

Practically everyone on the internet agree to the fact that ‘content is king’. You can get Quality back links from sites through guest blogging. When you write good content then obviously many relevant sites would voluntarily agree to give you back links on their page in exchange of your high quality content.

Article and Link Submission

An important part of link building is submitting your link to selected link directories. As mentioned earlier, link farms are basically outdated now, so you must be very selective while submitting your site link. There are a whole lot of free link directories available on the web and using an automated submission will end your link being submitted to a site with poor credibility. Now you can also use a link building service to do this for you. Most link building service providers generally offer their clients two types of directory submission services – automated and manual. There are chances that you might have come across this option, where they submit your site to a fewer directories through manual submission for higher fees. The reason is that manual directory submission is better as all reputable directories have their own custom script where you must submit to them manually. Automated tools submit your site to only low quality directories. It is therefore suggested that you pay more for manual submission to get links from quality directories that pass more link juice to your site.

An important part of link building is submitting articles to article directories. A point to remember while submitting articles to article directories is to ensure that you include a link to your website in the resource box of the article. It is also suggested that you use your keyword as the anchor text for the link; this would help boost your search engine rankings for that particular keyword.

Now a few ‘Don’ts’

Don’t employ a linking strategy designed for search engines, but instead devise a quality link building strategy, targeted for real traffic. Link Building Services must fit within your long term link building strategy or plans, as it has become an essential part of your website’s credibility. One of the key factors to a successful link building program is to pay attention to the page quality, relevancy and traffic of the particular websites that are linking to yours.

• Do not participate in programs that send out bulk emails asking people to swap links as this would be classified as link spamming.
• Never send out blank emails to hundreds of sites asking for a reciprocal link.
• Never place a link on your own site for the sole purpose of trading link popularity.
• Only place links that are valuable to your readers.
• Never try to get low-integrity websites to link to you. The link will actually hurt your site, not help it.

Quality link building takes time

Do not commit blunder in a hurry because link building takes time and its results cannot be seen overnight. However, in the end, it is definitely worth the effort. It demands time and skills. If you look for a professional link building service or link builder who can run an efficient link building campaign for you then check the reputation and credibility of the providers before placing the order. In the SEO world, the word affordable link building is quite common as there are so many cheap link building services. In reality, affordable link building in many cases is a myth. Just remember that you only get what you pay for.

In case, you don’t want to hire someone and want to do it yourself, Link building is a continuous learning process, you learn while you practice. So, always keep a student’s approach to SEO, because in that way, you continuously learn.