March 18th, 2010 by Mike

SEO link building refers to the process of sourcing and creating ‘backlinks’ for your website, which are incoming links to your website from another website or blog which are valued by the search engines in the determination of their result rankings. Link building can be a key influence in search engine rankings, even in some cases above the structure and content of the website itself.

Backlinks are valued by search engines according to their quantity and quality, which together determine a website’s ‘link popularity‘. To cite an example, a link to your site from one that receives a huge number of hits and boasts a huge number of quality backlinks itself, such as the globally trusted BBC News Online, will gain you much more authority and credibility, or ‘link popularity’ in the eyes of search engines, which will in turn boost your rankings, than an amateur blog that only boasts a small, local community of users. In addition, being linked to by a major site will naturally help to increase your traffic, which is also a goal for search engine optimization.

SEO link building has generated much debate in recent years, as well as changing considerably. To combat the threat of ‘black hat’ link farms, search engines today require that a link appears to have won a place on another website by merit. So, what are the best ways to build links legitimately? Here, we introduce the most popular and effective link building strategies.

Firstly, to beat the best you’ll simply have to be the best, writing the kind of engaging, well-researched and unique content that attracts the attention of the many bloggers out there who like to include links to other websites within their own posts. One strategy to grab this attention could be by writing on a controversial subject or point of view – although publishing controversial content regularly can actually get you a bad reputation so use this method wisely.  A reputable search engine optimisation company can advise you on the best way to go about your internet reputation management.

If you don’t have a blog of your own yet, starting one is another good way of attracting backlinks, namely by writing about subjects that excite other webmasters and bloggers both in your field and beyond (whom you can target the interests of in the exact content of your blogs). Lists articles are also very popular, partly as they play to the conciseness and accessibility of the blog format.

You can also join online message boards relevant to your industry and contribute to the discussions there, as ones with thousands of active users in particular can be a source of visitors to your own blog. On a similar basis, you could also join social media sites such as Facebook, Digg and Twitter. Just be careful not to be seen as a spammer.

Email communication is not to be underestimated either: don’t forget to include your link in the signature of every email you send to encourage informal discoveries of your website. Better still, send out a regular newsletter, which can also draw attention to your knowledge and services, which can in turn be forwarded and talked about elsewhere online.

You may wish to consult a professional search engine optimization company for more information on effective link building services and strategies.

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