SEO link building works in two ways. First, it connects readers to other relevant posts and content within your business website. Second, it helps boost search engine rankings and online credibility. Although the former helps gain link referral traffic, the latter can bring in an abundant number of visitors through the organic search queries.

SEO

Link Building as an SEO Technique

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tricky marketing approach, but it is nonetheless one of the best ways to gain free organic traffic. There are many ways to improve SEO. It starts with optimizing the content of a website. Relevant keywords should be used in the title, meta-description, headers, and body of each page. This allows the search engines to determine the relevancy of your website to search queries.

Websites or, more specifically, webpages are ranked in the search engine results pages (SERPS) according to PageRank (PR) for the most part. The search engine giant, Google, determines the relevancy of a site through more than 200 signals or factors. However, PR is the most popular and the most essential.

PageRank works by determining the number of quality inbound links directed to a webpage to analyze its importance to specific search queries. Hence, if your website has more inbound links coming from authoritative sources, you have a better chance of outranking your competitors on relevant keywords.

How to Build Links

There are generally two types of links: outbound and inbound. Outbound links are designed to direct visitors to other websites outside of your own. These are usually used to refer people to affiliate products you are promoting, your social network profiles, or to your other websites. Inbound links are external links directed towards your website. For the purpose of SEO, inbound links are the most significant. The following are a few ways to gain quality inbound links for your business website.

Article Directories

Writing generic articles for article directories is an easy task. Simply write a short 400-500 word article related to the content of your website and post it on high PR (PR4 or higher) article directories. You can place 2-3 links on each directory and direct those links to 2-3 different pages on your website. Remember that most links placed on the article body are no-follow links. Hence, it is better to create links on the resource box at the bottom of the article.

Guest Blogging

You can also write a 500-1000 word blog and have it posted on a relevant blog site. The link can both bring referral visitors to your site and increase your website’s PageRank and credibility. Usually, you can do this by contacting the administrators of certain blog sites. However, there are websites dedicated to connecting guest bloggers with blog administrators.

Press Releases

A press release is a news-type article posted on an online press release website. Unlike general articles or blogs posted on blog sites and directories, these usually contain updated information about your business, product launches, seminars, and other events. Press release articles are often syndicated in many websites, hence providing your site with multiple inbound links.

Web 2.0 Sites and Social Networks

Social networks and Web 2.0 sites like Tumblr, YouTube, Squidoo, Apsense, LinkedIn and the like are great sources of inbound links. You can place your website link on the profile pages or build blog posts to create links embedded within relevant content. Most Web 2.0 sites allow you to post blogs or other content and usually without the need for an editorial review.

Word of Advice

While SEO link building can help boost the online credibility of your business, be careful not to use automated software that can ruin your link reputation. Use white or grey hat methods. Remember to use a variety of links as well. Do not abuse the use of targeted anchor texts. Also use generic anchor texts like “Click Here” or “Read More Here”, and in some instances, use plain URL links to add to variety.

Author Bio: Joshua Turner is a writer who produces articles related to business. This article offers SEO techniques and aims to encourage further study with Marylhurst University Business Management Degree, for more information click here.