Effective Link Building and SEO Strategies

The world of digital marketing has seen more change in the last two years than in the last 10 years combined, thanks to the release of Google's Panda and Penguin algorithm updates. Both have changed the best practices of online marketing, including everything from how websites should be built to the creation of "backlinks".

Links that lead from another website to your website are called backlinks because they point back to your pages. Building these links back to your website can help improve the search engine optimisation (SEO) of your website.

So if you're still using outdated link building techniques - such as automatic directory listings or "10,000 links for $10" package purchases - it's time to develop a new, updated link building strategy.

For best results, focus your efforts on the following techniques:

Guest article

The process of guest posting refers to writing an article that is published on another person's or company's website. This technique can not only provide you with access to a new audience, but can also help you secure at least one valuable backlink to your own website.

To maximize the value of this strategy, work with well-known, highly respected blogs and send only your best content to these publishing sites. Guest contributions are about the relationship you build with another site and its audience. It's not a technique that can be automated by sending any old article to any old publisher blog to secure a link or two.

Creating infographics

People often like to share infographics - images that share data in a graphical, aesthetically pleasing way. If you take the time to create an interesting, attractive info-graphic, it is likely to be shared from one person to another, so that every time your graphic is referred to on another website, new links are created.

To determine whether your infographics meet these criteria or not, ask yourself the simple question: "Would I share this with a friend? If you can't answer "yes" to this question, it is likely that your graphic will need some work before it is published.

It can cost time and money to develop a worthwhile infographics, but if done right, this investment can pay off in terms of the number of links that ultimately result from the distribution of your graphic.

Building links via e-mail

As Google cracks down on sitewide links - links that appear in blog sidebars and footers that appear on every page of the site - the development of "in-content" links will be a critical part of the link building process this year. In-content links are links that appear in the main content of the referring site's pages.

The best way to find these links is a so-called email link building process, in which you contact potential referring websites by email and request that your link be placed on a relevant content page. For example, if you run a local restaurant and come across a website that lists all the small businesses in your area, then emailing the owner of the website and requesting a link to your business website is a way to generate new, valuable links.

Create viral content

You will be surprised to learn that one of the most effective techniques for link building does not involve any kind of public relations at all.

Creating viral content refers to the process of publishing very valuable, highly shared content on your website and then placing your links in popular social networks. When you create remarkable content, people should want to share it with others, ideally resulting in an influx of backlinks without your direct involvement in building each link.

Although there is no hard and fast formula for creating viral online content, you can analyze pieces that have been widely shared to get clues as to what made them so popular. Often it is content that picks up on emerging trends or is simply absurd or entertaining.

Analyze links from competitors

Analyzing your competitors' link profiles can be done with simple tools like Majestic SEO (free plan available with paid plans starting at $49.99 per month) and Open Site Explorer from SEOmoz (free plan available with paid plans starting at $99 per month). Both allow you to view the websites that link back to your competitors' websites.

Reviewing your competitors' backlink profiles should give you many ideas for potential sources that should also link back to your website. You will want to qualify these possibilities, as replicating a competitor's spam links will not do your site any favors. In your own efforts, keep strict link building criteria that focus on generating quality links that look as natural as possible to search engines.

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