If you have found this article you are most likely aware that effective link building is the most important statistic search engines compare when ranking web sites. Search engines rank sites on importance, and how better to show importance than willfully being referred by other websites in the form of a link? Keep in mind that incoming links are the most important factor when ranking websites but not the only factor! Use the following link building strategies to ensure your website effectively receives sustainable traffic:

Article Writing and Submission

Writing articles is our number one recommendation when building one way, incoming links. By writing an article related to your website’s content and placing your link on it, you are not only building incoming links but also getting the attention of your targeted audience that are reading your articles. There are thousands of article distribution services as well publishers that feed on quality content and want nothing more to place your article and link on their site. Since the information in the articles can be redistributed, your article and link will be redistributed for years to come. For best exposure we recommend finding a reasonably priced submission service or program to take care of most of the leg work!

Forum, Blog, and Profiles

Do you participate in any online communities? Most allow or even force you place a profile or signature. Many of these also allow you to insert a link to a website of your choice. This link also serves multiple purposes. Search engines recognize this link as a one way link and you also will get curious visitors from the site the link was initially posted. Now be careful with this! You need to follow the rules of the website your link is being posted at. If it is against the website’s policies to post your link it is illegal for you to do so and can cause serious issues with your website and business if escalated.

Reciprocal Link Exchange

When related websites exchange links it is called reciprocal linking. Although not as beneficial as one way linking, this is a common and free way to obtain more links from related websites and is mutually beneficial to both websites. Webmasters should always keep in mind that linking to a website that is banned or being penalized by search engines may have a negative effect on their own website. For this reason, if linking to other websites, please monitor your link partners to ensure you are not a victim of these penalties.

Quality Content

Google’s number one recommendation for improving your position in their search engine is quality content. A common reason why websites fail in the marketing world is because their websites do nothing more then sell products. People as well as search engines don’t want anything to do with these websites. Information gathered by researching the topic and related topics will pull links and traffic, then you are able to offer them your products and services.