Link building is one of the keystones of Search Engine Optimisation and it is also a great way to draw visitors to your website. Ideally, people will link to your content over time, generating inbound links in an organic way.
However, sometimes things does not work so smoothly and a bit of help is required to increase your PageRank through do-follow links. The following are 5 ways of creating inbound links to your own content without being labeled a spammer:
Squidoo lenses
Squidoo lenses are small one page websites about a very specific subject, showing the take of the author on that subject. The best way to build links to your website is creating high quality lenses about related subjects and include links to your website on them.
Squidoo have a very strong view against spam, so make sure your lenses actually are useful, or they risk being deleted and your user account banned.
Article marketing
Another way of creating links back to your website is by creating content other people can reuse on their own websites, provided they keep the links and the original text. Article directories such as EzineArticles host and index submitted articles that webmasters can reuse provided they follow the license terms.
Apart from getting a link from your original submission, you will get a link from the page of every webmaster that reuses your content.
Commenting on blogs
Commenting on blogs can work great to draw traffic to your website, but can also get you labeled as a spammer and never be taken seriously. If you decide to go this route then make sure your comments are relevant and add to the conversation, instead of being a wrapper for your link.
At the same time, keep in mind that many blogs format the links in their comments so that they are not followed by the search engine spiders. However, human users can still click on them and reach your site if your comment caught their interest.
Social media marketing
Another great way of getting links to your website or blog is by spreading the word using social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. By sharing links to your content you will not only get visitors but you may get some search engine juice as search engines are turning to Twitter and Facebook to get real time updates.
Guest blogging
Many bloggers are happy to publish guest posts by other bloggers in similar niches, with a link to their guest blogger’s website. Guest blogging is also a great tool to build relationships with other bloggers and build a reputation as a knowledgeable source of your niche. Think of it as being invited to speak at a conference, so write your best content and think of the audience of the blog you will be publishing it on. You can also use WordPress to create a free business blog that links to your main site.
Before you embark on a link building campaign using any of those methods, keep in mind that they are not quick and dirty tricks to get inbound links. They all require being able to create engaging content and start conversations with other bloggers, and in the case of guest blogging also being able to pitch yourself as a contributor. However, the links created this way are quality links that will reflect positively on your website both in terms of incoming traffic and Google PageRank.
Sarah Arianrhod - Irune is a PHP Developer and owner of A Creative Dream, a boutique web development, online marketing and SEO Agency based in London ...
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