White Hat Link Building Techniques To Boost SEO

Link Building Isn't Dead, it Has Just Changed:

If you're desperately searching for techniques to build up your link profile, chances are you keep on coming across the same solutions. It seems, at first view, that there just hasn't been anything new invented. This is true. Most people are using the same old techniques. Does that mean link building's dead?

Some people are getting more creative and really developing more relationships. However, the reason a limited number of techniques consistently circle the SEO industry is because these have been tried and tested. What hasn't been tried, for newcomers to SEO, is what specific mix works for a particular website.

Directories

These are the easiest links to hit and as a consequence are generally the first ones tried for new SEOs. Unfortunately, some directories can give a site a bad reputation, instead of good link juice. So what do you do?

Common sense should provide some guidance here. The general advice is that if it's the kind of directory you wouldn't want your business in, you shouldn't submit it. This is a good guideline to stick to: it directs you away from the disreputable-looking directories and from newbie mistakes like submitting to a local directory you don't belong in. Think about where people are looking for content, answers or solutions that you provide. If you can actually help people by providing knowledgable content to them, it's fair game.

Link swapping

Link swapping is a dirty word as far as it goes for SEO, mainly because Google deemed it so. However, there are ways to switch links with people that are completely natural. Met someone at a conference and want to further your networking efforts? Send them a link, and they'll send you one back. The only thing that's different is that you haven't made an overt agreement to dupe the search engines.

Content marketing

Another thing that's gained a bad reputation through misuse is content marketing. At the same time, content is being hailed as the only way forward for companies that want to build their web presence. When you think about it, these two ideas are diametrically opposed, a kind of doublethink.

Content marketing is a perfectly valid way to go about getting links, but again common sense needs to prevail. Posting bad content all over the web with your URL in it is just a plainly bad idea: not only does it make you look bad to the search engines, it makes you look bad to any poor human who happens across it. On the other hand, there is no logical reason that your company shouldn't be acknowledged as the author of good content.

Guest blogging

What do you get when you cross link swapping with content marketing? Well, if you do it badly, you get a bad version of guest blogging. Guest blogging was a popular way to build links a few years ago, until Matt Cutts openly expressed his dislike of the practice. Then it became frowned upon – for no logical reason.

Blogging for other people is a reasonable thing to do, as long as you do it the smart way. Don't stuff your guest post with your links and you should be fine. Remember building links is about genuine relationships, so if the post makes sense and it's a reputable source, it will help.

All link building is a matter of common sense. Think things through, and build smart.