This article is pretty flippin long, so here are some jump anchors:

1. What Is Link Building?


2. So What Is Google PageRank?


3. Okay, So Links Are Important. How Do I Build Them?


4. Building Links Naturally


5. Website Submission


6. Social Media as a Link Building Tool


7. Other Ways

Link Building is the process of creating and/or facilitating inbound links to a given website. To search engines, inbound links are like "votes" for a website. The more "votes" you get, the more a search engine will trust your website, which increases the likelihood that your site will rank higher in the search results.

In SEO-speak, link building can be described as building relevant links to a website in an effort to rank that site for specific terms while also building trust, value and equity to that website.

Search engines utilize various information about inbound links to your website in order to make certain assumptions about your website - what your website is about and how much to trust it. Some of the things they look at:

• Total Volume of Inbound Links. To a search engine, the more people that link to a page, the more noteworthy it must be. Therefore, more links equal more trust over time.


• Overall Quality of Inbound Links. It's not enough just to get a high volume of links to your website, you're going to need links from highly reputable sources (i.e. high PageRank, etc) if you want to solidify your trust within the search engines.


• Anchor Text People Link to You With. Think about it. If your website has absolutely no text, titles, or any other information, how will a search engine be able to make any assumptions as to what your website is about? Anchor text. They keywords that people use to link to your website will help search engines understand your site's themes and can be a valuable way to establish high rankings for certain phrases.

Extra Note: Not only do inbound links help you create more trust within the search engines, but they are also a great way to create a good base of referral traffic to your website which will serve to supplement traffic from search engines and direct sources.

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Google has built an entire link analysis algorithm called PageRank around inbound links, which is in essence a total measure of the number and quality of inbound links pointing to a domain.

Google assigns a numeric weighting from 0-10 for each webpage on the Internet; this PageRank denotes a site's importance in the eyes of Google. The PageRank is derived from a theoretical probability value on a logarithmic scale like the Richter Scale. The PageRank of a particular page is roughly based upon the quantity of inbound links as well as the PageRank of the pages providing the links.

PageRank according to Google:

In other words, a PageRank results from a "ballot" among all the other pages on the World Wide Web about how important a page is. A hyperlink to a page counts as a vote of support. The PageRank of a page is defined recursively and depends on the number and PageRank metric of all pages that link to it ("incoming links"). A page that is linked to by many pages with high PageRank receives a high rank itself. If there are no links to a web page there is no support for that page.

Some good link analysis and inbound link tools are:

• Open Site Explorer - This tool, created by SEOMoz helps you examine the total quantity and quality of inbound links pointing to your website. Probably the most robust tool I've seen in regards to analyzing backlinks and link popularity.


• Linkscape - Another backlink analysis tool from SEOMoz that allows you to analyze backlinks for your URL's as well as your competition. Fairly robust, but not quite as good as Open Site Explorer in my mind.


• Backlink Analyzer - Tool from SEOBook that allows you to analyze your site's backlinks. Very simplistic tool that gets straight to the meat; not well designed IMO for all those design guru's out there.

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There are several avenues that you can follow to build high quality backlinks to your website.

• The All-Natural Way. This is probably the best way to get high-quality links, but the most difficult and takes the most time. Patience is a virtue.


• Website Submission. This is by far the easiest way to generate links, but can be very tedious and time consuming. May be the place to let a grunt do the work?


• Social Media. There are many myths about how social media and SEO sync up. I'll help you understand the role social media plays in the world of SEO below.


• Other Ways. In addition to the ways above, there are many other ways to build links.

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Natural links are just that, links that occur naturally over time. Natural links don't all come in one big burst, they develop slowly over time as the sites authority grows. These links can come in a variety of ways, whether it be from having great content, being link-worthy, or from personal interaction with other webmasters and website owners. In the end, these links can be the hardest to develop, can take the most time, but are usually the most rewarding and high value links you'll have.

A few types of natural links:

• One-Way Links - Simple enough. These are links from Site A back to Site B. These are far more valuable from an SEO perspective. The way search engines see it, if someone links to you without receiving anything in return, then the web page or content MUST be of some value.


• Reciprocal Links - This is when website A and website B agree to link to each other. Many natural links occur this way, and it can be mutually beneficial to both parties when the websites are related in some way (same topic, etc).

A few short tips for building natural links:

• Be Link-worthy. Develop content that people like, develop content that people trust, make it easy to link to. Give people a reason to "buzz" around your website/brand, and give them a reason to link to you. I believe this is called "link-baiting".


• Ask for them. You'd be surprised how many people will link to you if you simply ask them to, but don't be an ass about it!


• Do Link Exchanges. Reciprocal links can be good ways to get high-quality backlinks to your website. Don't discount the value of a good old link exchange. However, keep in mind that it is better if you're linking to websites that are similar in topic, and that are also of high-authority.


• Comment on blogs and in forums. Although some blogs still utilize "nofollow" tags on outbound comment links, it is not a trend that I foresee continuing as long as comment spam protection keeps improving. Therefore, I recommend leaving high-quality insightful comments on other blogs, which will create a backlink and could entice blog owners to link back to your site in the future. Also, you have a far better chance of acquiring a back link if you've contributed something to someone else's blog first.


• Link Out. Don't be afraid to link out, and don't hoard links. If linking out helps your website's visitors, then search engines will trust you more. In addition, linking out to somebody may increase the likelihood that they'll link back to you.


• Write a Guest Post. Writing guest posts can be a great way to build quality backlinks, especially if you're guest posting on a popular blog. It's a really great way to gain some valuable exposure and backlink opportunities.

Now these aren't the only methods of building links naturally, but they're a good start. I'll detail some other people's ideas below.

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Submitting your website to various niche, local, and general directories can be a great way to accumulate high-quality backlinks, and some great sources for referral traffic. In addition, taking advantage of several content syndication services can also serve to help build additional high-quality backlinks.

Local Directories
If you're a business/website that services a specific area, then the best place to start your link building efforts might be with the local search directories. In the case of Google, Yahoo, and Bing, these directory listings are often injected above the natural search listings for locality-based search queries (and now for some non-locality based searches - based on IP).

Here are the submission links to several local search directories:

• Google Places


• Yahoo Local


• Bing Local


• Info USA


• Magic Yellow


• Yelp


• Merchant Circle


• Local.com


• AOL Yellowpages


• Yellowbook


• Superpages & Switchboard


• ZoomInfo


• InsiderPages


• Hot Frog


• Best of the Web Local


• iBegin


• Kudzu

General Directories
These directories (again) can serve as another group high-quality backlinks ("vote") that will create more trust for your website over time. I recommend have a nice presence in these more general directories if possible.

• DMOZ. One the the web's oldest human-edited directories.


• Craigslist. Not a directory, but you can post information and links which can lead to lots of traffic.


• IPL2. Another very old and respected general directory.


• Rate It All. Social ratings and review directory for consumers.


• JoeAnt. Well respected general directory.


• The Good Web Guide. A UK consumer review directory.

Niche Direcories
Niche directories are valuable as they may be more closely related to your site's theme, while still maintaining the trust of a high-authority website (if you pick them right). Some examples of niche directories include:

• Dining Guide. A directory specific to restaurants.


• Hotel Guide. A directory specific to Hotels.


• Dexigner. A directory for designers.

For Blogs
If you have a blog, there are some additional directories and options that may be open to you from a link building perspective. Here are a few that I've found useful:

• AllTop. Aggregator of blogs from many different sources; covers a wide variety of topics.


• Blog Catalog. A high-quality blog directory.


• MakeZine. Aggregator of technology-related blogs.


• BlogTopList. Another directory specific to blogs.


• Today. User-generated blog directory.


• Technorati. One of the most highly-trusted blog directory.

Content Syndication & Hubs
If you have a blog with lots of articles or Whitepapers or PDF's that aren't online, content syndication and/or hubs may be a good way to build high-quality backlinks to your website. Here are some common places where people can submit their articles or unpublished content to acquire backlinks:

• Digg. User submitted content from around the web.


• Ezine Articles. Article submission and archival.


• Mixx. Popular aggregator of user-submitted content.


• Reddit. Another aggregator of user-submitted content.


• Sphinn. Aggregator of content related to the technology industry.


• Squidoo. Create lense hubs to publish content.


• Hubpages. Another hub in which to publish content.

Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites offer another great chance to gain high-quality backlinks, and takes it a step further with the ability to generate buzz. This is similar to what can be seen within the social media world, which is often an effective way for backlinks to happen more naturally (but quickly).

Some popular social bookmarking websites include:

• Delicious. Simple but effective site for managing your bookmarks.


• StumbleUpon. Social bookmarking site in which users stumble through various websites.

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Many people claim that social media links hold no value because they are usually accompanied by the "nofollow" link attribute. While this may be true, certain aspecs of social media can bring a TON of value to your link building campaign.

• Social Media Profiles. Having profiles on websites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be among some of the most high-quality backlinks you'll be able to acquire. These websites are very trustworthy, therefore they are prime real estate for you to add a link back to your website.


• Buzz. In a nutshell, social media can create buzz around your brand, which in turn can make your brand go viral, which typically leads to backlinks. Simple enough.


• Recurring traffic and exposure. Just like all of the other sources, whether some of the links are "nofollow" or not, they are a good source of recurring traffic. If this recurring traffic based likes your content - then they're likely to link to it. More exposure usually equals more links, which is a good thing.

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Now I don't (and won't) pretend to know everything there is to know about link building and Off-Site SEO, so I've decided to compile a nice list of awesome articles related to Link Building. Hopefully, these articles can cover anything I didn't hit on above:

• How to Build Links Fast: 101 Tips & Strategies. By Aaron Wall and Andy Hagens at SEOBook.


• 131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies. By Rob Nobles at Search Engine Watch.


• Advanced Link Building Strategies. (I believe paid content) from SEOMoz.


• Link Building from A to Z. Another awesome article from SEOMoz.


• 5 Link Building Strategies That Work. By Brian Clark at CopyBlogger.


• 5 Types of Link Building. By Search Engine Journal.


• 25 Link Building Tactics to Improve Blog Search Engine Rankings. By Lee Odden at TopRankBlog.

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I'll try to add some more gems that people have written in the near future. Anyhow, hope this helps you in your quest to attain more high-end backlinks!