Five link building ideas

1. Give away a freebie

Give away something free on your website. A free ebook; a gift voucher; a free product from your range … whatever you choose make sure there are no strings attached and people will naturally post the link around the web.

2. Court the local press

Many businesses overlook the local press in pursuit of national fame, but the link equity from local news websites can be just as valuable. Analyse your business for local angles and develop relationships with journalists. Send them your press releases and make yourself available for comment on your area of expertise, should they need an expert opinion for future articles.

3. Be a guest blogger

Bloggers in most industries are on the look-out for fresh, original, interesting content. Find some blogs in your niche (other than those of direct competitors!) and offer them a free article in exchange for a link to your website.

4. Write and syndicate articles

Similar to guest blogging, writing articles for syndication is a way of giving away content in exchange for links. Instead of offering the articles to specific blogs/ websites, however, they are uploaded to portals that are used by publishers to find free content. Publishers are obliged to include a link to your website at the bottom of the article.

5. Emulate the competition

Last but not least: copy the competition! Run searches on your top ten keywords and make a note of which sites are appearing at the top of the listings. Then use the Yahoo Site Explorer tool to discover which back-links are helping those sites achieve their rankings, and try to get links from the same sources.