Yes, the rumors are true. I’ve put together the most comprehensive list of link building strategies on the Web. If there’s any post on my blog you should bookmark for future reference, this is the one.
Why I created it: The best link building strategies are never found in one place, and the best lists of strategies are completely outdated.
If you can think of 3 link building strategies not listed, email me with them (and a few short descriptions), and if I agree they should be on the list, I’ll add them & send you a free Point Blank SEO t-shirt.
If you don’t want to click on each strategy, you can Expand/Contract All.
Basic
These are the most basic strategies in the book. Everyone can build links with these strategies, no matter what industry you’re in.
Create a blog
Creating content on a consistent basis not only builds links internally (by linking out from your posts), but also gives you the ability to naturally attract links to your content.A blog is essential to many strategies I list below, such as linking out. You absolutely need a blog in today's online environment to survive.
For more information, read these tips & tutorials.
Create an RSS feed
If your blog is run on any of the popular Content Management Systems, you'll already have an RSS feed. If you don't, create one. If you do, burn it at Feedburner.com so you can get statistics on your subscribers.
For link building, it's simple. There are sites out there that will scrape your content (stealing it without permission). When they do, make sure you get a link back by 1) including links to other pages on your site in your posts and 2) installing the RSS footer plugin for WordPress (adds a link to your blog after every post).
Interlink
You have pages and posts on your website, so make the most of them. Internal links are HUGE for link building because you can control everything about them, from the location on the page to the anchor text.
This is something that most people overlook, and I advise you to please not! Make sure to steer your content in the direction of other posts or pages so you can link to them.
Also, if you have multiple sites, interlinking is a must (unless they're completely irrelevant and unrelated).
Resources/Links pages
Other webmasters have created links or resource pages, and these are legitimate opportunities to get links. If the links on that page are relevant, you've got a chance.
Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just asking for a link. I'll go into specific strategies below that help you get webmasters liking you before you ask, because doing that greatly increases your chances of getting a link.
Profile links
If you sign up to become a member for a site, you'll get a link in your profile. Well, not every site. Some sites will allow quality links in your profile, while others won't. Some are in the middle, such as Twitter, which gives nofollow links (links that don't pass link juice).
Example: CrunchBase. Sign up here.
Ask people you know for a link
Whether it's your friends, relatives, employees, colleagues, business partners, clients, or anyone else, ask them for a link. Someone you know has a website or blog, so take advantage.
Make it easy to link to you
If you want people to link to you, make it easy for them.Create HTML ready snippets that people can plug right into their content to link to you, because some linkers in your community might not be too web savvy. I suggest either creating a "Link to Us" page or by using a little javascript to generate the HTML at the end of each article or post.
Note: this might not be the best option based on the community you're located in. Are you in the cement niche? Then this is perfect. Are you talking about Internet related business? Then this might not be your best bet, because the majority of your audience probably already knows how to link.
Research competitors
A large chunk of my time finding links is by looking through my competitor's link profiles. Essentially, you're piggy backing off of their success. While some links are unobtainable (i.e. a random mention in a news post), others can be diamonds in the rough (a high quality niche directory).
I suggest using SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer for this. Plugin your competitors and export their backlinks to a CSV. Do this for all of your competitors so you can get all of their links in one place – Excel. Then you can sort them by various link metrics to find the best opportunities.
Link out
Linking out is huge. Don't be a link hoard; you're going to create content, so use it to gain favor with other people.I'll go more into depth below with specific strategies on linking out.
Submission-Based
There are many places across the web where you can build links through submissions, whether it’s submitting your site, a piece of content, or anything else.
Article directories
You can submit your articles & blog posts to article syndication sites. Although they don't pass much value, they're still worth submitting at least a couple articles to. In return, you'll get a link or two in your author bio, depending on the site.
Example: Ezinearticles.com. Sign up here.
Web 2.0 submission
Web 2.0 sites are similar to article directories, but instead, you can add images, video, and other interactive features to your content. These usually pass more value than article directories, but it depends on the authority of the site.
Example: Squidoo.com. Sign up here.
Press release submission
By submitting a press release to distribution sites or specific syndication sites, you can build links if you add one or two into the body of the release. Some options are paid, while others are free.
Example: PRWeb.com. Sign up here. Packages start at $89.
Infographic submissions
If you've created an infographic, you can easily submit them to infographic directories or blogs. Paddy Moogan put together this awesome list of 27 of them.
Example: CoolInfographics.com. Suggest one here.
Video submissions
If you have video content, make sure you're getting links from all that hard work. The best list is here. Just as a heads up, some sites only provide nofollow links, and they're usually in the description.
If you're looking to submit videos on a large scale, consider checking out TubeMogul. It's a paid service, but it can save you some serious time.
Example: Vimeo. Sign up here.
Niche specific directories
As opposed to general web directories, niche specific directories only accept sites that meet a certain topic criteria. For example, one directory might only accept sites about arts & crafts. Some of these directories are free, while others are paid.Example: Business.com, a directory for business websites. Submit here. Cost is $299/year.
User rating reviews
Submit user ratings and build links at the same time. Once again, Peter Attia created an awesome list of submission sites for this topic.
Example: Epinions. Sign up here.
Web cam directories
If you set up a Webcam, you can get a few high quality links, such as the PR7 directory listed below.If you're wondering where to set it up, don't worry; it doesn't have to be Times Square. I've seen a few of highway roads set up right outside of their offices (pretty lame, right?). You can do something similar. If you want, set it up some place awesome, because it could attract links on its own.
Example: Earthcam.com. Submit here.
Logo design directories
Most of you have logos for your website or company, so get a few links in return for them.
Example: TheLogoMix.com. Info to submit here.
Free web directories
There are hundreds of free web directories to submit your site to. The only qualification you need is to have an active website. Because these links are so easy to get, though, they don't pass much value. Still, there are a few free general directory links that pass both link juice and trust.
Example: Website Launchpad. Submit here.
Non-English directories
If you've created multiple versions of your site in different languages, you can get links for it. Here's a great listof German directories.
Example: Hello Dir (Italian). Choose category, then submit.
RSS directories
If you have an RSS feed, you can submit it to RSS directories. There are hundreds. Here's a fantastic list(scroll down) of RSS directories to start out.Although these links won't be directly to your content, they'll pass link juice to your RSS feed which links to any content you linked to in your posts.Example: www.Feedage.com. Submit here (create an account first).
1-800 Directories
Have a toll free 1-800 number? Get a few links in return. If you don't have one, you can get one for $10/month at Grasshopper.
Example: InternetTollFree.com. Info to submit here.
Blog directories
If you have a blog, you can submit it to various blog directories. Like all other directories, some pass value, while others are crap.
Example: AllTop.com. Find a relevant category, then sign up to submit.
Podcast directories
If you have a podcast, you can snag a few free, easy links by submitting to podcast directories.
Example: PodcastDirectory.com. Submit here.
Iphone app directories
If you have an Iphone app, you can get a few easy links. Or, if you want, you can create one to get these links. An easy one to create is an app that just acts as a mobile RSS reader (this app from the SPI blog is a great example of this).
Example: Appolicious. Sign up to submit here.
EBook directories
If you've already written a few eBooks, or if you plan to, there are a solid amount of eBook directories you can get links from.
Example: E-BooksDirectory.com. Submit here.
Web app directories
If you have an online tool or application, you can get links for it. If you're thinking about creating one, know that it can also be used to attract links (link bait). We'll go more into that below.
Example: Go 2 Web 20. Hit "Suggest an App" to submit.
Widget directories
Although the majority of widget directories you come across don't outright give you a link, you can still do some serious link building with them. If you make sure there's a link somewhere in your widget, you can get it in front of large audiences with these directories, and in doing so, some will embed them (thus, you earn a few links).
Example: Yahoo! Widget Directory. Submit here.
Paid directories
Some directories cost money in order to be accepted into their listings. Once again, while some of these can pass legitimate value, others pass little and aren't worth your time or money.
Example: The Yahoo Directory. Submit here.
Multimedia/Document submissions
If you have any PDFs, PowerPoint Presentations, word documents, or any other documents, you can submit them to these sites and get a link in return. You have to put the links in your documents, such as in the first slide of a PowerPoint or in the text of a PDF.
Examples: SlideShare, Scribd, and Issuu.
Note: Although you can get a profile link from each, I'm still not 100% positive Google counts these links. I'm 99% sure Scribd's links are, but I know these are nofollow. Also, Slideshare's & Scribd's profile links are nofollow.
CSS/HTML5 galleries
There are loads of CSS galleries you can submit to if you did a great job designing your website or blog. There are also a few HTML5 showcases that you can get links from too.
I suggest forking out $20 to have your site submitted to 100 of them. Don't worry; it's quality manual submissions, not software.
Theme/Template directories
Designing WordPress themes or website templates can be a great way to net a few fantastic links from directories. Also, you can host the download page on your site, and if it's decent, you'll get a few links from design blogs.
If it's a WordPress theme, you can submit to the WordPress.org theme directory, which will get you a couple of high quality nofollow links (not to mention a ton of free exposure).
Example: free-css.com (website templates). Here's the submission information.
Note: Remember to include credit links in the templates or themes, because sometimes that's the only way you'll get a link back (they'll link to a demo page, not the creator's site). Popular page locations of links include the footer & the sidebar.
Content-Based
You can use your content to get links. Most of these strategies don’t necessarily attract links (which we go into below), but they can if the content is good enough.
Guest posting
Bloggers, just like me, sometimes have trouble cranking out content on a regular basis. That's where you can help. Pitch bloggers to ask if you could guest blog, because if they say yes, you can get a few links from the post, and if the blog is popular, you can drive traffic too.
Here's a fantastic guide on the entire guest blogging process.
If you want, use sites like Blogger Link Up and My Blog Guest to connect with bloggers who need content. It's scalable, but the bloggers you get in touch with aren't usually very authoritative (they're mostly mid-level bloggers).
Trade articles
Just like guest posting, you can get links in return for your content, but why not just trade? You both get content on each other's site, links, and visitors from an entirely different community.
If you or the other has a significantly more popular blog, see if the less significant one can do something extra in return. A good example is buying the other $10-15 worth of StumbleUpon paid traffic.
Educational content
If you're trying to get links from colleges, create content targeted at them that you can use during outreach. Trust me, there's usually something you know that you could write an entire tutorial on that would interest college webmasters.
Pro tip: Seek out pages on .edu websites that feature similar content, then do any of the strategies I list further down on this list that get you on the webmaster's good side.
Green content
Just like educational content, create something that targets a specific community. In this case, environmentalists. They've got hoards of link juice just waiting to be tapped into.
Simply outreaching to green bloggers and letting them know about your content usually does the trick. If the content is good enough, and if it's a complete conversation (i.e. a huge infographic on the environmental impact of drift nets), they'll usually dedicate an entire post to it.
Pro tip: As stated above, an infographic or something similar would work great, because all they have to do is imbed it. If there's any community willing to imbed an infographic that's relevant & worth sharing, it's the green community.
Images
Something so frequently overlooked is the use of images for link building. Bloggers just like me struggle to find relevant images to our content, so why not take advantage? When people use your images you'll get an attribution link in return (that's if they're honest).A great idea is to always have a camera with you whenever you're at an industry event. Imagine if you took 100 pictures at PubCon of all the different speakers and published them on a certain portion of your site.
Pro tip: hotlink your images. Make it easy for publishers to copy & paste HTML code right into their posts. This not only makes it easier to use your images, but it also makes it much more likely you'll get a link from each.
Free charts/graphs
If you've got a few tidbits of data lying around, make them into charts and graphs. SEOmoz did a fantastic job of this. Just like images, you'll get attribution links.
Writing testimonials
This one is HUGE. Right now, list any services or products you've bought recently. As long as it's not a product or service from a massive company (i.e. Walmart), there's a good chance you can get a link in exchange for a testimonial.
For example, this testimonial page has a Page Authority of 82. The best part – it only cost the customers a few sentences about that specific service.
Entering contests & giveaways
I love online contests, and so should you. They're not only your chance to win some cash or prizes, but they're also a chance to net a few high quality links. The most popular contests & giveaways you'll see are guest blogging contests.
For instance, I not only got a link from this post I entered, but I also won the $1000 grand prize. Not bad, eh?
Here's a great example of where your great content pays off. I entered an infographic created by Kapil Kale, one of my friends, into a contest on StumbleUpon, and it got a link from their blog! Talk about high quality links!
Get interviewed
Just like you should interview others, seize opportunities to be interviewed, no matter how small the audience is. The 5-600 words that take you 15-20 minutes can turn into a few highly authoritative contextual links.
Contribute to crowdsourced posts
Just like with interviews, if someone reaches out to you to participate in a crowdsourced post, make sure you contribute. The questions usually don't take more than 5-10 minutes of your time, and you'll get a decent link or two from it.
Link Attraction
Outreach & submissions only go so far. Sometimes you have to let your content attract links naturally to get the results you want.
If you create content that naturally attracts links, it not only saves you time getting them manually, but it also increases engagement on your blog (if it’s worth linking to, it’s usually worth reading). This is where your content & link building strategies meet.
Egobait
It's a fact of life: people like to look good. If you're featured as one of the top bloggers in your niche, you're probably going to spread the word.
By appealing to the egos of people, companies, and communities, they'll help spread the word about your content. For example, this post I wrote appealed to some of the authorities in the SEO industry who all helped me spread the word.
Contrary hook
If there's controversy in your industry, or if someone has one particular view on a topic, don't be afraid to write up a post on the opposing view. If you do it quick enough, and if the majority agree with you, you could attract links from your supporters like there's no tomorrow.
A great example is what Rand Fishkin said in response to this post, which attracted over 800 links from 140+ root domains.
Live blogging
If you're at an industry event, blog about everything that's taking place. If you're the only one, you'll get loads of links. If you're not, you'll still get A LOT of attention.
I know it's Wired, so it's a little unfair, but hopefully you can learn how it's done from this example (451 links from 140 root domains in 3 months).
Also, check out this fantastic guide on live blogging.
How to's and tutorials
Whether it's a tool, DIY project, or anything else, showing people exactly how to do something is extremely helpful.
This RSS tutorial attracted 8,000+ links from over 600 root domains.
Glossary of terms
Newbies in your industry probably don't know all the jargon you and other bloggers are using. Do them a favor and create a glossary of industry terms and acronyms.
Here's a fantastic glossary of internet terms that landed 2,600+ links from over 1,200 root domains (imagine if you made an updated version!).
White papers
You might be thinking research & white papers are the same, but they're not. Someone writing a research paper doesn't know what the outcome will be; someone writing a white paper has a clear understanding of the objectives and intended results from the beginning.
For example, you could outline an entire sector of an industry from top to bottom.
This one outlined the company and its services and got over 300 links from 100+ root domains. If a boring one like this could get links, imagine what you could do with more exciting content!
Quizzes/Tests
Testing your reader's knowledge and letting them share their results with their friends is always a great idea.
OKCupid does a fantastic job with this. Their 2008 politics test attracted 1,600+ links from over 500 root domains.
Research papers
Going all out and diving deep into a subject is a great way to establish yourself as an industry leader. It's also a great way to attract a few links. If you make any major discoveries, you'll get at least a few citations from scholarly and news websites.
This one, which attracted 7,600+ links from 1,500+ root domains, might look a little familiar.
Timely/Seasonal content
Creating the right content at the right time can get you a ton of attention. Creating an infographic on the statistics behind this year's super bowl the day after the event is a perfect example.
The same goes for seasonal content. Whether it's Valentine's Day, Christmas, or Halloween, you can create holiday themed content that can get a ton of attention over a short period of time (and every year after). Although yet another infographic, this is a great example.
Case studies
Everyone loves a good case study. Real results with real numbers can instantly catch people's attention. If you offer a product or service, this is a no-brainer. If you give out advice, find someone who's used it successfully.
Although this particular case study didn't attract more than 200 links, it's still a great example of what one should look like.
Humor
Creating a parody, spoof, or industry jokes list is a great way to loosen up your readers. People love sharing things they can laugh at.
The Onion, a fake news network, is built on humor. This story in particular attracted 4,400+ links from 1,200 root domains. No, you're not a major site like The Onion, but making a similarly funny industry news story is something worth thinking about.
Printable resources
People like hard copies of useful guides. By creating a printable resource with an awesome design, you can almost guarantee a few links will come your way.
Check out this case study (see what I did there?) about how Brian Flores created a printable HTML5 cheat sheet that got shared by the Google Developers G+ page.
Creating contests
Entering contests is great for link building, but creating them is even better. By requiring your participants to write about & link to the contest from their blog, you'll not only get links from them, but their posts will increase the exposure of your contest, thus growing your number of contestants at an exponential rate (and thus, the amount of links you get).
Gerald Weber on MySEOCommunity.com did a great job doing exactly this.
Complete guides/resources
Creating evergreen resources that are complete guides on a subject are fantastic. This complete list of link building strategies is my attempt at one.
Why? Because when people need to explain an entire topic, they'd love it if they could refer to just one resource, and not a group of them. For example, Kristi Hines created one on the Google +1 button.
Pro tip: If it's not timeless, curate it and keep it up to date. It might be an awesome resource, but it could become stale in a couple of years, such as a guide to Pinterest.
Stories
People love a good personal story. Whether it's crazy, funny, or embarrassing, this is yet another way to strike at your reader's emotion.
James Chartrand managed to attract over 1,000 links from nearly 300 root domains with this interesting one.
Covering News first
This one's tough, but remember to always keep it in mind. If you see someone talking about a new developing story, and no one has covered it yet, start mashing on your keyboard at lightning speed.
A good way to do this is by making sure all of the news sources are in your RSS feed reader. For example, if I wanted to cover the latest development of search engines, the Google, Yahoo, and Bing blogs would all be in my reader.
Infographics
People love data, but sometimes it's hard to digest. Creating an infographic on it is a popular way to change that. Not only will it naturally attract links, but you'll also get other bloggers imbedding it, which means even more links! Not to mention you have control over the anchor text of the imbed code.
Here's a fantastic case study on an infographic that not only netted a ton of links, but also some serious traffic and social traction.
Web tools
Creating free online tools, like calculators, is a fantastic way to attract links. They don't even have to be complex. If it could save me five minutes, then I'll probably use & share it.
A fantastic example of a simple, yet effective free online tool is this one by Solo SEO. I can't count how many times I've seen SEO bloggers such as myself link to it. It's netted almost 500 links from almost 200 root domains.
Interactive
The next big thing in linkbait is interactive content. The reason: because it's flat out cool and few people are doing it.
A great example is what Thomson.co.uk did with this.
Infoanmiations
Instead of creating an infographic, why not create a video that displays the same information? It's a lot different than what most are doing, and trust me, that's a good thing. The best part is that it works the same way as infographics; the video can be imbedded and can act as a post by itself.
Here's a great example, and here's where I got the idea.
Review something new
Just like with news, if you're the first to review something, and if it's awesome, your review will get tons of attention.
You can also use this to gain favor with the creators of the product or service you're creating. For example, I reviewed Domain Hunter Plus, a new link checker, and not only did I get a few links to the review, but the creator of the tool worked out a deal with me by linking to the review & my home page from the tool's home page, which is now a PageRank 5.
Utilize National Days & Events
Whether it’s a national day, week, month, or event, they can all be used to build links. You could create your own, or you could help promote an existing one. If this sounds like something you think you could do, check out this entire post on the subject. Props to Will O’Hara on taking this idea and really expanding on it.
Drawings
Using drawings to appeal to emotion can work great if it strikes the right tone with your audience.Here's a good example that attracted 15,000+ links from over 350 root domains.
I have to give credit to Neil Patel for this strategy & the next one.
Webinars
Spending a couple hours every month by doing a webinar is a great idea for attracting links over the long term. Set up a page on your website solely dedicated to webinars, and as you create new ones, the links will roll in each time.
HubSpot has done a great job with this, having over 1000 links from 100 root domains to their Webinars page.
Games
Creating exciting games to keep visitors content is not only a strategy to attract links to the game itself, but if you make it embeddable, other webmasters will put it on their site (if it's good enough), which means even more links.
I can't find a good enough example, but trust me, they work 
.
Surveys
There's generally a two-step process to attracting links with surveys.
The first step is asking people to participate. If it's on a particularly interesting topic, reaching out to bloggers, experts, and industry news sites to ask to spread the word both on their blog and on social media sites is a great way to attract your first wave of links.
The second step is releasing the results. Combine the release with some nice visualization and a bit of controversy, and you've got yourself a fantastic piece of linkbait.
Although it didn't use the above formula, this survey has attracted 250+ links from 100 root domains in only 4 months (published September 2011, last OSE update Jan. 17).
Microsites
Creating fun, quirky microsites is a great way to attract links. While some people might naturally link to your main site to give credit, they'll most likely link to the microsite, which should have at least one link back to you on it.
Here are a few highly successful ones. If you're thinking they might be too big of an investment, know that they don't have to be fancy.
Google Maps mashup
Google Maps is a great tool, and you can use it to attract links if you get it in front of the right audience. A great idea would be to map out all the industry events taking place this year.
For example, Mashable linked out to 100 helpful mashups in this post.
Curated rankings/scores
If you create rankings or scores of people, companies, or anything else, and if it's decent enough, then trust me, you'll get a few links. The best part – they don't even have to be accurate (of course it would be great if it was).
A few good examples are Klout and this list of Top blogs on Startups. Again, both aren't exactly accurate (Klout isn't the best depiction of your influence on Twitter, and the #1 blog on that list is no longer active), but people care about numbers and rankings, especially the ones that make them look good.
Crowdsourcing
Getting answers from a group of industry experts is another fantastic way to attract links. If the piece is good enough, and if you have the right influencers involved, the amount of links you'll attract can grow exponentially.
For example, SEOmoz did a study on ranking factors, getting input from over 130 different experts. You can probably guess it was a huge success. It's attracted 27,000+ links from 3,300+ root domains. Why? Because the experts did the promotion for them.
Petition
If you and your community are passionate about a certain issue, start a petition. If you can gain any traction from an industry news site, it could catch on like wildfire.
This petition received 1,100+ links from over 200 root domains.
Note: Although not recommended, because it isn't hosted on your site, one option is to use change.org to start your petition. It's an easy set up, and because it's hosted on their all ready popular site, you get all the added benefits of professionalism & exposure.
Lists
1.People.
2.Love.
3.Lists!
Why? Because the content is super easy to digest.
Don't believe me? Check out this simple list of water conservation tips that received over 1,900 links from 400+ root domains.
Debunking myths
If there's a common misconception in your industry, make sure you let everyone know. If it's big enough, and if your statements are bold enough, you could get some serious attention.
This debunking of 9/11 myths, with 4,000+ links from over 200 root domains, is a perfect example of it working flawlessly.
Data/Research
By collecting data on just about anything, you can attract links. Why? Because, like lists, people absolutely love data. One reason is because they like to make conclusions from it that support their arguments.
Take it one step further. Release it as straight data, then release it again that makes it visually appealing with any of the strategies below.
Pro tip: If your data supports a side of an argument (i.e. nature vs. nurture debate), reach out to those that it would support. People love telling the world how right they are.
Trollbait (controversy)
I love this term. I think Rand Fishkin or Kris Roadruck first said it. Basically, it's a better way to say "create something controversial".
Creating controversy can be a great way to attract links. Godaddy's SOPA fiasco is a fantastic example. They originally supported it (which rose controversy), and then stated they would now oppose it (which rose even more controversy).
Interviews
Interviewing industry experts will always be a fantastic way to attract links, but getting them to interview is only half the battle. The other half is asking great questions.
A good way to find out what questions you should ask is by holding a Q&A with your blog's community, whether it's on Google+, Twitter, or any other site. Ask what kinds of questions you want your readers to see.
Helping Webmasters
One of my personal favorite link building strategies is helping out, or adding value to, webmasters. By doing something for them, they’ll be much, much more likely to give you a link. Here are a few ways to help out webmasters.
Fixing grammar/spelling
Ross Hudgens pointed this one out to me. It's just as simple as it sounds; look for grammar & spelling mistakes, notify the webmaster, and ask for a link on a relevant page.
Filling gaps in content
If a site is missing information on a certain topic, whether it's an article entirely or a portion of one that should be better elaborated on, reach out to the webmaster and ask if you could fill that gap. Here's a great post on this strategy.
Update old content
If information is out date, do webmasters a favor and help update it for them. If you're in a rapidly changing industry such as SEO, look for articles & posts written a few years back that still get traffic (i.e. rank high for a decent keyword). This is because if many people no longer see the content, the webmaster probably won't care enough to have it updated.
Here's a great example. Danny Sullivan even states in the article that he needs to update it! If I knew Danny better, I'd outreach to him with newly updated content, and ask if he could replace it (he'd probably be more than likely to). Unfortunately he's not exactly easy to get in touch with, but in most cases for you, this shouldn't be a problem.
Remember, when you do update the content, make sure you add a link to you in it. We are building links, aren't we?
Dead content recreation
Take broken links one step further by recreating the content found at those URLs, then outreaching to not only that specific linking site, but also other sites linking to that broken URL.
For this, use Archive.org to find what content used to be found at that URL.
Logo/Graphic/Web design
A decent website usually has some sort of logo, graphic, and web design. If you have any experience with any of these, reach out to webmasters and ask if they'd like any of the above services free at no cost.
Sometimes it doesn't have to be a major website makeover. Michael Kovis has helped me make a few CSS tweaks in the past, something that I've been very, very thankful of. Casey Kluver helped me with a bit of javascript that went into making this very post!
If you don't know design, you can get someone on Fiverr to create a logo for 5 bucks. No, it's not going to be amazing, but it'll get the job done.
Give them hosting
Every webmaster has to fork out a few bucks (or more) a month for hosting. Why not help them out by either providing hosting or paying for it? For those who have a server, this shouldn't cost you a penny. A great thing to ask for would be a link in their blogroll.
Broken links
Out of all the strategies listed, this is my favorite. The scalability of finding broken links is crazy awesome. In a nutshell, you'll be finding pages that could potentially link to you, looking for broken links on the page, and if there are any, you'll let the webmaster know and ask if the broken link could be replaced with a link to you.
You can get really creative with broken link building. It's by no means a narrow, straightforward strategy.
Here's a great guide on the entire process.
Finding malware
Chris Dyson pointed this one out. Use ScrapeBox to find sites with malware, then reach out to webmasters, let them know, and ask for a link.
Remember: don't go to their site! You might get a virus. Use a whois lookup to find contact info.
Fight Viagra Hackers
There’s a huge issue on the Internet that I didn’t realize could be used to build links until recently. Hackers (most notably trying to get links with anchors like “buy cheap viagra”) are infiltrating blogs, college sites, and regular html websites in order to get the links they want. A lot of times, the webmasters of these sites have no idea it’s happening. Here’s an awesome case study on using that to help you build links. And yes, creative would be an understatement.
Social
By no means are social media and link building two disconnected parts of your web marketing strategy. Here are a couple of ways to build links using social media sites.
If you've got a Twitter account, then you've got 15 easy links in the bag.
Outside of those, there are numerous ways to build links with Twitter. Instead of listing them all here, just watch this video.
Social bookmarking
Sites like Delicious, Digg, and Pinterest offer a bit of link equity through social bookmarks. Because they're so easy to abuse, they don't have much value, but if you're looking to get the ball rolling in the beginning, think about bookmarking all of your posts and pages.
The only ones you should really be using are these 10, Pinterest, and niche specific ones (i.e. Inbound.org for inbound marketing).
Create Useful Things
If you build it, they will come. There are numerous things you can create that webmasters can embed on their site. In return, of course, you’ll get links.
Some of these things will also naturally attract links to the page you’re offering on them, so they work both ways.
Note: Web tools aren’t listed here because they aren’t something webmasters can physically put on their site.
Icon sets
They're easy to create, and if they catch on, you'll get a ton of design blogs linking to you.
You don't have to know design to create an icon set & get links to it. Hire someone (on oDesk for example) to create a set for your blog. Then give away the set for free in a new blog post for anyone who wants it, and of course, notify design blogs about your free giveaway (they love free giveaways!).
Badges
Creating badges, such as the ones for the TopRank BIGLIST, work great if you're giving out awards.
On the other hand, you can create a badge like this for anyone, and not just an exclusive group.
Obviously, make sure you get a link from the badge. If they're sitewide, then congratz!
WordPress themes
If you're thinking about designing WordPress themes for link building, know this: the links you get have little value, and that to gain any real value, the anchor text needs not to be spammy (i.e. exact match) and the theme needs to be used by sites with relevant content.
For example, if you're a sports blog, create a sports theme.
If you're OK with this, here's the best guide on the Web for utilizing WordPress Themes for link building.
Drupal Themes
Just like WordPress themes, Drupal themes can be developed to build links exponentially.
If you've ever looked into theme development, you know most people are focused on WordPress. Use this to your advantage. Develop a Drupal theme because you'll have far less competition. The official Drupal theme directory includes only 955 themes as I'm writing this.
Widgets
By creating embeddable widgets, webmasters can place them on their site, and if you coded it correctly, you can easily get a link back.
Plugins & extensions
CMS plugins & extensions, like those for WordPress & Joomla, can get you a few links.
For example, in the Sharebar plugin, the default setting includes a link on the bottom of the floating bar. It can be disabled, but some people don't bother, thus giving the developers a link.
Toolbars
Here's a great example of a toolbar that Webmasters can place on their site (with a link in the toolbar, of course).
Alternatively, you could create a browser toolbar, such as the SEO toolbar from SEObook.
Paid Strategies
If you have a little room in your budget, then consider some of the below paid strategies. Google is against paid links, but there are some out there that are acceptable, such as the ones listed below.
Paid reviews
If you've got a product or service you want reviewed on a blog, you can pay for one. By using sites like sponsoredreviews.com, ReviewMe.com, and PayperPost.com, you can pay for blogger reviews. Of course, they'll link to you in the review.
Pay authorities to embed your badges
It's a paid link that cannot be detected, it increases brand awareness & trust, and best of all, it can be used to get natural embeds.
For example, if I get one of the two bloggers in the industry to embed a badge of "Featured in Top 10 X Blogs in 2012", and I outreach to a few mid level bloggers that I also included (exactly for this reason), they'd be more than happy to embed it, because if the big time blogger did, they'd be honored to.
Honestly, if you're going to pay for a sitewide, this is the way to go. There are so many added bonuses.
Note: If you go for spammy anchor text, and not branded or partial, it could send spam signals, so don't play around there.
Sponsor contests
Blogging contests usually don't cost more than $50-100 to sponsor. Make sure to look for ones that require participants to post about the contest on their blog & link to each of the sponsors in the post.
Sponsor clubs
Most colleges have a wide range of clubs, and if you ask one to sponsor it for a link in return, they'll probably say yes. You can usually sponsor one for $50.
Sponsor events
Whether it's a local meet-up, industry conference, or anything in between, event groups are always looking for sponsors, and you can usually get a link in return for a $100-200 sponsorship.
Wil Reynolds brought up a good point in this post. The moment an event is over, ask if you could sponsor next years. The event committee will be so excited that they'd instantly say yes, and in the end you get the link for close to two years instead of one.
Donate to charities & non profits
Charities and non-profit organizations usually have a donators page like this one. The amount you need to donate to get the link shouldn't be more than $50-100.
Theme sponsorship
It's a bit shady, but sponsoring WordPress themes is a way to build links. They usually don't cost more than $25-50 per sponsorship. If you're thinking about doing it, check out this guide to theme sponsorship.
Crowdfunding
While only some link out to funders, there are a ton of crowdfunding opportunities that you can use to make small investments in various businesses. For link building, make sure you get in touch with the individual business so you make sure that you can get a link in return for funding their project.
I have to give credit to Chris Gilchrist and this post for this one.
Sponsor animal shelters
There are usually more than a few local animal shelters you can sponsor, and according to Adam Melson in this post, they can be as low as $10.
Buying StumbleUpon Traffic for the webmaster
Ask webmasters if they'd give you a link on a relevant page in exchange for $10-20 worth of StumbleUpon Paid Discovery traffic. Sometimes they'd be willing to link regardless of the PD traffic, so this just encourages them to link even more.
Hire industry veterans
Relationship building can be hard. Find people in the industry you can hire that can tap into their list of contacts for links, because they've already built up those connections. This can extremely helpful for those who are just starting to try to make a name for themselves.
Hire veteran link builders
Just like industry veterans, experienced link builders have built up little black books of contacts (at least the good ones have). Chances are they've dealt with people in either your vertical or a very similar one. In that case, they can get in touch with those contacts, saving you the time to initially build those relationships.
Content acquisition
If you find highly linked to content on sites that are no longer maintained, reach out to the webmaster and ask if you could pay him $100-200 to 301 that page to a page on your site that has the content. Chances are he'd be more than willing to if he doesn't care anymore.
Note: this isn't white hat.
College/Educational Links
.Edu links are some of the best, yet toughest links to get. There are a few specific strategies I listed below that work great if you’re willing to try them out.
Write curriculum
Reach out to universities and let them know about your expertise. By writing curriculum for courses (the more basic, the easier it is to get involved), you can get a few citation links from their site.
Intern/Job postings
If you have any job or internship opportunities, you can get a few easy .edu links. For example, if you work in anthropology and you're looking for an intern, here's an easy link.
Offer discounts
By offering discounts to faculty, teachers, and students, you can easily get links from pages like this.
Speak at universities
Most universities announce speakers on their website, and when they do, make sure a link to your site is included.
Scholarships
Scholarships can become the bread and butter of your .edu link strategy if it's in the budget. Give out a decent sized scholarship, such as $500-1000, and reach out to multiple colleges & high schools. You don't have to settle for just a couple here; usually there's not a limit on this one.
You could take it one step further and set it up as a contest; the finalists have to write blog posts on your blog on why they deserve it, and half the voting is done socially (i.e. tweets, +1s, FB likes). Heck, I bet you could get even more creative at that point.
Alumni directories
Most colleges dedicate a part of their site to their alumni, and some of them link out to their alumni's websites.
For example, one of my client's competitors had a link from one of the Harvard Business School's most authoritative pages, only because they got listed under "HBS Entrepreneurs".
Student blogs
Students are allowed to create blogs on their respective college websites, so get in touch with them. They're a lot easier to get links from then a regular college webmaster. Whether it's buying them lunch or making sure you get a link from a college intern, you can always get links through students.
Community Strategies
By interacting in communities, you can not only build links, but also relationships (remember how I said how important they are at the top?). This is a great way to get to know people in your industry while snagging a few links at the same time.
Community newspapers
There are a number of online newspapers that are run by the people, for the people. By contributing, curating, and adding your insight, you can get links from these sites on a regular basis (you get the chance to promote yourself in your bio on most of them).
Here are a few for example:
- http://www.nowpublic.com/
- http://www.allvoices.com/
- http://www.demotix.com/
- http://international.ohmynews.com/
- http://www.orato.com/
Leverage Existing Opportunities
Chances are there are links out there that are already yours that you just haven’t gotten yet. For example, if someone uses your content, you should be able to get a link back. Here are a few existing opportunities for you to snag a link or two.
Asking customers
If someone just bought something from you, then this is the perfect time to ask for a link if they have any influence online. Ask them to write a review of your product or service, and then offer to help promote it to spread the word. It's a win-win!
Your commentators
By scraping your commenters and their URLs with this plugin, you can find influencers that have commented on your blog in the past. Just like with Twitter followers, use this to build relationships with them to use for future link opportunities.
Getting links from scraped content
If your content gets scraped, and the scraped piece of content doesn't have a link back, then make sure you contact the webmaster and get one. Just like images & infographics, it's copyright infringement, so they're not going to say no.
Leverage copy & pasting
Tynt.com is a site that allows you to get a link every time your content is copy & pasted. It uses a bit of JavaScript to add a "More from: URL HERE" when something is copy and pasted from that URL. So, for example, if a blogger copies a paragraph from a recent post of yours and adds it to a post of his own, a link will be added. Granted he can easily delete it, it's still worth doing.
Here's a fantastic post on this concept.
Pro tip: if you make the "More from" text something like "Cited from", it'll look more scholarly & professional. This usually gets a much higher success rate.
Contacting people using your images/infographics
By using Google's reverse image search, you can easily find other websites using your images or infographics. Politely outreach to each and ask you could a link back for using them. If they don't, make sure to let them know it's copyright infringement.
Brand mentions
If your brand gets mentioned, then make sure you ask for a link. For example, if someone mentioned "Point Blank SEO" on their blog, I might ask if they could include a link so the reader would know where Point Blank SEO is located on the Web.
You can easily set up free alerts to find who's talking about your brand.
Associations/organizations you're a part of
If you're a part of an association or organization, chances are they have a website. If they do, find out if they link out to their members. Get included if they do.
Link re-purposing
If you've got too many links with generic or branded anchor text, reach out to those webmasters and ask if they could alter the anchor text to either exact or partial match. I myself haven't tried this, but Cleo Kirkland told me he's gotten a ton of success with this strategy.
Reclaiming Twitter links
People will sometimes link to your Twitter account, so take advantage. Do what I did here by going to the Twitter widget page, then ask webmasters to link to your Twitter page on your site rather than directly to Twitter.
Previous linkers
If someone has linked to you in the past, chances are they might be willing to in the future. Get to know them, and make sure they're up to date with your content, because that only leads to more links.
I like using Linkstant to instantly see who's linked to me. I always make sure to stop by and leave a thank you comment.
Your influence
If you've built up influence, you can definitely use this to build links. If I got an email from Aaron Wall asking to review his toolset on my blog, I'd be more than willing to.
Outside of outreach, you can use your influence for a ton of things. For example, Ann Smarty used her influence to get a chance to write posts for Mashable (no lack of quality links there).
In general, you can use your influence to get a much higher success rate with every other strategy I talk about, but remember: if the person you're contacting doesn't know who you are, then your influence is worthless (ex. a .gov webmaster could care less if you're a big shot travel blogger).
Reclaim links pointing to 404s
Sometimes links to your website break over time, whether it's because you've moved the intended page, or because the webmaster messed up your URL. Go into Google Webmaster Tools to see which pages are getting 404 errors, then redirect those pages to either the homepage or the implied intended page.
Your Twitter followers
Someone who follows you on Twitter is much more likely to link to you than those who don't. Use this strategy to scrape your followers, find the influencers, and develop relationships with them for future link opportunities.
Give
You have something that people want, so give it away. Here’s a list of things you can give to get links.
Products to bloggers
There's no better way to connect with bloggers than by giving them your product or service in exchange for a review. Usually there are a lot of mid level bloggers in big industries more than willing to, so this can be quite scalable.
P.S. – if you have a link building related product or service (please, no black hat software) reach out to me using this tactic. I might just review it and give you a link .
Free ebooks/products using social payment systems
Give out free ebooks and products using services like PayWithATweet.com or Cloudflood.com. In order to get it, you have to tweet or share it, thus causing a landslide of social shares.
No, there's no guarantee you'll get a link, but it's a great way to get your stuff in front of a potential linker's eyes by giving something away.
Note: Don't forget to submit those eBooks to eBook directories!
Discounts
Giving out discounts & coupons is a great way to get mentions in lists like this one. Make sure to reach out to writers who dedicate posts to discounts & coupons so you can get included – usually they'd be more than happy to.
Social coupons
Sites like Living Social & Groupon allow you to include anchor text links in the description of your coupons. If you're wondering, Google does cache the pages, so I'm 99% sure these links are indexed.
Contest giveaways
If you have a product or service, and if there's a relevant blogging contest taking place, reach out to the blogger running it and ask if you could give your product or service to the winner. They'd be more than happy to, and they'll give you a link on the contest page if you ask.
Develop Relationships
Links and relationships are directly related. The more bloggers & webmasters you know, the more links you’ll get. Here’s a few great ways to build relationships.
Random acts of kindness
Whenever you can, be nice to people. It might just payoff. Always be on the lookout for helping those in need.I know this isn't exactly an actionable strategy for link building, but I'm telling you, you'd be surprised. These random acts can turn into lasting relationships.
Give a crap
Actually care about people. Show them you're not just a bot with a picture, but that you're somewhat human. If they share on Twitter that their daughter just graduated, congratulate them. Something as simple as that can open up your chances to build a relationship in the future.
Participate
If someone is conducting a survey or testing something, get involved and participate. Those are great chances to start conversations with new people.
Local meetups
Whether you find one or start one, meetups are a fantastic way to get to know people close by. For example, if you live in a big city (Seattle, NYC, Philly) then meetups are absolutely perfect. Here's the best site to find or start one.
User group meetups
A great way to get to know people who think like you is by finding those who use the same products or services like you. A great example is the Hubspot User Group Summit I attended last year (one of my clients used HubSpot and I got a chance to tag along).
Conferences
Seriously, go to them. At the time I'm writing this, I've only gone to one, but it was awesome and I highly recommend it. Here's a fantastic testimonial to why conference events are such great investments.
Traffic Drivers
Not all links that we build are for search rankings. Some are for traffic. We are getting high rankings so we get more traffic, right? Besides, having all of your eggs (links) in one basket (Google) is never a good idea. Here are a few examples of links for traffic.
Craigslist
Craigslist and other classified sites are great places to drive a bit of traffic. Make sure you're not spamming, and make sure it's relevant to that category.
Email Signatures
If you send out 100 emails a day, having an email signature with a link back can drive an extra 50+ people a day to your website. It's not much, but it requires zero effort.
Community Projects
Creating a new project in your niche can not only help build your authority and trust, but it can also get you a few links if you know where to put them. Here are a few examples of what you could create.
Wiki
Wikis are great, but only if you get people involved. Having a little influence to begin with helps a ton. By outreaching to influencers to contribute and by incentivizing contributions, you can build it up as an authority. Again, make sure to link to yourself with it.
Industry specific directory
Creating a human curated, quality niche directory is something worth looking into if there isn't one in your industry.If the design sucks (i.e. it looks like every other one) and the submissions you're accepting are subpar, you'll have little success, but if you're accepting only quality sites, it could get listed often on resource lists.
I suggest starting with directory software, then customizing from there. Just Google "directory software" if you're looking for one; most don't cost more than $100.
Obviously, since this is a link building strategy, link to your main site.
Local
Based on where you’re located, you can get a few links from local websites. Here are a few ways to use your location to build links.
Better Business Bureau
I don't always suggest an individual site, but when I do, it’s the Better Business Bureau. This link will pass more trust than almost any other link in your profile.
The price is determined by state/region/city and by number of employees. The St. Louis BBB ranges from $370 for 1-3 employees all the way to $865+ for 100-200 employees. Anything over that, as well as additional websites, constitutes as additional charges.
That being said, you are SUPPOSED to get a “dofollow” link out of all of this. You need to check on your listing once it is published as each region has their own rules regarding their directory of businesses. There have been some instances where your businesses website URL in the directory listing was NOT a live link, only text. All you have to do is contact your BBB representative and ask for that to be changed.
Chamber of Commerce
Getting a link from your Chamber of Commerce is a guaranteed link just waiting for you to get. In some cases, though, it takes a little bit of time to find the right person to get in touch with.
Local listings
Submit your site to local listings. Here's a fantastic list created by Peter Attia of all the best sites for this.
Example: Yelp.com. Sign up to submit here.
Library
Most local libraries have a website, and most of them have somewhat of a link profile. Nonetheless, get in touch, and do what you can to get a link; it's going to be a link from one of the most white hat sites in your profile.
For example, my local library has a Page Rank of 6. At the time I'm writing this I haven't gotten a link from them, but it's only a matter of time .
Linking Out
Linking out is a great way to build links, because when bloggers see they’ve been linked to by your blog (along with 50 visitors coming over from that post), they’ll at the very least check out your content, if not tweet & link to it.
Why? Because people are much more likely to help out others that have helped out them. This is the exact same idea as helping out webmasters in the strategies I listed above.
Actually, you can rank by linking out alone. Don’t take my word for it; take Tad’s from SEOptimise.
Getting trackbacks
As opposed to giving trackbacks, find blogs that allow you to get trackback links.
For example, the Google blog gives out trackback links, and even though they’re nofollow, they’re still worth something.
Link roundups
Whether they're monthly, weekly, or even daily, doing roundups of great posts in your niche is a fantastic way to put you on the map. Mid-level, and even some high-level, bloggers take notice when they get links from these.
Pro tip: Make sure you add a little insight to why you listed the post. It helps the bloggers being linked to know that someone is actually taking the time to read their posts.
Giving trackbacks
Reward people who link to you by giving trackback links. Take it one step further and make them dofollow. When they sort through there backlinks and see these, they'll be a lot more likely to link out to you in the future.
To active medium level bloggers
Medium level bloggers are the best audiences to target. When they get linked to, they go bananas. I did when I got my first few links; I actually told my friends about this particular mention I got because of how excited I was.
Linking out & letting them know you did so is a great strategy for this large group. Usually the best natural link profiles come from blogs that have control over this middle group.
Mention specific people whenever possible
Whenever possible, and I mean whenever possible!, mention specific people. People LOVE getting mentioned. Link to their site (so they know they got mentioned), and when they find out, they're usually more than willing to share the post at the very least (if not link to it!).
Again, this is a great way to put yourself on their map.
Getting people to see and read your content
People won’t link to your content if they don’t find it in the first place. At the same time, they might come across it, but skim it at best. This means you need to get your content in front of more people, and you need to get them to actually read your content.
Segment your content
If you catch yourself writing a few monster paragraphs, cut them up into smaller, bight sized pieces. Make sure you use headers, lists, and bullets when ever possible. Don't forget to add appropriate spacing. This strategy directly correlates with increased readability, and thus, linkability.
Minimal grammar & spelling mistakes
It just looks bad when you link to content that's full of spelling & grammar errors. Do your potential linkers a favor and make sure your content is free of them.
Evergreen content
Timeless content can not only be used for manual outreach, but it can also give your content the ability to be rediscovered, and thus, a second chance to be linked to.
Offering your content in multiple languages
Your potential linkers might not all speak English, so get your content translated as soon as possible.
When you do this, remember to submit to non-English directories as mentioned above!
High Flesch-Kincaid readability score
If your content needs a Literature major to be deciphered, then you're probably not going to get a lot of links. Why? Because if they don't understand it, they have no reason to link to it.
Miscellaneous
There are a lot of fantastic link building strategies that don’t quite fit in one specific category. Here are a miscellaneous bunch of strategies you should check out.
Set up free blogs
Setting up free blogs for others is fantastic, because doing it might be complex for others, but easy for you. Make sure you get a link from their blogroll in return.
Get your own Wikipedia page
As opposed to contributing, having a Wikipedia page about you or your company is something to look into if you've already built up authority. If you're well known, this is a great option & a huge way to build trust.
Make sure you're not the one writing it; have someone else write it, because it needs to be as unbiased as possible.
Reverse engineering assets
By finding assets that have worked in the past for competitors, such as awards & infographics, you can steal their success with little work. Basically, you're taking advantage of them not keeping up with the times.
It's a lot to explain, so here's a great guide to reverse link building.
Contribute to Wikipedia pages
By citing your own content on relevant Wikipedia pages, you can get a link under the "References" tab. It's nofollow, but it's very trustworthy & can send a lot of highly relevant traffic.
Non-college job/intern postings (get picked up by job boards)
Job & intern postings outside of colleges can be a fantastic link building strategy. When one major job site, such as Monster.com, picks up your postings, it gets distributed to a ton of others. Most of the links don't last long (until the vacancy is filled), but some do stick.
Offline marketing
Whether it's meeting your customers, handing out business cards, or even putting a sticker of your URL on your car, getting the word out away from your computer can help increase brand awareness, traffic, and in the end, links.
Affiliate program
It's a strategy past its prime, but by starting an affiliate program, you can not only get links through affiliate links, but you can also get links to the affiliate program page itself (affiliate bloggers will link out if they like it).
Video embeds
By including links in the embed code of videos, and reaching out to bloggers to host them (i.e. as part of an upcoming post), you can get a link for each embed.
Guest books
Some outdated sites still offer guest books you can sign in. If you come across one, include a link.
Expired Blogspot blogs
This is a little something I came up with myself. Some blogspot blogs become expired and allow anyone to register it, so by finding these blogs that have a few links pointing to it, you can gain control, put up some content, and link back to your site.For example, I picked up this PR3 blog and added a link back to Point Blank SEO. I did this awhile go, and I agree that it's a little grey hat. I wouldn't do it again, but it's something I thought I should at least mention.
The easiest way to find them is to do is to check for broken links on pages that link out to a ton of blogs. This could be blogrolls, links pages, or blog directories. If a link is broken, and if it's to a blogspot blog, check to make sure you can register it. Most you can't. If you can, then go to OSE and check out its link profile to see if it's worth registering.
Linker outreach
Find people on delicious or other social sharing sites that have saved similar content to yours, outreach to them letting them know about your content (i.e. an upcoming infographic), and let them do the rest; they'll share it or link to it if they like it.
I have to give credit to this post by Jason Acidre for this strategy.
Relevant reciprocal links
Yep, I included it. If you're going to exchange (reciprocate) links with a website, don't do it as if you're living in 1998. Make sure they're the most relevant, trustworthy websites you've ever come across. If they're not, don't do it.
Second tier link building
Building links to pages that link to you can be awesome if you do it right. You not only can pass more juice back to your site, but you can also use it for reputation management and to drive sales.
Pro tip: Do second tier link building to trustworthy sites linking to you, such as a guest post on a highly authoritative blog. For example, if you're doing some broken link building, asking for the replacement link to be to a highly trustworthy site over a link to you will get you accepted a lot more often than if you asked for a link to you.
This is because the site is more trustworthy (webmaster more willing to link) and because you're not asking for a link to the domain that hosts your email (i.e. jcooper@pointblankseo[dot]com asking for a link to pointblankseo.com), meaning it looks more natural in the eyes of the webmaster.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is one of the best, free prospecting tools on the Web. What better way to get prospects than from Google themselves?
Here's a fantastic guide written by Ross Hudgens on using this tool.
Abandoned domains (auctions too)
Finding and taking over abandoned domains is definitely a strategy on the black hat side if you're doing something like a 301 or using its expired content outside of the site.
One strategy is to find abandoned domains that have link equity, then use archive.org to repopulate the content on some of the pages that got the most links. Obviously, include a few links in the content back to you.
I recommend using Domain Hunter Plus and Godaddy auctions for finding them in the first place.
Buy existing domains
Finding existing domains for sale through Flippa is great if you're looking to build up a few link assets. It's costly, but nonetheless, it's a strategy.
Join associations/organizations, both local & niche specific
Groups, organizations, and associations, both local and niche specific, sometimes offer links to their members.
Networking
Use some of the relationships you've built to create a network of similar non-competing blogs. Link out to them, and ask for them to do the same. A good number to have in your network is 5; it's not too much, but it's not too little.
For example, make sure everyone links out to each different blog in the network once a month. Heck, make it once a week.
It's like reciprocal linking, but way better, because the links are relevant, contextual, and natural in Google's eyes.
Help A Reporter Out (HARO)
HARO, or Help A Reporter Out, connects journalists with bloggers & industry experts. By becoming a source, you can get big time links from news sites.
PR Outreach
Good ole' fashioned PR outreach is always a great idea if you're buzzworthy. If you're not up for hiring a PR company for this, make sure you research who you're pitching, and make sure to keep it short and to the point.
If you do it right, you'll build up a relationship with the person you're pitching long before you pitch them. This will also result in you being able to tap into that relationship multiple times, and not for just a one-off pitch.
Tom Critchlow gave an awesome tip in this video – take things one-step further. If you write something up for a news publication, ask if you could regularly contribute by creating a weekly column. If they say yes, then you've just landed yourself a fantastic long-term link opportunity.
Once again, you can Expand/Contract All.
Woah.
If you read the descriptions for each, I applaud you. You’re a serious trooper.
Now, here’s the fun part. I just made this the most comprehensive list of link building strategies on the Web, and I want to keep it that way.
If you come up with 3 link building strategies not on this list, I’ll send you a Point Blank SEO t-shirt. They’re really snazzy! Just email me with them & a few short descriptions of each.
Update: Chris Gilchrist from Hitreach became the first to win a shirt!
Thanks guys! Having spent more than 15 hours putting this together, this is one of the few posts I’ll legitimately ask you to share. Please, those buttons on the left look really attractive (you know you wanna!).
If you want even more link building fun, follow me on Twitter @pointblankseo. You won’t regret it!
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This post was written by...
Jon Cooper – who has written 84 posts on Point Blank SEO.
Jon Cooper+ is an SEO consultant from Tarpon Springs, FL who specializes in link building. For more information on him and Point Blank SEO, visit the about page. Follow him on Twitter.
{ 163 comments }
I would try and suggest 3 things not already on this list, but they are probably already on the list lol. Good luck on getting the link from your PR6 library home page
Lol thanks Keith! And I’ll make sure I get that gem one way or another
How about 3 from my article I published yesterday??…..oh no wait, they’re all there…..
LOL
Alright… I’m speechless.. Jon that’s like a holy grail for link builders…. Just ended up sharing on my fan page and on official Twitter steam..!!
You can consider adding services like buildmyrank for link building (registration is closed for time being) and dropmylink for commenting..!!
Thanks Harsh!!!
I didn’t want to include any grey/black hat software, but thanks for the heads up
Talk about link bait. Probably the most comprehensive list I have seen to date. Great work! Looking forward to the next post
Thanks Aaron! That’s what I was going for
Great work – a very nice list. What plugin are you using to power the drop-down explanations for each heading?
I looked for a while, but couldn’t find one. I tried to do it myself, but JScript was not being my friend yesterday. Therefore, I shouted in anger on Twitter, and Casey Kluver from FallingUpMedia.com helped me out by doing it.
But I think someone needs to develop a plugin for something like this!
Great idea! Shouldn’t be too hard to just throw into a plugin! I might work on that if I get some free time this week.
Great list btw!
Would LOVE to see a plugin for this
Agreed – I searched for a while Casey and couldn’t find anything I wanted, that’s why I yelled on Twitter in frustration
Casey – Awesome. Count on a donation from me when it’s live.
Guess i got the plugin you looking for
http://tympanus.net/Tutorials/FlexibleSlideToTopAccordion/
Nice find Vinoth!! Thanks for pointing that one out
Awesome list, seriously. People are paying upwards of 2k for this very info. Most gracious of you, my good man!
Wow dude.
Wow.
Thanks.
haha thanks Justin!
Wow Jon,
I have signed up for your newsletter based on this article alone.
Great work! Thanks for the great info.
Yay!! Thanks Jenny
Excellent work product Jon. I’m working on a piece now that will have 3+ tactics one could deploy to acquire high quality links (of the web 2.0 flavor) that I will post up and let you decide if a t-shirt in the XXL size is due
but I hope this won’t take me a week for the ink to dry!
My eyes are bleeding Jon. Incredible list you put together. All your hard will not go unnoticed by a long shot. This is going to be one highly valuable piece of real estate on the internet and it won’t take years for that to happen either.
As always, thanks for sharing! Bookmarked and getting shared.
Awesome! Thanks Michael, not only for the comment, but for all the help you’ve given me in the past.
And as always, no problem. It has been my pleasure.
Did you mention Google Local, Sponsored Ads and Google Knol? Google Local would be advertising of local businesses in your area. Sponsored ads are on the free versions of many email providers on the right side of your email. Google Knol is a Google app which can used to provide leads from your articles on Blogger.
Google Local & Sponsored Ads aren’t exactly link building strategies, but thanks for mentioning them anyways
Google Knol only gives nofollows, and I don’t know it’s long term sustainability (not sure if it’s going to be a Google product 12 months from now), but I’ll make a note of it seeing as I left it out.
thanks Jon! Btw – nice name
Thanks a lot for this article Jon, very interesting and usuful stuff. The story about crashing cars to gain links was a classic!
I know, right?? When I found that comment I couldn’t get over how awesome it was.
And why stop for WordPress themes only to build links. You can release drupal themes too. There are so few drupal themes available that a good themes can give you many ‘quality’ links.
Great point! I’ll definitely make sure that gets added in the future. Thanks for the tip!!
First backlinks I ever made were on gustbooks, you didn’t include them! Probably hold zero value but so do forum profiles nowadays unless you are diversifying your link profile.
Nice job on the list, will be a valuable resourse for years to come!
I believe the 11th strategy under “Miscellaneous” is guest books, but thanks for the tips!
Awesome.. I think u miss “Link wheel” “Press Releases” not able to figure out the 3rd one
hop i’ll come up with it also.. And this was really good articles every one has to read in order to refresh them selves.
This is a kick ass link building list, thanks Jon!
Great post Jon! I had to come see it – even though I have been perusing the tips you have been sending in the emails. I know this took quite some time to put together, so I hope it will result in a bucket-full of authority links for you
That wasn’t my main goal, but I can only hope it will
. Thanks!!
Thats some list Jon you mad man….how long did that take??? I’ll be back to this page some great advice.
15+ hours, and worth every minute of it.
Nice work. A lot of time and effort went in to this, and you even employ a good handful of the techniques you discuss as you go along. Clever, love it.
Practicing what I preach right here on my blog is something I’ve been trying to do
.
Thanks lain!
Impressive. How long did this take you to research/compile/write?
A little over 15 hours
This is an absolutely incredible collection. We currently do a few out of each category but appreciate learning quite a few that we’ve overlooked. Great job & thank you for the effort you put into it!
One note though: I wish there was an easy way to expand all tips at once so I could read them all without clicking on each…
Thanks Kirsten!!
I totally understand, that makes sense. It’s just tough because making two versions of it (one the way it is now, and one the way you suggest) requires coding knowledge I just don’t have and don’t want to bug someone about
. Casey (who helped me with this) has done enough!
Also, glad you liked the comment page! Glad someone took notice of something I was quite proud of
Jon,
I just got back from working at my gym and was super thrilled to find this in my inbox. I haven’t even read it yet, but I KNOW it is going to be the most complete blog post I have and will probably ever read on link building. Your previous posts have saved me hundreds, if not thousands. But most important, I was unbelievably impressed that when I signed up for your email list about a month ago your autoresponder message encouraged me to write to you with what I’d be most interested in from your email and you personally emailed me back after. This time and commitment to superior content and service set you apart. Thanks so much for your contributions thus far, and keep me posted on any future products you put out; I’ll be first in line!
Wow, thanks Rich! Hope you liked it
I’ve promised myself to not sell anything I wouldn’t buy, which is probably the reason I haven’t put a product out there yet, but I’ll definitely keep you posted if I ever decide to sell anything!
May I make a suggestion? …Well I will anyways since I don’t want to just leave that as a reply. One of the ways I earn a living is by training clients and writing strength and conditioning programs. I’ve really found that having a semi-concrete plan that maps out where you’re starting and where you’re looking to go (called periodization in my world) is of the utmost importance to success. While I’ve found lots of posts, products, articles, etc. on link building and the hows, whys, etc. I haven’t found anything that says “ok you’re starting from scratch, here’s what to do in week 1, here’s what to do in week 2, etc.” In fact some of the best “make money online” programs I’ve purchased are similar step-by-step week-by-week setups. However, like I mentioned, I have yet to find anything concrete and structured on link building. …Idea?
Rich, you’re totally right! That’s a fantastic idea. I never thought about doing a link building program like that.
I might have to steal this idea and do it. I don’t know when I’ll publish it, but I can guarantee you I’ll do something similar to this.
Thanks again!!
Wow,
It’s like you knew exactly what I needed. I’m running an internship and hiring my first SEO employee, and was just about to look for a good link building resource to show them.
This is exactly what link-bait is all about. You sir, have earned my link.
Thanks Corey! Was doing it for the same reason – I needed a good reference, and there wasn’t a decent enough list, let alone one that’s updated.
Well this is definitely going down in link building history. This is the kind of thing that’s going to go viral FAST. Kudos.
Another top one Jon. Have you tried anything with Reddit before? Either engaging the community there with content (it takes a while to get to know what each subreddit likes) and seeding them with linkbait that answers common questions asked, or just going ahead and setting up your own subreddit for your own niche/business?
Reddit is PR8 and once you get a good bit of content on there and seen, the redditors will constantly use it to keep answering recurring questions. It’s like having a bunch of people working on your behalf to drive traffic.
Reddit is great for promoting content, but I wouldn’t necessarily dedicate an entire strategy to it. Great find tho Neil!
You know what’s funny? Most people will just skim over this article (like I did) and won’t read it entirely. You should have charged $700 for it and then secretly leak a $0 coupon code. This would mean that they would all read it. Ah… humans and perception of value!
Because I know Jon is awesome I am going back to the top now and will read it all. After that I am getting my t-shirt
Great post… wow, this one is going to take a couple more days to process
Awesome job Jon. Thanks for the time you spent curating this list. If you can update it on a regular basis, it will definitively become an authority page.
).
I would also suggest transform this article into a pdf that you could give to people in exchange for joining your list, and maybe create a nice PPT you could put on slideshare (more linkbait
I second this! This would be great to have as a downloadable PDF, I would include this in every new employee handbook we give out.
Thanks Eric! I’ve been debating this too
I’ll keep you guys posted on Twitter when this is in the form of a pdf.
What an awesome list of backlinking strategies. But the question I have is “how do you use these strategies to get on the first page of Google.” What I would love to see is a free step by step backlinking process that shows in details what to do to get on the first page of Google.
This is surreal. What a powerful list. I couldn’t even read the entire thing. I’ve got to get back to it later.
They are just superb, a whole bunch of quality link build strategies
Hi Jon,
Great post and round up of link building tactics! Took me forever to read the post. Would like to add one more to the list for enterprise/blue-chip (ish) clients. Leveraging offline media spend and negotiate for links or sponsorships.
Once again, A.W.E.S.O.M.E. post
Jon,
I can’t help but think about the thought, effort, and time that you have invested here. Very nice my dude. Thanks for sharing! I love your posts! They keep getting better.
Fantastic resource. I will share this widely.
Re your Scoop.it suggestion – my topic Business Improvement has had in excess of 40, 000 views in 12 months, and I am happy to post suggested content to the topic providing that is of good quality and offers value to the owners of small to medium businesses who need better knowledge and improved skills to grow their businesses. Suggestions can be submitted to http://business-improvement.rhodan.com.au.
Speechless! This post is one of those mindblowing content.. the type of post which itself promotes itself.. thanks a lot for the share..
articulated to the core.. Loved it
Thanks so much for sharing this awesome list. I wish I could come up with 3 more strategies to get a shirt – but right now I guess thats impossible.
Great work!! Love reading your blog! Keep it up
OMG WHAT I LIST! Thanks a lot for sharing this, i have already bookmarked it, and know i will continue explore all the new things I never have thought and heard about, thx!
Very extensive post. Thanks a lot Jon! I’ll bookmark it :=)
And wow! What plugin do you use to make the ”first comment” page? It’s awesome!
Wowzers!
My brain hurts just looking at that bad boy!
Nice work…must of taken ages. Do you ever sleep man? lol
Very good list. Is it good to use as a checklist
Great list Jon. I find myself reading your blog quite often! Keep up the good work.
Thank you for sharing this comprehensive list. It is so nice to find something where you can just pop back and use it as a check list. I have bookmarked it for future reference.
What an incredible post. I’ve circulated it around the office here at the agency where I work – some absolute gems in here!
I wrote a post on my personal SEO blog recently, where I talked about how someone I know had said that link building is easy and not worth the money – and more specifically, that it was a job “a monkey could do” (source: http://seono.co.uk/2011/10/13/is-link-building-a-job-a-monkey-could-do/).
Do you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to show him his list. I’d be interest to know what he thinks now!
Thank you for sharing this, it’s very rare to find a portal with all these link building strategies, respect for putting the time into it!
This is such a comprehensive list. i have never seen all the required stuff for SEO on one page as you have mentioned. I think you must have taken a couple of weeks to gather all the points at one place.
This is an awesome resource. Thanks very much Jon – I bet this took ages to put together!
One of the best Posts of link-building ever!
Cheers for the sharing.
I will have to come back later aswell and see everything in detail
Hey Jon, a fantastic resource & thanks for the mention
but I must admit there’s an internal linking strategy you didn’t cover…
Sitemaps – XML and HTML sitemaps – they make sure your pages are more likely to be found & indexed by Google
As a certain Johnny 5 would say… “INPUT”
What a great list. I am sharing it with all of my friends. I took the challenge and tried to think of three but every time I would think of a new one… there it was on the list. Good job though!
Thanks for pulling together this superb list, Jon! I don’t usually comment before reading the whole article, but I know it’s good. Can’t wait to pour over the strategies and everyone’s comments. Also, please share everybody!
This is such a great comprehensive list! Thanks Jon! It’s important to have updated resources for link building like you mentioned at the beginning of the article. Otherwise, your strategies will be old and outdated. Consider this: bookmarked. Thanks again!
Tweeted, Liked and +1ed.
Well done! Thank you!
Bookmarked! One question on usability of this blog past: why did you open the links out i.e. Yahoo Directory in the same window and opposed to opening a new one? I am just curious if this is a personal preference, and SEO thing, or something else.
Interested to know and look forward to hearing back from you.
Take care,
Mike
Hey Jon, amazing list. Here’s 3 more for you. If any are duplicates of existing ones let me know – hard to verfiy against such a big list!
Paid Strategies: Crowdfunding
There are loads of crowdfunding sites out there and very often the lower end contributions will credit you on their website (as opposed to on their expensive to produce marketing material which they reserve for the larger sponsors). Yes the site is likely to be in it’s infancy but it could become huge if the project takes off and you have a link for the lifetime of the site/project.
Develop Relationships: Test new software/products/services for people.
There’s new online products being released all the time for almost every marketplace. Volunteer to QA it for them as finding testers is usually a struggle and often not something a small company can afford or keen to spend money on so getting a link/thanks is relatively easy.
Develop Relationships: Product/Service review on your site
Larger more established products will get lost in the noise but smaller/newer ones won’t and they will also be thankful for the exposure.
Well done for offering the list for free
We have our first t-shirt giveaway!! Great job Chris
Email me your shirt size @ mailing address to jcooper[at]pointblankseo.com.
This is aweeeeeeeeeeeeeesome!!!!
Thanks a lot Jon for organizing all of em in a list!
Wao! by the time I go through this, I’ll surely be a SEO consultant like you
@Jason Lancaster @Jon Cooper i did not know there was drop downs until you mentioned it.
Awesome job Jon. I started reading this post early this morning on my long train journey to #SESLondon. I didn’t finish it in time, but have just read the whole thing, word for word, now (on my way home) and I can tell you this… The content here is 101 x more useful and indepth than the link building session at SES and yep, I paid a lot more for that.
So thanks once again for such a useful AND FREE indepth post!!
Perhaps see you at SES NY later in the year, as a Guest Speaker!??
Woody
12,519 words. Good for you man…
That said, I think I can name 3 tactics that aren’t covered above:
1 – Go Non-Branded & Non-Commercial
You mention microsites, which are great. But if it’s a microsite with your logo anywhere on it, it’s not worth half as much when you’re trying to get a link from direct competitors. This applies equally to high competition industries as well as to small & local business markets.
In those cases, you need to go way under the radar, and wait months before adding your links to the site. So, you present the microsite (typically featuring some piece of amazing content) as it’s own entity. Either position it as a website that hosts an academic study or that looks non-profity, etc. After someone unaffiliated with your business does a ton of outreach and link building to competitors, you wait a few months or longer and then quietly add yourself as a partner (in partnership with) rather than the owner. That way, it doesn’t look like you pulled a fast one if those competitors ever refer back to the site, it just looks like you came on board as a sponsor of the content.
Hat tip to Wil Reynolds for mentioning the unbranded-then-wait-6-months tactic in the past.
2 – NAP Citations
This might be “cheating” since it’s not link-based, but getting Name / Address / Phone number is a great citation-building strategy on sites that don’t allow links. If you’re a small or local-focused business, I’d suggest doing on sites regardless of whether they’re linking to you. This can be as good as a link if you really need those Google Map results in your niche. A full NAP citation on a high-trust site is an acceptable alternative to a link as far as I’m concerned.
3 – Media Outreach
You mentioned press releases, but a press release itself won’t get you very far if nobody sees it or cares about your title. Doing some media outreach by phone or email in coordination with a press release might actually get you some media mentions. Start with finding journalists who have covered your industry or a competitor and talking to them. Talk to them about the story, not the press release, you can always attach the official press release as a formality once you’ve got your foot in the door.
Hat tip to Andrew Dumont’s article on “Bootstrapping PR Efforts” for learning about how to get more value than just a press release submission can offer – http://www.seomoz.org/blog/5-steps-to-bootstrapping-your-pr-efforts
Wow, thanks Kane!
1. That’s more of a way to go about doing a microsite, and not exactly a link building strategy in its own. I’ll still add it under microsites though.
2. Not really a link building strategy, so even though it can be effective, it wouldn’t really bit a good fit on this list.
3. Can’t believe I forgot that one – really glad you pointed it out.
It’s hell of a list indeed. I found your blog now but here are a lot of really useful SEO information. Thanx for sharing.
Non-English directories
Killer article, its been said before i know, but might as well repeat
Do you knowany in spanish?
OR, if you are only one person… Pick 10 of these and do them very well. This list is daunting to say the least.
Awesome list Jon. The most comprehensive link building strategy list I have seen to date. Try as I might, I could not come up with 3 additional strategies not previously mentioned, though if I do, I will come back in an effort to try to win my shirt
Its not wonder that this post has 56 upvotes (including mine) on inbound.org at the time of this comment. Great post and thanks for sharing.
Great list…..now we all have to get to work on it!
Hey Jon,
Thanks for the list! Really solid stuff in here. It’s a great chance to take a step back and evaluate which strategies you can do better, and which ones to take a look back at reevaluate. This inspired a mid Q1 link building meeting for me! Thanks again!
Thanks for the list Jon! You have to be one of the best link building bloggers out there. Keep up the good work!
A superb piece of work. A small quibble would be that you can try consolidating many tactics and make this a more concise list.
Again – a splendid job that deserves genuine praise and gratitude from others in the same realm of work. I have seen many well known youtube videos that features just 1 to 3 specific tactics amongst the ones listed here.
The funny thing is that I reached this link (pointblank seo) because it was heavily panned in one of the interviews that I was reading. http://www.nickeubanks.com/seo/fresh-insights-from-12-of-phillys-top-seos/ (by Ian Howells in “What frustrates him”). Poetic Justice !!
Haha thanks! Ian’s great, and I have a ton of respect for him.
Gah. Not panning. Using as an example for a large industry trend.
Anyway, glad the link was useful
Lol even though I know you weren’t, there’s always going to be a few people that think you were unfortunately
.
Ah well. Whatever – got him to a good resource.
This is what’s called an EPIC post. (on so many levels) Am curious, how long did it take you to write this awesomeness? It would probably take me about two weeks – if not longer. Lol.
No stone unturned on this one. Congrats!
Cheers,
Missy
Thanks Missy! It took me about 15 hours. Well worth it though
Hi Jon,
I found this post via the MilkMen blog. Thank you for putting this list together. Link building is really the most difficult part of SEO in my opinion, and the fact that you have decided to tackle this aspect shows that you have what it takes to be successful in the industry.
One item that we include in our strategy is writing book reviews. I suppose that is a sub-set of your “Writing testimonials” item. It’s definitely a great way to get the attention of authors in the space.
We’ve added this guide to this week’s Gnome Likes. Cause we like it!
Yay! Thanks Tabita.
I just added book reviews to my list of strategies to add when I next update this post. Thanks a bunch for the suggestion!!
I’m speechless! They have said it all
A big thank you for your hard work and generosity. You really rock man!
Thanks Ramy
Came across this site on UK Business Forums. Fantastic list which will keep me busy for a while.
I came across to this post from a forum, the power of link bait! This is really a pretty extensive list! I’m sure you have done a lot of research on it, or probably you did all of these before too.
What can I say? Everything complimentary that could be said, has been.
I was about to write a post similar to this. You saved me 15+ hours of work. You got the linkbait, but I cant believe for a minute that I would have done a better job. Amazing work. I’ve got a new blog up and was hoping to get that juice
Now the big question is how to group these into specific talent sets to give to (and train) our teams on. I wouldn’t want to give every one of these to a link builder and tell them to do everything. So the goal would be to break these up into slightly different groups than you have, based on the actual skills needed. Then handing them out as completely different link building jobs for interns, full employees, or outsourced link builders.
What can i say, Excellent list there. Now, if you could just put my details throught it all
it would be super. lol
A perfect and complete list for link building strategies. a gift post for bloggers and even for brand representatives.
one who read it completely will be a master of link building strategies.
Thx for the effort Jon, a reference post.
One thing I liked more from the previous version of this post was that you actually listed a bunch of resources in every bullet point.
I also like the way you link out to other in depth posts. Could you do it for example for free and paid directories, article submission and so on?
Wow! Really an awesome post! I probably knew like 10% of the list and used maybe 3! thank you so much, lots to learn and implement over here!
Thanks so much for this amazing post! Link building is an area I’m trying to improve and this will really help.
Hi Jon,
Really useful post. I have a question for you Re:
“Link Out: Linking out is huge. Don’t be a link hoard; you’re going to create content, so use it to gain favor with other people. I’ll go more into depth below with specific strategies on linking out.”
What happens when you’re approached by someone looking for a link exchange (and their links is PR1 and you are PR4) do you link out then?
The more outbound links you have the more you devalue your site.
well,, thats what ive been led to belive.
Stay away from link exchanges. Trust me, they’re never beneficial, and the neighborhoods those linkers are in are usually not very safe. So in this case, no.
Thanks for the great resource Jon. Still trying to finish reading the list but I’m working on my three. I’ll get back to you on that
Best atrical i have ever been seen…
Thats to jeff who shared on inforum..
Nice post, though I would like to take a shot at offering 3 more:
1.) “Trophy Pigeon Method” – Design a “Top 50 Contest” for any market or niche, causing the winners to link back to you. (Contests)
2.) Automated Software (SenukeX – XRumer)
3.) Your children, nephews, brother or sisters could add a link to their schools computer, while in college, getting you .edu or .gov links
Another little trick that could also be done here is, you could go to a school, coffe shop, library, etc & change the home page on the public computer to your website or affiliate sites, adsence, etc getting freee traffic by the tons, getting free clicks by the tons, and gaining links ulitmately. shh, don’t share this one. :]
4.) While watching T.V, you will regularlt see commercials come on, and business owners offering their web address, for you to signup for free. Many of these are .edu & .gov – never know what you may see on T.V – Trust Me!!
Thank You,
Greg Smith
This is a great list and a valuable resource for building a solid web presence. As a guy who likes to see the big picture and then focus in on specifics, I’ve got my work cut out for me by digging into this post, thanks!
Love the list. I’m going through it and implementing some of the strategies. FYI the link to “Godaddy’s SOPA fiasco” under “Trollbait” is broken – it links to somewhere on localhost.
BTW I just got approved by Bill Murray. I’m stoked about that. Seems like he only approves the first comment… is there a plugin that you’re using for that?
Update: found a plugin – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/thank-you/screenshots/
Mind blowing post!
Your article itself is an example of the kind people would love to link from their sites. And some of the comments are enlightening too.
But I have a question: Won’t some of those directory submission options be mostly discounted by Google?
Yep, but it was still at least worth noting. They have value, but not a lot – you have to be able to find those that offer some & separate them from the 99% of directories that are complete junk.
Holy Crap dude, Epic post/effort… Well Done!
Hi Jon,
No doubt, its indeed a complete and comprehensive guide to all link building strategies. Very much informative. It helped a lot. Thanks
Any more skype links?
Wow, what a gift!!!
Thank you, I will check it out carefully!
Once again a great job!
Stunning Work. Best list ever – thanks
Thanks David!!
Hey Jon,
I only just noticed you linked to my blog post, thanks man!
Glad to see your post is still getting great reviews and comments
Will
Thanks Will! Just added your strategy yesterday
What an amazing post, Jon! Bookmarked and I’m sure I’ll be referring to it often.
Jon this is a very impressive list, almost like an encyclopedic of link building strategies. With all the things I know there were still a couple tactics that I hadn’t heard of or really taken notice to.
However Jon I noticed that you don’t have anything about pinterest on the list. I know it is a very recent uprising but it is a good place to get links, promote a business and it’s products and really drive a lot of traffic is you post pictures and inforgraphics. It is super surprising how quickly the community has grown but it should definitely be considered for the list.
Thanks Frank!
I was considering adding Pinterest to the list, but since the links are nofollow now, I didn’t think it worth noting (more for social rather than link building). Nonetheless, still a site we should all be paying attention to.
Great list. Much more comprehensive and current than a similar post I wrote a couple of years ago. I may have skimmed over it, but I did not see Facebook on the list. Did you purposefully leave it off the list?
How would you use Facebook for link building Randy?
I recall the buzz back when SEOmoz announced that there was a strong correlation between Facebook shares and rankings. For about 4 weeks, lots of SEO’er were attempting to get Facebook shares. Then tests of Facebook shares, as well as comments from Matt Cutts, indicated that it there was little if any causation. However, Facebook shares indirectly promote links, tweets and other signals Google may use. Thus, I typically give some consideration to including Facebook as a second or third tier aspect of a link building campaign, if only as an indirect source.
Thanks Randy, I see what you’re saying. Just some food for thought – the Facebook developers no longer support the share button, thus it’s starting to go away (if they won’t support it in the future, there’s no way it’s going to be a ranking signal).
But on listing Facebook as a link building strategy, I just don’t think it’s direct enough. If I put Facebook up there, I’d have to start listing every other social media site, and thus, it starts becoming website promotion strategies and not link building strategies (it’s a fine line, but hopefully you understand where I’m trying to draw it; it’s not easy!).
But thanks again Randy, glad I got the chance to clarify that.
The post itself is a gift. And those comments comes just to make it more worthy to read!
Thanks Helen! Glad to see you back here commenting again
Hi Jon
I’m new here but I love it. Great link building resources that will help me a lot. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks Tom! Glad to see you leaving a few comments
Not sure I can add any sort of praise that hasn’t already been given, so I’ll just say thanks. Seriously, thank you.
Thanks John! That means a lot
Nice list Jon, how many links did this gain for you?
Wow. Just wow. Well done Jon and thank you!!
Nice list, it took me an hour to read all these points and keeping in mind my dumbness, if I start implementing all these strategies it will take an year
Dude! that is some list!! My head is spinning….
A few gems that flew over my head that is for sure. The “apps” stuff is genius for mobile sites too.
Wow! Agreed. This is a great list. Thanks!
And here’s a sponsorship link love opportunity that, unlike all others, is SEO optimized and goes way beyond your typical charity sponsored links! Also great for local businesses because it includes a citation. http://bit.ly/HoIJrH
Probably good to mention that with charity sponsor links, while it may cost you some, you are giving back, and, besides the good feeling you get inside knowing you are helping, you also get good karma and a tax writeoff.
This one helps put an end to cancer.
Great list Jon! I’ve used/read about 90% of these but it’s great to have them all in one list. It makes it very for anyone to get started in link-building. I’ll be using this as part of my training for new SEO’s at my company! Once I get the time I’ll write a blog post and include a link to this for sure!
Thanks Brent!! This is as much of a reference for me as it is a blog post for you guys because you’re right, it’s tough to get them all in one place.
What I like best about this list is that, while it offers specific tactics for implementing strategies, there’s lots of room for creative application and the way you phrased the descriptions allows for creative thinking. I note this because as I expanded the second half of suggested methods, I got out a notepad and generated some new practical ideas… And that’s a sign that the verbiage is stimulating thought and action, rather than pushing rote, prescriptive, imitative ideas.
Good stuff, thank you.
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