190 Link Building Strategies

Link Building Strategies

The article presents a collection of 190 link building strategies. The list has been built during the last 8 years spent as search marketing strategist. Please share, the same way I did; let others know about it and enjoy it. Thanks for being a good fellow.

I am planning on growing and updating this list with your kind help, so anyone who is submitting a strategy which is not described here will get a do follow link from this page.

For the next posts I am planning on detailing each technique, so please subscribe to our blog if you want detailed post on each strategy.

Enjoy reading or watching the video:


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Find websites that are mentioning your URL but have not hyperlinked to your website.
Recruit on a college/university website (even from outside your city/area; you never know what talents you’ll find in other cities).
Start a coupon program and get links from coupon websites.
Build some links using Flickr.
Create link wheels using social websites and web 2.0 sites.
Use Google Alerts to get notifications for the targeted keywords and get links from newly found sources.

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google alerts
Create an extensive industry glossary that will attract links from others.
Create a list of abbreviations used in your industry. Explain each abbreviation in details and get into partnerships with abbreviation websites to link to your website for a more detailed explanation of the abbreviations they list on their websites.
Create 101 lists (i.e. 101 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Site).
Get listed in Yahoo! Directory and Google Places. This is especially important for local SEO.

Yahoo! Directory and Google Places
Search for competitorsite.com site:edu to get a list of most trusted links to a site, and get listed there too.
Join the local Chamber of Commerce and get a link on the member section.
Exchange links with websites that are complementary to, but not generally competitive with, your own.
Get listed in ODP.
Get links from niche directories, especially those manually edited.
Submit to specialty search engines addressing your niche and market.
Ask for links from your business partners or clients.
Incorporate link requirements to your site in all contracts with resellers, vendors and subcontractors.
Ask for links from happy customers who are active bloggers, editors, and social media pages.
Get your.pdf, .doc, .ppt and other document indexed by file specific engines.

pdf ppt doc
Use power queries on Google and other major search engines to identify link opportunities (there are hundreds of such queries, but I’ll address that in detail in a future post on Power Queries for Link Building).
Links from organizations or associations connected with your industry.
Get links from your upstream or downstream suppliers.
Get listed in local directories.
Use [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to find vertical engines and directories and get listed in them.

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Submit an article you wrote to article directories.
Write an honest review of a product/service you use and like your website then contact the developer/author to let them know you’ve positively reviewed their product and maybe they’ll link back to you.
License content from your site in exchange for a back link.
Offer something for free (such as a downloadable report), and then ask for a link back to your site if the person finds value in the free item.
Contact editors and writers and let them know you are available to be used as a source in exchange for a link.
Have an easy way for your visitors to link back to you (tweet meme, share this, re-tweet button).
Join groups and discussion list and get links from there.

Leave a link in chat rooms, blog comments, forums, everywhere you genuinely contribute to the discussion.
Use signature on newsgroups (if newsgroups are still alive on the web).
Ask a question on Q&A websites pointing to your website; after all you’re not THE genius who knows it all.
Reply to questions on Q&A websites. Your goal should be to genuinely help others, but you can link to your site if you have a more detailed answer for that question.
Include a link in your email signature. While this will not be indexed by Google, sometimes emails are copied and published on web pages.

email signature
Try to get listed in DMOZ in multiple categories (as long as your website is eligible to belong to multiple categories).
Create an award icon for your industry that people can place on their websites, linking back to you (W3C HTML Markup valid icons).
Register additional domain names like (i.e. sitenamemisspelling.com or yoursitename.hu), build 10-15 links to them then do a 301 to your main site.
Create contest and sweepstakes and list your website on contest and sweepstakes directories on the Web.
Offer site owners free memberships if they link to you.
When you write your blog articles, link to blog posts that use the trackback feature. The blogger will notice that and if you have good content, you might get links from them.
Submit technical papers to Web sites that are either interested in the subject or offer technical papers (bitpipe.com).technical papers
Indentify industry editors and point them to your case studies, white papers and other similar content (be mindful to have both web versions of those documents and .pdf files they can download).
If you use any software that is helping you, genuinely write a review about it and let the author have your testimonial (with a link to your site) on their website.
Apply to awards programs for your industry, for example: Windows & .NET Magazines Reader’s Choice Awards.
Make sure that all employee speaking engagements at tradeshows, expos or other events are linked on the website for the show.
Write press releases and submit to press release websites (in most of the case the top 25 PR websites will be enough).
Use a paid press release distribution service only when your company has something relevant to communicate to the masses.
Use [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to find media contacts in your industry and establish relationships with them, even for content syndication. Ask what kind of content they want and provide them with what they need. Push for a link from their websites if they are quoting or using your content.
Write to journalists and media contacts and let them know that you are publishing articles in your niche and are available for interviews and content syndication.
Contact your local radio and television stations and offer your expert knowledge as a source; get a link from their site.
Join associations within your industry and ask to be listed on their website directory section.
Identify 404 pages on other websites related to your industry and contact the webmasters to let them know about linking to inexistent/wrong resources. Once the dialog is established, you can suggest your website as a replacement resource for dead links.

404 eror page
Identify 404 pages on competitor’s website (you can use Open Site Explorer, Top Pages report to find 404 errors on competitors site) and see who is linking to those pages and tell them to link to your page instead.
Reclaim your 404 referrers to link an existing URL (either 301 redirect on your web server or make sure the referred page actually exists).
Rent pages from authority sites.
Place links on your non-competing, related newsletters.
Research for fan pages for your products/services and ask for links by email.
Create an impressive calendar (bikini calendars always sell) and give it away for free, downloadable from your site, of course.
Launch online sweepstakes and place targeted links on high interest niche content sites (search for “Sweepstakes and Contests” and your keywords).
Create corporate Wikipedia pages.corporate pages
Create infographics to attract media websites to link to you.
Use donations and charity get some quality links: offer free advice, free audits, free samples or sponsorships in exchange for the link.
Use URL shorteners to add the ability to customize shortened URLs, or create your own short URL shortener service and intelligently use your keywords in the short URLs.
Local directory submission for geo targeted keywords.
If you own a domain name and move the content to another one, do a 301 redirect. If you move a page to another URL, do a 301 too.
Try to get listed on [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Study the websites listed on that page and see what makes the editors link to them. It is also a good idea to get a link from the pages referenced by this URL .
Get links from review websites to get listed in the 7-pack – important for local SEO.
Offer a discount to disabled or other minorities, and get a link from their associations.
Offer discounts to university staff, faculty, and students. They often have a page where they list special promotions.
Use searches like “Top Sites for Researching {your keyword}” to identify resource websites where you can ask for a link (if your content is worthy).

reserching sites
Submit e-zines to Ezine-Universe.com and other e-zine directories.
Place a web cam on your company entrance and submit the URL to cam guides like WebCam Central (http://www.camcentral.com).
Create a widget like [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and offer it to you affiliates. Call related, non-competing websites and see if they are interested in such widgets.
Create a link to us page just like [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to give people the opportunity to link to you.
Sign guest books if they give links and do follow. Sign those books, but don’t be a spammer.
Use Google groups, Yahoo! groups and reply to questions related to your industry.
Request inclusion from the vertical engine’s editors.
Guest blogging; you can use [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to identify partner sites.
Submit content to social blogging sites.
Blog commenting
Social bookmarking websites.
Submit your company profile to business profile websites.
Get good reviews (ask your happy customers to do it) on review websites.
Publish classified ads.
Forum profiles.
Forum commenting.
Free hosted pages and websites.
Photo sharing submission.
Host your blog images (the big ones) on various image sharing sites. Add html caption and alt text to the images if possible.
Get a link from a .mil website.
Get a link from an .org website relevant to your business.
RSS submission.
Social media profiles for company employees.
Create Squidoo lenses.
Create blogs on free blogging platforms.

Blog
Ask for links from friends’ websites.
Write how-to tutorials and get links from how-to sites.
Repair broken inbound links (404 pages) using Google Webmaster Tools.
Optimize existing “click here” back links from other websites to meaningful anchor text.
Update the Link to Us page regularly so your anchor text is varied.
Either interview an expert from your field, or try to get interviewed by someone else.
Use tynt.com to automatically insert a link to your content when someone is doing copy and paste.
Use the RSS footer plug-in for WordPress (http://yoast.com/wordpress/rss-footer/) to get a link back from automated link scrappers (RSS scrappers).
Offer a gift (coffee card, gift card) to undergraduates from universities to create a page on their .edu website.
Outsource your research/projects (ask an university of college to do a research on your behalf).
Use Google AdWords’ content network to determine which (relevant) websites generate traffic and conversions. Contact those websites directly.
Submit your blog to blog directories.
Become a sponsor for an event (an educational event might work the best, if you can get a link from their websites).
Donate to a charity and get on their donors page.
Identify good domain names that people search for, but the domains are parked, and try to get a deal with the owner to do a 301 redirect to your page in exchange for a fee (affiliation maybe).
Blogger product previews – put your product/service in the hands of bloggers in a direct, personal manner to encourage them to review it and link to your site.
Content partnerships; forge content and link sharing relationships with high audience relevance.
Tweet your blog; twitter links sometimes get indexed by Google.
Create something unique: Top 10s, top 250s, mash-ups, how tos, best ofs, surveys, studies, awards…
Develop a FF/IE/Chrome plug-in or tools that others are in need for. Host in on your site and remind (a nag screen or something similar) users to put a link on their site if they want to get the fully functional version.
Become a member of the BBB.
Offer to write testimonials or a quote for your suppliers, if they are willing to link back to your site in this testimonial.
Ask clients to write testimonials about your product or service that they publish on their website in exchange for a discount, i.e. offer free delivery, next day delivery or any other benefit you can provide if they talk (to be read link) to you.
Assign employees to get one link per day by joining relevant discussions (blogs, forums, boards, groups) to your niche, and teach them how to link to your site.
Put your link in your email signature. (Bonus: add a client testimonial at the end of the signature. Bonus 2: have your developers change the testimonial as frequently as possible.).
Submit to podcast directories. (Bonus: you can automatically transcribe the podcast and put the content on your site.).
Create a video (even from static pages or from a presentation, company profile, etc.) and use tubemogul.com to distribute them.
Create a quiz that gives a badge at the end so people can share it on their blog or profile page on any number of sites.
Identify open CMS platforms like Wikipedia and create content rich, targeted content on them.
Submit products to shopping social networks like ThisNext and Kaboodle.social networks
Submit to comparison shopping engines.
Start a green initiative and get listed in green directories (these kinds of directories are now on ascending trend).
Launch your own affiliate program and make your affiliate links search engine friendly.
Build a WordPress plug-in which adds a link back to your site if used for free, if paid remove the link.
Build widget style ad units that contain links to your product/service pages.
Create a product usage guide/e-book and give a link back to the product page. Publish it on .pdf engines, slideshare and link back to your pages.
Build a tool that automatically tweets about price drops and tweet the most significant changes in Twitter.
Have a Tell a Friend functionality and Share This buttons.
Ask your employees to link to your company from their social profiles.
Persuade linkerati to subscribe to your blog; create a list of linkerati in your niche; get their contact detail and email them. They will link back to you if you write good content.
Create the most extensive resource on the web for your products/services.
Search your competitors by phone numbers and do a co citation analysis to discover important sites to get listed on.
Create a list of the top 10 to 20 experts in your industry; let people vote on who’s the best, and contact the contestants when you do so.
Submit articles to industry news site (i.e. SEO articles to webpronews).
Submit your link to relevant city and state governmental resources.
Get listed in the recommended lists of the public library (start locally, then nationwide, and then maybe internationally).
Validate your site (CSS, html and accessibility) and submit to websites that are listing such websites (i.e. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] your site
Submit to web design contest and galleries such as [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (This only makes sense if your website has a great design).
Switch to html5 and submit to html5 galleries (http://html5gallery.com/).
Build a “collection of tools” page and promote it among the tools creator to get links from their site to yours.
Design (or hire a designer) to create a free sponsored CMS theme (WordPress is the widest used CMS) and give it for free; submit the theme to free WordPress directories; display sponsored “designed by” footer to get additional links. When you want change the anchor text pointing to you, just do an update of the theme
Create your social media profile for all these websites: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Make sure you are doing your homework to complete your profile and look professional. Participate in the conversation there.social media profile
Pay for inclusion in some widely syndicated ‘Recent Blog Posts’ widget. For example, SEO Chat distributes widgets you can put on your site featuring their most recent blog posts.
Instead of asking for money after the trial period ends, ask people to link to your site to get a free tool (offer something popular and requested).
Adopt orphaned WordPress plug-ins and bring them up to date.
Create a plug-in (hmm, actually I should do this) that checks the status of external links from a page and displays a 404 near each broken link. When you visit a site and see a 404 page link, email the page owner to let them know they are sending people to non- existent pages. Hopefully they will give you something (ask for a link) in return.
Identify errors (link to inexistent pages, design errors, ugly images) on related websites and email owners telling them how to fix them. Later you can ask for a link, or sell them services.
Sponsor a plug-in – try to host it on your site, or to have a “link to this page to activate the license” activation system. Or have a nag screen that can only be removed if the owner is providing a page that links to you.
Sell items on eBay and offer to donate the proceeds to charity. Many charities will link both to the eBay auction and to your site.
Have your employees contact their friends and ask them to link to your site (make it a contest and give a prize to the employee with the most friends linking back to you).
When you leave signatures in a blog, try to add your keywords in your name in a creative manner (i.e. Joe the plumber).blog signature
Automatically add a link to your images; lots of people are hot linking to them (while there are already some scripts out there, I have to find yet a better solution for this technique).
If possible, send samples of your product (free access to tools, plug-ins and so on) to industry bloggers, and ask them to try the products.
Release unique research results within your industry (i.e. how B2B decision makers are buying).
Offer to speak at a college or university and make sure that you get listed on the university’s website.
Help write curriculum for a college or university.
Create a widget and submit it to widget directories: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Find companies offering the same products or services – but in different countries, regions, or even languages – and approach them to exchange links.
Buy existing websites related to your niche (flippaa.com), and link to your site.
Create a piece of software that will serve the needs of your niche and upload it to shareware directories. If you want to go gray/black hat with this strategy (which I don’t recommend) you can submit the cracked version to torrent forums, p2p sites or warez sites (I’ve seen a software site getting tens of thousands of links from such websites). Lock the software with a license key and then ask for a review and link in exchange for an activation key.
Write case studies for your industry and submit them to web libraries specializing in case studies (again bitpipe.com).case study
Include a brief request in an order confirmation or shipment confirmation email. You might even consider following up with the customer and making sure everything was OK a day or two after the shipment arrives (assuming you’re doing shipment tracking), and requesting the link then – when they’re probably feeling most generous towards you.
Run a story contest. Ask your customers to write a story on their social media profiles/blogs about their experience on your site and submit the story/link for voting on your site. The story with most votes should win something truly valuable (i.e. access for life to your tool, one year of free pizza, etc).
Generate links via embedded content. Develop a tool that others use to create media content which can be added to any html page (a great example of such a tool is scribd or vimeo).
Translate your site/blog in multiple languages, and submit the translated version to non-English directories. This can lead to a massive increase in traffic, links and index saturation.
Purchase text link ads on relevant pages of a related site. It’s best if the link is from within a site’s actual content. Speak with the owners directly; skip the trade link companies.
Paid blog posts.
Sponsor a trade show.
Sponsor university department contests.
Sponsor high end content blogs on your niche.
Create unique online tools and services and give them away for free.
Content acquisition – find content that ranks well or has earned considerable link popularity, purchase it from the owner and move the content to your own site (301).
If you are hiring a resource, include your URL in the job description. There are literally hundreds of local and national job sites that will pick up on the listing and redistribute automatically, and there are a lot of sites that you can easily place the ad on for free. It’s completely relevent to the advert, so not spammy in the slightest. It might also get picked up on and linked to from real people letting each other know about the vacancy – thanks to Web Design Arbroath.
Identify websites that are offering advice/resources to small and medium businesses (i.e. in our case [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and try to get your site listed there.
Update dead link references in Wikipedia to point to your site (there are 240k results for site:wikipedia.org “dead link”). Be more specific; google for site:wikipedia.org “dead link” “targeted keyword”; see what the dead link reference is about, and link to a relevant page on your site (or create one and then link to it).wikipedia dead link
Use absolute URLs to link to other pages, instead of using absolute paths. This way when your content gets scrapped, you will get a back link to your site.
Run a discount promotion and get listed in deal websites (i.e. redflagdeals.com in Canada).
Close advertorial deals with renowned online magazines within your industry and publish articles with them. See how Google is doing it here.
Find dead links inside ebooks references (stay within your niche); try to recover that content using the WayBack machine; put the saved content on your site, then ask the ebook author to link to the new URL (you should ask permission first from the original content writer first).
As a variation of 187, you could find highly trusted pages that link to broken URLs; recover that content; publish it in a “lost and valuable articles” section site on your own, and then ask the linked-from site to link to you instead (again, you might need permission from the original content creator).
Find .pdf files which don’t exist anymore (or have been moved to other URLs) which are linked by highly authoritive sites; try to find the files using sources like WayBack machine, and then ask the other sites to link to you.
Ask for a link from your hosting company as part of their featured clients.
Offer to assist with your hosting company’s press release by providing them a testimonial/interview.
Get links from eBay by listing your products there and linking from the product descriptions to a page on your site where you describe the product. Make sure you link back to the eBay page, as per their terms of use.
If you’re a non-profit or NGO ask for a backlink as a “donation”.