The best types of link building are those where you get links back to your site without them being reciprocal, or without you having to return the favor. Search engines add extra value to this type of link and so, when you are busy getting backlinks, finding ways to get one way links is a very good SEO move.

Where do you get these awesome backlinks? There are a few places . . .

Forums: You can usually leave your URL in your signature within forums and this is an important way to get backlinks. Just be sure that you are following the rules.

Link Circles: If you like a blog and want to link to it, but don`t want a direct back link, you can set up a link circle. It works like this: Site A links to Site B. Site B links to Site C. And Site C links to Site A. You can do this with multiple sites or between three completely different sites.

Blogs: These are a little trickier, but if you are writing excellent content on your own business blog, other bloggers will want to link to it . . . no strings attached. Which means you can get some very high quality links simply by writing useful content.

You`ll find other opportunities for getting one way backlinks, as well. It`s link building at its finest!

Link building can be a very useful way to boost SEO and search engine rankings, but this isn`t the only purpose of getting your URL out there. It`s also good to take into account the human factor. People who see your links should want to click on them and go to your website. It`s not a good idea to only rely on search engines for your traffic.

What makes people click on the links they find? Most of them will be clicking to find more information on a topic they are interested in. You`d be surprised at how much traffic can come in from even a comment you make on someone else`s blog, which is why it`s important to make sure you leave good, relevant comments, not something like “nice job, take a look at my site” which only marks you as a spammer. If you really add to the conversation, you`ll end up with more clickthroughs.

Make sure you don`t spam while link building and you`ll end up with a lot more clickthroughs. These are still important even if they don`t bring in as much traffic as a good search engine result, why not go for both at the same time?

Most people realize that link building is a good way to get a little extra search engine attention, but did you know that you don`t have to rely entirely on outside linkage?

Deep linking, or linking to pages within your own website or blog, is also a good method of link building that will impress the search engines. While you might be aiming for better SEO, keep in mind that it also helps visitors to your site find other pages and information on your site.

If you are reading through an interesting article and find a link to something else that is interesting, chances are you`ll follow it. The same goes for the majority of your website visitors. If you want to increase the usefulness of your business site, make it easy for your human visitors to find more on the topic they are searching for.

Your anchor text matters here. Make sure that you are linking using relevant words, like I just did here. This is useful for people and search engines and will help with SEO, as well.

A big thanks to Janet Roper of Talk2TheAnimals.net for the Butterfly
Blog Award! I am honored to receive it, and in the spirit of
“paying it forward” I wanted to pass this award along to a couple of
new bloggers who are doing just great with their blog:

Karen Bebchuk over at Two Blondes & a Brunette Gift Company recently
launched her new blog, GiftBasketsThatWow.com (proof that all the
great domain names are NOT taken). For stylish and unique gift
ideas, particularly at this time of the year, head on over and check
her out!

Judy Ferrill writes a wonderful blog on Community Supported
Agriculture over at localfoodconnections.com/wordpress/
- she always has some
great “foodie” tips to share!

My friend Myrna over at WisePacks has a funny and very informative
blog filled with travel tips and tricks - I definitely recommend you
check it out at www.TravelPrincess.info.

Finally - who knew that dentistry could be this interesting? Wayzata Dental has a great blog over at www.WayzataDental.info
— everything you always wanted to
know about dentistry but were afraid to ask!

Anchor text is what you need when dealing with link building for your business, to help increase the amount of hits you receive. It`s very simple to incorporate and can do wonders for your search engine rankings.

Link building is an activity that you need to be participating in regularly if you want great search engine results. You`ll find that using some great anchor text with well placed keywords will help.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Keep anchor text relevant. Have a few keywords that you can interchange, but don`t use them out of place.
• Mix it up. Using the exact same anchor text is a sure way to get slapped by Google, so mix it up. For example, you might use, “Christmas cookie recipes” for one article and “recipes for Christmas cookies” in another.
• Go slowly. There are services out there that claim to build hundreds of links immediately, but this isn`t what you want. Link building should be natural looking or, once again, the search engines will penalize you.

Keeping your link building natural and changing the anchor text around is the best way to go about gaining search engine popularity. Combined with other SEO techniques, it can be invaluable.

You probably know by now that most publicity takes time or money and sometimes both. While link building is free, it doesn`t have to take a lot of time, depending on how you do things.

Link exchange. These are still going strong and it is well worth asking other websites or blogs with similar topics if they would be interested in a link exchange. A quick email takes literally seconds.

Business directories. Each directory requires basically the same information, so write up a short description of your business, have a list of keywords and the name and URL so you can just copy and paste. Each directory will take a minute or two, plus confirmation.

Social networking. If you have a good network of social bookmarking friends, it`s a simple matter to ask them to bookmark your latest blog post or a new article. Even ten new stumbles or digs can really boost your traffic as it goes viral.

A good way to increase your link building is to set aside 10-15 min. each day to get a couple of links. Link building is more effective this way, since the links are built up gradually.

There are a lot of different link building methods, but article marketing is one of the easiest to implement and also very effective. If you can write 400 words, then you have yourself an article that can easily be submitted to a variety of article directories, gaining backlinks for your business site.

There is more to article marketing than just submitting a handful of articles from time to time, however. You might be surprised to find that there are people, usually website owners or ezine publishers, who are looking for content. If they choose to use your article on their website, you`ll end up with more backlinks.

Since the best articles are most likely to be chosen, you`ll want high quality articles, ones that offer top notch information. These will tend to get picked up by others more often, resulting in a lot more links. Submitting unique articles to each directory will also boost your chances of being chosen and looks better in the search engines, as well.

If you aren`t confident in your ability to write great content, there are plenty of freelance writers who are more than able to do this for a small fee. It could easily be the best article marketing move you make.

Link building is one of those business activities that is very tempting to just leave for long periods of time. When you do get into it, you probably tend to do a chunk of work all at once.

The best way to do link building is to build up your links steadily. This is pretty easy to do if you just set aside a small amount of time each day. There are a few ways to make it work for you.

Use a timer. This ensures that you don`t get carried away. Set it for 10 or 15 minutes and work on building links during that time each day. This doesn`t include writing time if you are doing article marketing.

Google Alerts. These are a wonderful way to stay on top of the latest blog posts on your topic. Just head over to some of the blogs that are coming up with your keywords and you can leave comments on them.

Virtual assistant. If you don`t have the time to do your own link building, getting a virtual assistant might be a good idea. She can do the work for you while you concentrate on other areas.

Link building will be far more effective if you do a little each day and make a point of regularly adding links to your website.

We`ve been talking about link building a lot lately and that`s because it`s so incredibly useful for promoting your website. And all it costs is a little bit of time. Today we`ll look at how forums can be used to create a higher search engine ranking for your business website.

Forums are often spammed and this has become grounds for immediate removal and being banned, so you want to avoid this. How do you make sure that you aren`t spamming a forum? Well, you simply need to use it as best you can.

• Read the rules and take part in discussions.
• Don`t talk non-stop about your business, but go ahead and mention it when the time is right.
• Make sure you understand the rules about putting links in your signature line.
• Be consistent and continue to frequent the forum on a regular basis, as opposed to signing up, advertising your business and never going back.
• Make friends. Offer advice and help to those who are asking questions and build up a network.

Treat forums with respect and be sure to offer useful information and take part in the community. They`ll quickly come to accept you and that`s when you`ll have the most success with your link building.

Everyone knows that link building is an important part of getting your business website well-known and building an online reputation. However, many business owners aren`t really sure of how to get those links that are so vital to their website. So, without further ado, here are the top ten ways to link build.

1. Article marketing
2. Blog commenting (on blogs with the Latest Post plug in or Top Commenters links)
3. Guest posts on other blogs
4. Doing interviews for other blogs or websites
5. Testimonials for products you`ve used
6. Writing a wikipedia page on your industry and including a link
7. Submitting to blog directories
8. Link exchanges, either two way or three way
9. Submitting to business directories
10. Social bookmarking

There are plenty of other ways to get links, as well, but these ten will get you started and they are all excellent methods of link building.

It`s important to remember, when link building, to be ethical. Chances are you`ll just be wasting your time if you are spamming blogs and directories with links. Take your time, contribute to the group and you`ll get a lot more mileage out of the whole thing.