Building links to your website should be done responsibly. If it isn’t, you could easily harm your presence in top search engines such as Yahoo!, Google, and Bing. The “white hat” movement is one that dictates every link you build should be done in an approved, safe, and friendly manner.
A business that networks itself has a greater chance of surviving- both locally and on the Internet. Odds are that you already know several businesses or friends in business who can give you a link to your website. Offer to do a link exchange and watch as search engines will give you a small boost in rankings. If you do this on a large enough scale, no search term is too hard to rank for with enough time given.
If you see a directory pertaining to your industry niche, don’t hesitate in getting a listing. A small directory or big one alike, both will serve traffic and also be a valuable link back to your website. Directories often charge a fee to get listed before other listings. You might try this on one directory and see what impact it has. If the return on investment isn’t great- just stick to normal listings.
Sometimes when you feel burdened and you are not sure on where to start in looking for links to your website, you can simply look at what your competitors are doing. Several SEO tools found on the Internet will attempt to find them so you can see what their SEO plans look like. Then you can see if you can get the same links, or at least similar links to your own website.
Link exchanges are very popular. Those who use automatic programs to do so can get in trouble- this isn’t white hat SEO. Instead make custom emails and send them out to those who you think would link back to you. This might include any clients you have had, or even a competitor who might want to network with you just as much as you need to network with him.
Always be sure to use a tool to check that link exchanges you initiate are going well. Tools will allow you to check the state of links daily so that you know website owners don’t remove your link. In the event they do, you can be notified so you can either ask why, or at least remove the link to that website from your own website.
Final Thoughts
Building links is the key to making your presence on the Internet. Just remember to do it the right, respectable, way. Otherwise you could bring the progress of your company and its rankings to complete halt entirely.
Learn more about back links and google pagerank.