50 Ways To Get Links To Your Site
by Mike on December 10, 2008
in Link Building
I originally wrote this for another blog of mine but I’ve decided to repost it here…
Whether you’ve just launched a new site or already have an established blog with hundreds of posts, you should always be on the lookout for new links. Backlinks increase your Google PageRank, bring new visitors to your site, and (hopefully) increase your revenue.
But link building can be a frustrating experience for even the most seasoned marketer. It takes a lot of time and hard work, which is why so many bloggers and website owners do a half-ass job and never see the benefits of a well-constructed link building campaign.
My goal in this post is to create a definitive list of [TAG-TEC]link building[/TAG-TEC] strategies. I’ll come back to update it from time to time so make sure to bookmark it so you can use it as a reference.
Note – In this article I’m not concerned about PageRank or Nofollow tags. People obsess too much over this stuff. Nofollow links can still bring paying customers to your site…remember that.
50 Link Building Strategies
1. Give your readers unique, top quality content that they’ll find useful and you’ll get plenty of links without having to do a thing.
2. Be controversial. Take a stand on an issue and you’ll get links from those who agree AND disagree with you.
3. Be the first to comment on hot topics. Keep an eye on news channels and you can scoop other bloggers. The first to post on a topic is often linked to by other bloggers.
4. Include cool tools on your site (like a loan calculator) that people can use and link to.
5. Give away freebies. Create free Special Reports on your niche and let readers download it. Let bloggers in your niche know about the freebie so they can let their readers know.
6. Allow others to reprint your site’s content as long as they provide a backlink.
7. Trade content with another blogger. He writes an article for you and you write one for him.
8. Become a “guest blogger” and provide content for another blog in exchange for links back to your site.
9. Simply ask visitors to link back to you. You’d be surprised how often that works.
10. Make it easy for others to link to you by creating a “Link to Us” page. Give them the html code so all they have to do is paste it to their site.
11. Issue a press release using a service like PRWeb.
12. Exchange links with related sites. Reciprocal linking is still useful.
13. Create a simple program (such as a quote generator) and submit it to various directories like Tucows and Download.com
14. If you have coding skills, design a wordpress theme with your link at the bottom. Everyone who uses your theme will be linking back to you.
15. Not a coder? You can sponsor a theme and still get a link back. You can work either directly with a coder or bid on a theme at the DigitalPoint Forums. Expect to pay anywhere from $25 to $100 to be a sponsor. The nicer themes go for more but usually result in more links.
16. You can buy other links at DigitalPoint too. Blogroll links, text links, blog posts, etc. Keep in mind that Google is not a fan of sites that sell links. It would be a shame if you bought an expensive PR6 link only to have it drop to PR0 with the next PR update.
17. Classified ads on Craigslist, USFreeads, etc.
18. Take out a solo ad in a popular ezine. Many ezines archive their newsletters and you’ll receive a permanent link.
19. Use Social Networking and Bookmarking Sites…add your site to services like Digg, Furl, Fark, Reddit, Stumbleupon, and Del.icio.us.
20. Make it easy for other to do the same. Include bookmarklets at the end of each post to encourage readers to pass your link along.
21. Directory submissions are not as powerful as they once were, but they still influence PR and will give you a trickle of visitors too.
22. If you have more than one site, give yourself a free link.
23. Start a free Blogger blog and link back to your main site.
24. Do the same with Squidoo lenses. Use them to drive traffic to your site.
25. Add your link to your signature file in forums you visit.
26. Post useful comments or questions on other’s blog posts. Don’t spam!
27. Be generous linking to other blogs, they may notice and give you a free plug. Also, your post may appear as a trackback in their blog comments where their readers will see it.
28. Provide useful answers to questions posted on Yahoo Answers. You can leave a link to your site as a reference, but don’t spam. Download Answers Domination to learn everything you need to know about using Yahoo Answers for driving traffic.
29. Join or start a Google group focused on your niche.
30. If your site isn’t overly commercial, you can post a link on Wikipedia. There’s a good chance it will be quickly deleted though.
31. Look for companies that have an “In the news” page on their site. If you post an article about them and let them know, there’s a good chance they’ll add your article as a news item.
32. Submit testimonials for products you find useful in exchange for a backlink.
33. Sponsor a contest.
34. Review products on Amazon and include a link back to your site. This works especially well if you write a short, well-written review on Amazon and then mention that you have a more in-depth review posted on your own site.
35. Write a short ebook to give away and post it on various “free ebook” sites.
36. Take out an ad in your online yellow pages.
37. Join your local Chamber of Commerce and get a free link on their website.
38. Do the same with your local Better Business Bureau chapter.
39. Join other local business communities and organizations and you can get a link in their directories too.
40. Ask businesses and contacts that you work with offline to give you a link on their site.
41. Donate money to a local school and you’ll often get a link on a page listing donations. These EDU links can be very powerful.
42. Pay a professional link builder (very expensive).
43. Buy older sites that are indexed with traffic and pagerank and link back to your site.
44. Purchase expired domains and link to your main site.
45. Buy misspelled domains and domains with and without dashes. If your site is YourDomain.com, you should also register YouDomain.com and Your-Domain.com and point them back to your site.
46. Find old sites that aren’t updated but are still indexed and sign their guestbooks.
47. Automate link building with a service like 3waylinks. I do have some doubts about their long term effectiveness as search engine algorithms change, but in the short term their effects are often amazing.
48. Start an affiliate program. You can quickly have hundreds of affiliates sending thousands of visitors your way.
49. Add your link to your eBay profile page. Whenever someone views your profile they’ll see your link.
50. Last, but certainly not least, article marketing is still one of the most powerful methods for building both traffic and links. Submissions to article directories can be republished time and time again. Each time one of your articles is published you get another link.
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Wow 50 of them.. spoilt for choices.. Love to have many methods to choose from!
Ben Peis last blog post..Announcing New Additions And Upcoming Events
I was going through Google reader and I came across your post Mike. You have by far just won the post of the week in my book.
Franklin Bishops last blog post..Digg Headlines That Work
@Franklin, thanks buddy…that’s pretty good praise coming from you!
This post is another great resource. I learned a lot! Great! Keep it up!
I can never have enough ideas on how to build links, nice work putting this together Mike.
Great tips man. This will be really helpful for me to gather traffic. I am subscribing to your posts right away.
Wordpress Themess last blog post..Top Blogging Secrets To Success
Awesome list my man, this on es a keeper!
Dennis Edells last blog post..Only 5 Days Left To Sponsor The *Best Blog Review* Blog Contest!
Yup.. Indeed Franklin! One of the best posts I read this week.
Ben Peis last blog post..Announcing New Additions And Upcoming Events
A great list of points. I only would like to counter the point about directory submissions, they can be effective if you target your terms properly. Here’s an interesting research study showing the impact of directory submissions on one particular site and how it worked: http://www.directorycritic.com/blog/directory-submissions-dont-kill-it-works-and-how-weve-got-proof/
Directory Critics last blog post..Directory Submissions don’t Kill, they Work and How! (& we’ve got Proof!)
Great post indeed. Very useful, and a LOT of tips.
Wow, great post! I never even thought of some of these (like Craigslist, and including links on Amazon.com reviews). I’m also going to start article marketing this weekend, I’ve heard from many sources that this method is very effective.
Thanks for the (many) tips!
Diana Freedmans last blog post..10 Reasons Why Part-Time Bloggers Shouldn’t Post Every Day
Thanks for all the compliments everyone…glad to see people finding this post helpful.
wow great list, does PRWeb work, anyone got any experience with this?
This is a good list. I thought I’d seen them all but found a few in this list that I haven’t thought of. Thanks for sharing.
Peter Lee
work from home business blogs last blog post..How “Work From Home Ideas” Made Google Top 10
This is one heck of a list, Mike. #46 is pretty original, something I’ve never put much thought about. Interesting…
Yan
Yans last blog post..Duplicate Content: Penalty or Policy?
Great resource! Thanks for the list. My favorite by far is contests, because everybody wins (ok maybe not EVERYbody, but both sides)!
MLDinas last blog post..MarketLeverage TV 12/08/08 Your Source For Affiliate News
This is a pretty awesome list I must say. There are a few things on here I would of never even thought of. Thanks
Bruno Augers last blog post..What Does Your Logo Tell Consumers?
Nice list.. I really thought #41 is a really good one..
On the other hand, it’s a way of giving back while helping schools with their foundations
Erwin Tans last blog post..Unleashing The Niche Genius In You
Nice list! Definitely the biggest Ive come upon to build links. I know blog commenting works great to build links, I’ve been busy doing so for the last few days and have increased my links by over 1,000!
Matt Helphreys last blog post..Develop a Link Building Strategy
There is some really good information and ideas in this list. Allow me to share my thoughts on a few of these.
“8. Become a “guest blogger” and provide content for another blog in exchange for links back to your site.”
Not only does the guest blogging give you a guaranteed link but it’s also a great networking tool.
“14. If you have coding skills, design a wordpress theme with your link at the bottom. Everyone who uses your theme will be linking back to you.”
I have heard this one mentioned many times and I have a question. If you are say a widget company and many different unrelated companies start using your sponsored wordpress theme or custom design them but they have nothing to do with widgets, wouldn’t that be a link that would not really help much?
“48. Start an affiliate program. You can quickly have hundreds of affiliates sending thousands of visitors your way.”
This is one that I personally have been meaning to do and I can give you an example of an outstanding success story. Hostgator.com is the largest privately held hosting company and a multimillion dollar company at that. The owner Brent Oxley is only 24 years old. This is all due to their insane affiliate program. They can be found under any relevant term as it applies to web hosting due to the insane amoutn of affiliate they have pointing links to their site.
”
50. Last, but certainly not least, article marketing is still one of the most powerful methods for building both traffic and links. Submissions to article directories can be republished time and time again. Each time one of your articles is published you get another link.”
A word about article marketing. While I agree that it’s a great idea in terms of promoting your company, telling your story etc. It’s important to know that if you are using the same article for 100 different directories it will only count as one link. you would need 100 unique articles to have all 100 count as a link. There is a good reason for this if you think about it that would be like gaming Google if all you had to do was submit and get a link for each article submission. Link building should not be that easy. Then it would just be a matter of who submits to the most article directories.
Awesome list list, keep writing great articles like this.
-Gerald Weber
Houston search engine marketings last blog post..Are You Stumbling Yet?
wow awesome list. Thank you!
Salwas last blog post..Why Your Blog Might Suck
I am glad that you put in number 50 in your list. This is to be taken also in conjunction with Houston Search comment above. Article marketing worked so well for me for my site that I decided to start an article directory myself. The key is to write good articles and not simply promotional hype. Thank you.
Good list! Besides writing content, building links from related sites is the way to get top rankings at the search engines.By following even a small fraction of the tips you have shared,one can start seeing good results quickly.
Tom At The Home Business Archives last blog post..How To Become More Creative
This is clearly one of the best list I’ve seen. Thanks! Im a new visitor and I’ve subscribed already.
This is a very good list. There are a few things I would never have thought of. Cheers
Jeff Scotts last blog post..Easily forget
Thanks for the tips! Great list.
Webkinzs last blog post..Christmas Items in wShop
This list looks amazing, I’m going to start trying some of them out right now.
Thanks
Custom T-Shirts Guy
awesome post! Great list. Will try these out..Thanks!
Salwas last blog post..How to Find Winning Ideas for your Blog Topics: A Blogger’s Online Manual
I was just going through Google n i found ur blog… i liked ur blog very much n read sme of ur posts… found dis mindblowing post ever seen till date….
This will be really helpful for me to gather traffic.Definitely the biggest I hve come upon to build links.There is some really good information and ideas in this list.
Thanx 4 sharing with us…
Looking Forward 2 c more articles 4m u like dis….
Great resource! Thanks for the list. And I’m going to try some of them out right now.
Busby SEOs last blog post..Busby SEO Test
Fantastic list – I’m really working on a solid link building strategy and struggling to find genuinely useful resources, so a big thanks!
Thanks Mike – plenty here to get my teeth into…
Simons last blog post..Replacing Altiris with Configuration Manager
I think if you have good content you’re one step ahead of the game and links will begin to populate naturally. I’ve used link exchange programs with related sites and those have helped tremendously.
Bookmarked this one. Full of ideas. Lots to keep you busy.
The Blogger Sources last blog post..Want Your Picture In Comments Use Gravatar
Great list – there’s so many out there that are ‘50 crap tips’ it’s refreshing to see such a useful list!
Hey Mike,
~ Steve Booth
Only 50? Not 114?
I just came here from Leo’s 114 tips post that you recommended. I finally get that monster read and now you’ve got 50 tips for me to read! Argghhhh…
The first few look good. The rest have been bookmarked, like Leo’s post yesterday.
Good list, to be sure. But from my experience, if you’re able to properly utilize even 10-15 of them, you’ll be gold. The problem is not in scarcity of link building mentods, but in their abundance
There does not appear to be any reference to the relevance of dofollow and nofollow in terms of link building, surely this is important?
Great post Mike …I little dated now but still great source of info.
shaunjudy´s last blog ..49 Reasons I Hate (love) To Blog
Hey guys – this is the best thing I have come across in a while – Great ideas to keep us busy for a while. Take care