What is Link Building?
The purpose of link building is to increase authority. Relevant links tell Google what similar sites think of yours. The more inbound links you have, the more "authority" you have, and the higher you'll rank in search engines. The following list of resources has everything you need to get started with link building:
Introduction to Link Building
You'll notice that in the introduction to link building section that I include a few really long lists of link building tips that aren't really "introductions." However, I think you'll find that the wide variety of tips gives you a glimpse into the many different variations of your basic link building strategy there are.
A Linking Campaign Primer - EricWard.com
This is a great introduction to link building campaigns. It's list of the data you should record when compiling websites to contact for a link - keeping track of your links and such is very important. There are also a few tips as to why outsourcing link building may not be the best option.
101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website - SEOBook.com
As you can probably imagine, this is just a huge collection of link building tips (101, to be precise).
I read it often, because with these types of huge lists (very popular with bloggers) it's easy to miss stuff. However, you'll also note when reading it a few link building themes start to emerge that you'll want to keep in mind.
131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies - SearchEngineWatch.com
These aren't organized like a bulleted list, and I don't actually like a couple of the tips, but the sheer range of tips from various SEO experts means that by the end of the article, you'll pretty much know the basics what's really being done out there.
Five Link Building Strategies That Work - CopyBlogger.com
There's more to link building than emailing other people and suggestion you each link to each other. This goes into other methods, like social media sites, article directories, and guest posting.
Emailing Bloggers and Webmasters for InBound Links
Website Traffic Series Part 12: Emailing Bloggers to Showcase Your Best Content - DailyBlogTips.com
Emailing other bloggers to get links is important, but what do they link to? Remember, every link that's created, whether inbound or outbound, should provide value to readers. This post goes into detail on how to sell that great content. However, this ones goes into detail about creating your most popular blog post ever. (And check out the "Having Something to Link To" section below.)
Linking Out: What's in It For Me? - SearchEngineGuide.com
Put yourself in the shoes of someone receiving a link request. What are they looking for? They want benefits, and so you have to ask yourself: what's in it for them?
Having Something to Link To
Killer Flagship Content - chrisg.com
This is a PDF for you to download when you sign up to Chris Garrett's newsletter (it's pretty easy to unsubscribe if you really need to). Sign up for the newsletter - get the PDF.
I cannot recommend this free ebook enough. If you want to create content that people want to link to, then read this ebook now. Chris Garrett knows his stuff.
How to Build Links with HOW-TO Content - SearchEngineJournal
This has four good ideas for creating link bait content - in other words, content that will get people to link to you of their own free will.
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I've only put two in this section, because this "section" really deserves its own post (or even its own series of posts, or even its own blog.)
Miscellaneous Link Building Tips and Resources
Excel Database Tutorial - EdFerrero.com
Remember that I said keeping track of your inbound links is important? Here's a tutorial that'll help show you how to do it.
Link Building Tips for Advanced Google Search Engine Placement - SEOBook.com
Once you've read the above resources, give this a run through. After you've gotten a good handle on the basics of link building and how to build links, you'll find that a lot of the tips in the above resources are common sense. But the tips in this link building article are the kind of tips that'll really make you think, "Aha!" It'll get you starting to think ahead-of-the-curve, which is extremely important with SEO.
