Building links to your Website is the most basic method of traffic generation and search engine optimization. And the most powerful link building tactic is to place your links from quality, relevant content.
Links built from quality content will enhance your search engine optimization efforts and result in the best possible direct traffic.
In the case of good SEO practices, linking from keyword rich content tells search spiders a link is highly relevant. Search engines aside, it's obvious that human visitors will be more targeted when they follow links from solid content that is related to your Website.
There are abundant opportunities to build links from content. And quite often this kind of link building does not require a monetary investment.
Most site owners are happy to receive free content. And in many cases you can add links back to your blog and/or Website when you contribute this content.
Here are a few quick examples of link building through quality content.
Forums and Blogs
Discussion forums and Web logs provide an easy opportunity to contribute content. You can participate in a conversation thread, leave your comments on an article, or even initiate your own discussion. And both forums and blogs typically allow users and contributors to include links either in their posts or in a signature that is attached to their posts.
Some of these sites are heavily moderated but many are not. In any event you should endeavor to add valuable content along with your link, as doing so will increase the odds of your link being followed by other readers.
Social Media Sites
Social sites like MySpace and FaceBook are growing extremely popular. Also member-driven content programs like Helium and numerous Wiki-style sites are becoming more numerous.
These portals allow users to add whole articles and commentaries at will. And in some cases you can link right from your contributions.
Even sites that don't let you add links to your content will normally allow you to place links within your user profile. By making your profile both interesting and keyword rich you can easily create the perfect content for your outbound links.
Quality Articles Remain In-demand
There is nothing new about the idea of contributing your articles to content directories and ezines. And this method of link building remains one of the best.
The demand for quality articles will only continue to increase over time. And with a little effort you can find a number of Websites that will happily publish your exclusive content for free.
You don't need to rely solely on article directories or newsletter owners. There are plenty of site owners who are open to posting your unique articles on their domain; if you promise to give them material that won't be published anywhere else online they'll be happy to link back to you from the articles.
Your Own Authority Hubs
You can easily create your own authority content sites on any topic. By setting up a unique domain and submitting this site to hundreds of directories you can quickly generate good search position; the next step is to add your articles and link from these to your core business sites.
By setting these content hubs up on separate IP addresses from your other sites you can increase the perceived value of the outbound links in terms of good SEO. But regardless of whether or not these hubs are on a different server from your main sites the organic visitor value is substantial.
In fact you could use free Web space like that provided by BraveNet and Blogger.com to build mini-authority portals. Simply add a few of your best articles and link these back to the relevant sales pages.
Spend some time exploring the methods listed above and researching other ways to build links from quality content. This strategy will provide enhanced search engine rankings and greater quality organic traffic than simply posting your backlinks on link pages and directories.
