If you are already looking into improving how well your website ranks in Google and the other search engines, then you may already have come across the subject of "link building".

Google rely on links to work out how popular a website is, what authority people think it has and how much interest there is in it. So, link building is a viable strategy that can help your website to do better in this leading search engine. Here are some of the link building techniques that work for us and for our clients. 

Link building strategies

Over the years we've been working with client websites, we've found a number of link building strategies and techniques that really work. Through the work that we've done for our clients, we've been able to create a set of guidelines that we now follow whenever we're carrying out link building work. Here they are:

1. Get links from authority or expert sites from within your own profession or industry. The best type of link that you can get are those that already are considered to have "authority" or "expert" status in your industry, niche or profession. A site that is considered to be an authority or an expert will often have a lot of inbound links itself, will already rank well for relevant keywords and is probably already well-established. Find sites with authority in your industry or profession and get links from them to your website to dramatically improve your Google rankings.

2. Get links from sites with high Google PageRank™. Google gives all websites and website pages a PageRank™ (see this page from Google or the Wikipedia entry for more information on PageRank™).

Basically, the higher the PageRank™, the more valuable the site from Google's perspective. These are the websites that should be at the top of your "hitlist". The good news is that, by definition they're easy to find. Use Google to search for the most competitive keywords that are relevant to your business and your industry. Install Google Toolbar on your browser so you can quickly and easily identify the PageRank™ of a site you find and aim for sites with a PageRank™ of 1, 2 or 3.

3. Get as much variety in your links as possible. Aim to get links from as many relevant (within your industry, niche or profession) sites as you can, including news sites, forums, social media websites, blogs and so on.

4. Use keywords in your link text. Many people fail to use a proper link text strategy when carrying out link building. There is a fine art to doing this, but in brief use keywords in the text that you use to link to your website as possible and not just your website name.

For example, website designers is a better link for us than http://underdesign.co.uk.

Follow these guidelines and your link building plans will be more effective. A site with hundreds of inbound links of dubious or poor quality will often be beaten in the rankings by a similar website with less inbound links but that are of a higher quality. In other words, concentrate on quality over quantity when carrying out link building.

Getting quality links to your website

There is no doubt that to rank well in Google (and the other search engines), you need to have quality inbound links to your website.

But how do you get them?

Once you are using the guidelines outlined above, your next task is to get out there and get links back to your site by using effective link building techniques. Although this can be time-consuming, done well, it will positively affect your Google rankings on a long term basis. These are some of the techniques that we use at UnderDesign to achieve good rankings for many of our clients.

1. Articles. There are dozens of tools on the web that are designed to help you get your articles redistributed by other websites and bloggers.

Before you begin using them, always make sure you post the original article to your website first. Then after a few days, manually submit your articles to sites like GoArticles.com and EzineArticles.com. Also use a premium article submission service like Unique Article Wizard (affiliate link) which will automatically submit your article for you to popular article directories.

2. Blogs. Blogs are great for SEO! If you have your blog integrated into your website (if you don't, check out our unique website upgrade service), then you’ll already know some of the benefits that doing so brings. Visitor-generated content such as comments are hugely valuable for your site as far as Google and the other search engines are concerned. Remember that search engines are always looking for sites that offer fresh, new content.

Also, find authorative and expert blogs within your own niche and leave comments on those where you are also able to add a profile or a "follow" link back to your website. One word of warning though, do make sure that your comments are meaningful, considerate and relevant. Don't spam other people's blogs by just leaving a pointless comment just to get a link back to your site. Apart from the fact that you'll probably get banned, you'll also get a bad reputation for yourself and your website.

Remember too to use relevant keywords in the link back to your site and never put your link in the comment itself. Again, it will be frowned upon and probably will be deleted. 

3. Forums. Find forums within your industry or niche. Apart from being yet another great way to get more links back to your website, forums are a great way to build a reputation as an expert in your field by getting and giving advice to your potential customers and those who need it.

Many modern forums let people bookmark, rate or vote for comments and posts which also has the effect of making them more easily found by Google. As with blogs, make sure that the posts or comments you make are relevant and interesting. In short, don't be spammy. 

4. Profiles. Find social networking sites that have a high PageRank™, register or join and create your own unique profile making sure you make it "public" so that Google and the other search engines can easily access it. If, for example, you’re in the finance industry or you're a professional investor, consider signing up with Tipd.com and build a profile that links back to your website.

5. Bookmarking. Digg, Delicious and Technorati are sites that are hugely popular and are visited frequently by Google and the other search engines. Add key pages of your website and blog by bookmarking them.

Getting good rankings in Google is possible if your website is optimised properly. Using effective link building strategies will increase your chances of success. Use these techniques and guidelines to build a proper link building campaign that, over time will lead to better search engine results and, ultimately more traffic for your website which, in time should lead to more enquiries, more leads and more sales.

Take your time with link building - a flurry of activity and then nothing is not as good as a slow steady effort over a longer period of time. The results will be longer lasting and more profitable for your business. Enjoy and keep it ethical.