Octopus Labs Blog

As archaic as it may sound, as long as search engines continue to place priority on “off-site” factors like inbound links over “onsite” factors like keyword placement, there will always remain a place in SEO for strategic link building.
What this means, is a need to ensure that your company has covered off on the basics before advancing to the more emerging and innovative ways to garner links.
There are two broad strategies that you could adopt:

• Actively seeking incoming links - search for potential linking partners, approach them and ask for a link (and often you provide one in return).
• Indirectly encouraging incoming links - create good content, and distribute it on the Web to encourage other sites to link to you of their own volition.

Another example of back-to-basics link building is leveraging your company’s PR strategy. If your PR agency is undertaking “noise making” in the marketplace, capitalize on this to generate valuable links back into your site. Be sure to optimize your press releases for search engines and submit any releases to news and portal sites for suggested inclusion.
Any articles you or your colleagues have written as part of your thought leadership program can also help garner incoming links. When developing educational articles, always be sure to include a byline at the end of your article, including the author’s name, company name, and URLs, making sure to use keyword-rich hyperlink text.
In the end, what it boils down to is having really good content. No schemes or strategies you undertake will help you more in SEO than having the most relevant, cutting edge, and applicable content. People will read your content, share it, and link to it. And in return, search engines will value it, and ultimately rank it more highly. [Via]

Filed under: SEO