How do you put together a link building strategy?

[JHSpecialty]

I know after all the Google changes link building is different than it used to be. How do I put a link building strategy together that I can understand and follow?

I have fixed most of the crawl errors and my site is still low on the search for most of my targeted keywords. Is link building the answer? Or are there other options I'm missing?

[deltasystems]

If you are asking that question, the best way to get started is to look at what your competitors are doing. Find every backlink they have in Open Site Explorer (group by domain, external links only). Usually you can find a lot of gold, like awards and sponsorships you weren't aware of, that your business can apply for. Do this for every competitor.

Beyond that, link building is often done through link baiting. You can get some traction through a small amount of comment link building and directory listings at some of the major directories. Guest posting is probably the most actionable form of white-hat link building you can do.

Once you feel comfortable enough, you can start contacting related websites about adding a link to your website. This might come about as an incentive (a discount in your store, if you have one, as an example) or be paid outright. You can get these for free, I've found, if you engage the website owner in conversation first.

Here is a good post on contacting website owners:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/outreach-letters-for-link-building-real-examples-14902

[EGOL]

When you look at the other pages in the top 10, can you honestly justify why your page deserves to rank there? Once you get your content to this level, link building becomes a whole lot easier because you have created a linkable asset.

I agree with this 100%... and when I have that type of content that compares very favorably to the best on the web, I spend zero time building links and 100% of my time making more content.  My pages get off to a very slow start compared to those that get linkbuilding, however, all of my time is spent creating highly linkable assets that over time will defeat lower grade content unless it has  a big investment in offpage SEO.

[anthonydnelson]

Hi,

If your site is crawlable and the on-page optimization is spot-on, link building might be the answer.

First, make sure your content is fantastic. When you look at the other pages in the top 10, can you honestly justify why your page deserves to rank there? Once you get your content to this level, link building becomes a whole lot easier because you have created a linkable asset.

As for link building strategies or plans, I recommend taking a link at these two links.

http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-noob-guide-to-link-building