In building a backlink strategy for your site, remember that there are different ways to get links. One of the easiest ways is to do a link exchange
Link exchanges are done with similar sites with both sites placing a link to the other. Link exchanges have been penalized by search engines because of heavy spam but there still benefits to doing a link exchange, so don't be afraid to try.
The best links to get our inbound one way links. These links are sometimes difficult to get because there is no exchange. It requires the other web site to link to you without you linking to them. Building one way, inbound links should be a top priority in your off-page optimizing strategy.
In order to get one way links you have to get noticed. Gaining attention online is not much different from getting attention off-line.
To gain links, you need to provide content that is unique and original to entice other sites to link to you. One way to develop this content is to add a blog, Forum, or other method to regularly add content to your site. If you have a static web site it will be much more difficult to gain links.
Applying SEO techniques such as the above can bring great benefits. As an example if you are trying to optimize a site that sells vitamins. The first step would be researching highly ranked competitors. After analyzing their sites you can use their blog or forum to determine what topics are hot. Typically in these community sites hot topics will draw quite a bit of traffic and comments from readers.
One method of gaining their attention is to look at the topics on their site that are creating the most commotion. When you find the hot topics, do a review of the site on your blog. In your review concentrate on the hot topic, but don't just talk about their services. Remember you're trying to gain attention so argue about what they're missing or things they don't have. The key is you're not trying to advertise for them rather you want to establish yourself as an expert.
Many times your review via a blog will be noticed by the other site. It's not automatic, so you may have to bring it to their attention. Think of it as being in a crowd where everyone is talking. If you enter the conversation you must make sure to say something relevant. If you speak up and say something unrelated or meaningless people in the crowd will quickly dismiss you.
Here's the trick to this technique, when you comment about a site or bring up a controversial point they have to link to you to reply to your review. Remember to position yourself as an expert when you do this. Don't be rude or obnoxious, but make meaningful comments and reviews and you're bound to get noticed.
Generally, blogs track links back to the blog, so most likely if they feel something needs to be answered, they will.
Don't just leave it up to the whims of fate, after doing your review leave a comment on the site. Excerpt just enough of your review to get attention and peak their interest. This will serve two purposes, first it helps establish you as an expert, second you will benefit from their readers following the link in your comment to your site. The key is to do this on popular active sites. If the site doesn't have an active community, reading and commenting, you will get the benefit.
In time you will build links and increase traffic to your site. If you do it right you'll see the numbers jump in your traffic from other readers visiting your site to get the rest of the story.
Rob Emmerson has helped hundreds of internet marketers through his articles and eBooks, he now offers a free online Step-By-Step SEO mini-course. Mr Emmerson also writes a daily SEO Blog where he shares the latest SEO information.