White Hat SEO Strategies

This is a guest post written by Liz Cutten. She contributes and helps run FindBizCards, a small business credit card/ business blog helping entrepreneurs get tips, as well as great ideas to make some money for the future.

Whether you’re a novice at search engine marketing or you’re a pro, you’re going to soon learn that links are king when it comes to ranking. Sure, there are other factors such as on site optimization, the age of your content, the authority, and more.

We could write about factors all day, but let’s face it that there are only a few main ones that can influence a lot of your rank. Not only do the following strategies work for getting links, many of the times, I can get them for free.

Now, before we start with the tips, you’re going to have to keep in mind that you need a quality website. If you don’t have a website that is made of quality, you’re going to soon find out that no one will want to link to it. Trust me on this one; I’ve made a lot more money with quality, rather than quantity and junk sites.

Tip #1 Start with guest posts: This is my favorite and as you can see, I’m doing it right now. It’s a win-win for both situations. You can raise your brand awareness, draw traffic to your site, as well as get a link. In return, the blogger is going to get great, unique content, as well as even network with some great people. Find guest posts by going to sites such as BloggerLinkUp.com, as well as MyBlogGuest.com

Tip #2 Contact resource sites: I’ve had some resource sites that were amazing in regards to quality. I’d love to list them, but I don’t want people stealing my ideas. Here is the concept with this one. Ask libraries, as well as other similar sites. Tell them a little bit about your site and also state how it can help their users. By doing this, you can get fantastic links on .gov, as well .edu sites.

Tip #3 Submit to top notch directories: Yes, there are a lot of fantastic, free directories out there such as DMOZ, as well others. There is no secret into getting into them. You’re going to have to quality and you’ll be surprised at the reaction you can get.

Tip #4 Ask for the link: Just like the reference sites, there are a lot of webmasters that will write about you and even link back to you. They want to know how it’s going to help them. Look at your site for a second and why do you link out? Webmasters won’t link to junk. A simple, yet effective way to find great blogs / sites is by searching via Google for your term, or doing a blog search.

Tip #5 Network: Yes, I know conferences can cost money but they are well worth it. If you don’t have the time to network at those, or pay for the fee, I can understand. Instead, take a few hours each week and network on forums. Some great places to go are well, educated sites such as WebmasterWorld, as well as SEObook. Other sites such as Meetup.com are a great way to find people in your neighborhood that you can meet up with to discuss SEO.

These are 5 easy, yet effective tips. You’re going to find that there are many more, but if you’re on a strict budget and don’t want to pay a dime, you may want to work hard at this to work your way up to the top!