Submit to general and niche directories

This is probably the simplest, most obvious way to start link building. Campaigns shouldn’t be limited to general directories – if your site can fit under a number of niche directories, make sure to submit to those as well.

It’s good to vary the keywords and site descriptions you input – just make sure that you follow all the submission guidelines. After all, it would be a waste of time to resubmit your site after you find out that your first submission didn’t conform to the directory’s rules. To save time, make a template site description of varying character lengths (100, 150, 200, and 250), as well as a list of keywords. By creating templates for your directory submissions, all you have to do is copy and paste.

Submitting guest blog posts to the top bloggers in your niche

Writing short articles about a subject related to your website is a good way to improve your link building campaign. Find out the top 10 (or 20) bloggers on your niche and submit guest articles to them. Oftentimes, they’ll love it because it saves them the trouble of writing a post for a day. Just make sure to include a one or two-sentence bio including the link you need. These will often be posted on your guest article.

By submitting to these blogs, you’re actually performing two tasks: link building and showing your expertise on your site’s subject.

Study your competitor’s link popularity

If you don’t have a competitor in mind, you can just type out relevant keywords in a search engine and use a link popularity checker. Find out who links to your competitor’s sites, and try to get backlinks from the same sites. Some might request for payments, a reciprocal link, or even services. Just make sure that when you pay for a backlink, the results will be essential to your link building campaign.

By carefully planning these tasks before you execute them, you’re sure to develop a link building strategy that will be worth every minute of your time.