Many webmasters and seo experts use the placement of their web site on a SERP as a measurement of their seo efforts.  Of course everybody wants there page to show up as the first listing on search engine results pages, but this is not easily achieved and depending on what keyword you are trying to focus on, this can take a very long time to achieve.

This is one of the most frequently asked seo questions, because this term is thrown around so often with out any explanation.

Understanding search engine results pages and your ranking is a basic skill required to become an seo master.  So, now you can continue your search engine optimization learning process and know what these guys are talking about!

If you are new to Search Engine Optimization or “SEO” as you will see it from time to time, you may not be familiar with what link building is or how to go about it.  So lets get started here.

So What Is Link Building?

In a nutshell Link Building is just the process of creating links on other web sites that direct web site traffic back to your site.  However there is a little more to it than that.

Why Is Link Building Important?

Search engines like Google.com Yahoo.com and Bing.com also use the amount of links that point to any particular site as a measure of the value of a site against the keyword used in a link.  All this means is that the more links that use the same keyword or keyword phrase that point to your site, the higher it may rank in the search engines for that same phrase.

Now, of course there are other factors that come into play here, but this is one of the biggest factors that will determine your sites standings on search engines results pages, besides on page content.

So you can see that link building will not only help you out with direct traffic from your links but will also help you with an automatic stream of organic traffic from search engines as well. There is no more basic seo strategy than link building, this is one of the most integral skills you will learn and refine as you become an SEO expert!

3 Simple Link Building Methods

O.K. lets get down to it.  There are many, many ways that you can get free links and there are also many ways you can build links for free. We are only going to cover the most effective free methods here, you can spend your money elsewhere…

1. Social Bookmarking – Yes, these sites are actually created for nothing more than sharing links to your favorite sites.  So why not share links to your own site?  Well, this is true, but be forewarned that you cannot just add a hundred links to your own sites, you must also add links to other sites that are of interest to you or you will be seen as a spammer.Sites In This Category Are: Digg.com Reddit.com StumbleUpon.com Mixx.com and Delicious.com
2. Forum Posting – This is in some peoples minds an old and out of date method in which to acquire valuable back links.  Not True!
   So how do you go about getting a back link to your site on a forum?  Simple, sign up for a few forums and start posting, keep in mind that the more value you bring to your messages the more chance of you getting direct traffic from the forum members.  You can go to your user account or your profile and setup a link to your site in the signature on most any forum in the world.  Not all allow this, so make sure to read the user agreement first, just in case.
3. Blog Commenting – This is a very similar method to forum posting, but still very different.  There are many different types of blogs out there and there are many different types commenting forms for readers to submit to.  There is no guarantee that your link will find its way to the comment section of a blog, most will have to be approved by the site administrator first, so make sure that you add value to your comment so they will want to post it.  This is a great way to zero in on your target audience though, search for blogs that are in the same niche as your own site and start reading and commenting.

1. You can get your first link on this very post if you like.  If there are no comments yet, at the bottom of this article you will see “Leave A Comment” and if there is already comments here, you will see “Comments” followed by the number of comments.  Click This and Leave Your Comment On Our Article and of Course Your Link!

I know that this is a very basic methodology, but we all have to start somewhere.  I hope that somebody found this useful and it helps you on your way to more traffic, a more successful website and your journey to become an seo expert!

To Success,

Nick Simpson