In the post-Panda/Penguin world, building high quality inbound links to your website isn’t easy. It takes consistent work on your part while focusing on delivering value.

A lot of webmasters/bloggers still continue to indulge in the least effective ways to build links such as forum spamming, blog comment spamming, etc. But the fact is, these methods are no longer necessary as they give bad results.

Effective SEO does not require you to demean your website through spammy tactics. You can increase your ranking using  white hat link building methods that aren’t looked down upon by people or search engines. Here are some white hat link building tips that work:

Tip #1: Do some newsjacking - If your website targets an industry where there is a chance of breaking news, try to look for opportunities. Newsjacking is nothing but a way to be the first in bringing the latest news to your target audience. Due to the freshness factor of the news, you’ll not only boost your rank in Google, but also get others to link to your story.

Tip #2: Become a go-to resource - Regardless of the niche you’re targeting, you can earn targeted links from relevant sites by becoming an informative resource. This can be done by offering unique research based content, doing trend analysis and providing intelligent opinions that spark new discussions. When you provide such high quality content, you will not only gain links but your website will also become a reference point that people come back to again and again.

Tip #3: Stir controversy - It’s a fact that controversial content attracts a lot of attention, and inbound links. It also encourages social sharing. Your aim here is to create content that starts a debate and gets others involved. Even though some of your audience will not agree with you, it’s fine. You just have to stick to your point and support it. On the other hand, there will be a portion of your audience that will totally agree with you. So what you’re trying to do here is pick a topic that has equal votes on both the sides.

Tip #4: Develop real-world relationships - A lot of webmasters forget that consistently attracting white hat links requires you to build rock solid relationships in your industry. That’s right, you have to connect and create a relationship with the ‘linkerati’ crowd. This includes bloggers, webmasters, entrepreneurs, authors, etc. By slowly and steadily growing your relationship with the known crowd, you will have a higher chance of gaining backlinks to your future content.

Tip #5: Create and give away case studies - Growing your inbound links naturally without breaking any ethical SEO rules boils down to providing real value. But to do that, you have to think out of the box. While others are busy giving away free reports, you can actually do case studies of your clients or customers and give them away. This way, you’ll also get your customers to link to you and drive back traffic to your site.

What tactics do you use to build backlinks ethically? Do share your ideas in the comments section below.

Written by Mustafa Khundmiri

Mustafa Khundmiri is a staff writer for Performance Marketing Insider. He is also the co-founder of Foundora.com – a knowledge hub for entrepreneurs.

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