It is a well-known fact that major search engines evaluate web pages for search engine results based on link popularity. And for good reasons. If a page provides valuable, unique content, other sites use it as reference and often voluntarily include a link to that page. This is how we describe an organic growth of inbound links to a website. In a perfect world, we build content that's so interesting and unique that other websites are willing to link to it. This is also what Google had in mind when it introduced the idea PageRank to everyone. However, we don't live in a perfect world, so we expect to see other link building techniques taking place. These include link farming, buying expired domains, and page hijacking. Google frowns upon this rather artificial link building practice and encourages best practice link building practices.

We know that there are websites that can't provide enough content, let alone good ones. So we thought the following link building practices are recommended especially to those sites that can't seem to attract enough relevant links.

1. Submit to Directories.
You've heard about it before and we say it again: submission to directories still work for link building practice. But not all directories are worth looking into. Yahoo! Directory and Open Directory, along with Business.com are the most credible ones to submit websites in general and niche directories exist for specific type of websites. The benefits of these directories are two-fold: they boost link popularity by virtue of their authoritative nature and generate significant traffic by virtue of their popularity.

2. Locate Your Site at Wikipedia.
Not all sites/brands are notable enough to warrant an article at Wikipedia. But if we have a page or two that contains in-depth details about an existing Wikipedia entry, we can use these pages as reference points to support an Wiki article. Statistics and other factual data are often useful in this case.

3. Create Blog Entries and Make Them Known.
Creating a blog entry is one thing, and creating a blog that people will follow takes time to develop. As a rule of thumb, create blogs that are informative to human visitors. While reputation of the blog is still growing, explore avenues where they gain exposure. Add RSS feeds to make them more portable, and add social networking buttons for easier sharing. Commenting (with blog link) on related topics isn't a bad idea as long as we make sensible comments. So it's not creating blog that gains us links, but establishing a reputable one that brings promise of a floodgate of inbound links.

4. Submit Press Releases to PR Sites.
Just like #3, this isn't directly going to deliver us links, but allows us to showcase what we have to people who are unaware about it. Submission to PR sites like PRWeb.com allows us to put links on a press release body. Since the nature of press releases allows a site to gain significant amount of exposure within days before popularity tapers off eventually, our sites capture fresh set of audience. It's actually similar to posting a link in a Twitter tweet or Facebook update, but with a much diverse audience.

5. Article Submissions.
Spreading the word isn't limited to press release sites which can cost your business a few hundred dollars. Free submissions to sites like EzineArticles.com offer a way to place links as a return favor for posting articles. Here are some wonderful free article submission sites we can explore.

6. Social Media Profiles.
Most, if not all, social media websites allow links to be placed on account details. This may not be a very effective link building endeavour if we are not actively participating in the commnunity we belong. This also applies to adding signatures on our forum posts as a way to incentivize frequent posters.

7. Social Bookmarking Sites.
Digg, StumbleUpon and Delicious are great sites our articles to get mentioned on. But let's be sure that our articles are worth submitting. Otherwise, it will do more harm than good. For example, an article of inferior quality submitted to Digg can easily get buried (similar to an e-mail marked as spam, to a lesser degree).

8. Develop Widgets and Plugins.
For PHP or Wordpress geeks out there, developing Wordpress plugins for bloggers to use is a potential link booster provided you include links to your sites on the plugin documentation (or even configuration page).

9. Collaborative Projects.
This involves partnership with like minded groups or individuals to develop ideas. For example, if BeansBox partners with WebWednesday in building its website, or sponsors a certain event like iPhanatics, placement of a link to BeansBox website is highly likely.

10. Help others.
This may involve voluntary work such as helping maintain Oxfam's website, copywriting for a church fund raising campaign site or translating an open source documentation. While this involve more commitment and takes more time than we hope for, getting links (and branding to our site) from these websites becomes an easier favor to ask for.