by Chimezirim Gabriel Odimba

Free traffic does NOT come free. You have to take very informed steps if you’ll enjoy high quality traffic from the search engines and other sources. This brings us to the question of the “how” of doing it.

There are many things you have to do like ensuring you have the right density of keywords on your page, having your keywords in your meta description tag, title, images and so on. However, of all known steps to high ranking, building your link popularity is the most important. Here are tops ways to get high quality links…

1. Write and submit high quality articles to article directories. This is certainly the most cost effective way of building link popularity.

Why I personally use article marketing as my preferred way of building links is that I have total control on how the links to my site are formatted. With this level of control, I can decide and affect which key phrases I rank for.

Now, some people think that they can submit just a few articles and have first page ranking. While this may happen in some low competition niches, you’ll need to submit many articles to reap the rewards. The more competitive your niche is, the more articles you’ll have to submit.

Bear in mind that you need to ensure you use the right tools and strategy if you want to get the most from this. For example, you need to ensure that each instance of your article on each article directory is unique. There are tools and services that take care of this and your article submissions.

2. Start blogging on similar themes to your main website niche. All you’ll then do is link to your site each time you make a post.

The good thing about blogging is that you can start right away. Just go to blogger.com or wordpress.com and set up a free account. Post information on your area of interest (which should be relevant to your main site) and get one way links.

Another way of building your link popularity with blogs is by making useful comments on blogs that have a high page rank and then linking back to your site. Just make sure you comment on blogs that do NOT use the “no follow” tag.

3. Make sure you bookmark your articles on sites like digg.com and del.icio.us. Also give your visitors the opportunity of bookmarking your articles. These are quality links to your site.

The other advantage of social bookmarking is the leverage you can get. If you have great content some of your visitors will bookmark your articles. People who check their bookmarks will also visit your pages and some will add you to their own bookmarks. This helps you enlist others to do your link building for you.

4. You certainly shouldn’t forget web directories as you do your link building. They are very important for your link-building success.

If you must submit your site to only one directory, then make it Dmoz.org. A link from this site is worth a lot. However, you’ll do yourself much good by submitting to as many web directories as will give you a rank boost (And they are many).

Search for other directories and submit to them. Submit both to big general directories and smaller niche directories. Just remember that these sites are highly respected and links from them are worth a lot.

There are services and software that will help you submit your site to many directories. Depending on the demand on your time, this may be a very viable option.

5. Search for forums in your niche. Visit them and post useful comments (of course with a link to your site). Make sure you add value to these forums and you’ll get the most out of this strategy.

Although we’ve touched many ways to build links to your site, they are NOT the only ways. But just bear in mind why you’re building links: It’s to drive massive free and residual targeted traffic to your site.

About the Author:
Are you really interested in getting the right tips for serious website traffic? Then don’t miss my ecourse: Get Loads of Website Traffic Here. Chimezirim Odimba teaches serious minded marketers how to make it online.

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