I need quality backlinks. Do they need to be similar to company website?

[hfranz]

Our website seems to be well optimized. However I need to find more quality backlinks. I am having a hard time with this. Do backlinks have to related to the company? The reason I ask is because I can receive some links, but they do not relate to our company.  BUT sometimes we have customers come to our facility and we book them a local hotel room and send them to near by restaurants.  Is it ok to have local restaurants and local hotels links on our website and have them link to ours, on a page for customer visits.

OR any other tips on receiving quality backlinks?

[Doc_Sheldon]

As was said, a high quality link from a non-relevant site still brings some value with it. If you want to play it just a bit safer, you might try presenting those links as some "partner" sites that provide your visitors with "special rates" or "discounts", when they are visiting you. It might not hold any water in an algorithmic analysis, but in a human review, I suspect it would help.

[MarieHaynes]

While the ultimate link would be relevant and from good quality sites, a link from a good quality site that isn't relevant is still a valuable link!

I have seen it happen where a link from a high PR site that has absolutely nothing to do with mine has boosted my site significantly in the rankings.

I would argue that in one sense, links from restaurants are quite relevant to hotels.  As stated before, as long as the links aren't from bad neighborhoods (i.e. porn, gambling, pharmaceuticals) then you are golden!

Go for it!

[KeriMorgret]

I have a model warship combat site that has links from SEOmoz, and I don't turn those links down! I wouldn't want a bunch of porn links pointed to my site, but having you link out to area hotels and restaurants is perfectly logical (see how Bruce Clay does it at http://www.bruceclay.com/web_directions.htm). It doesn't seem to make as much logical sense for them to link back to you, but logical links could include things like your local chamber of commerce, the little league team that you sponsor, etc. There have been some good articles recently (I don't have them offhand, but will look) about how to get those types of links for your local business.

[SparkplugDigital]

Links outside your niche are still very beneficial. For example if you are a home remodeler and the local news site writes an article about you and links to your site, this will be a valuable link even though it is not from a home remodeling site.

There are many factors that determine the value of a link. Relevance is just one of the factors.

In terms of receiving quality backlinks there are a lot of things you can do. You could create a resource for the best restaurants in your local area and have a great badge designed on Elance. People love to put badges on their site that show they were recognized. Another idea is to offer to write a guest article on local blogs where you offer your advice for free. Guest posts almost always include a link back to your site in the bio paragraph. Another idea could be to interview local businesses that might link to you. People who you interview are more likely to link to you because they have a strong incentive to promote their interview. Be creative and think about creating an incentive strong enough to compel people to link to you.