Aside from creative link bait, what's a solid link building strategy involve?

[stevewiideman]

All things considered, directories, blogs, articles, press releases, forums, social profiles, student discount pages, etc, what do you consider to be a strong, phased, link building strategy? I'm talking beyond natural/organic link bait, since many larger accounts will not allow you to add content to their website or take 6 months to approve a content strategy.

I've got my own list, but would love to hear what the community considers to be a strong, structured, timeline-based strategy for link building.

[AaronSchinke]

Don't forget to monitor links you earn "naturally" and request better anchor text. That can do wonders.

[DavidKauzlaric]

This is what I do for my clients and my own website:

-Forum profiles on high PR sites. Start with 100.

-Submit to all local directories recommended by David Mihm.

-Optimize Google Places to be in accordance with David Mihm and above.

-Do a slow-drip to directories.

-Do-follow social bookmarks

-Twitter/FB/LinkedIn/YouTube profiles that are active.

By that time, rankings appear and you tweak from there. I use that as a starting point.

[Getz.pro]

Steven, this is going to be very non scientific with, it depends on how I feel. Some days I am just lazy and gather some directories, others I work at finding forums and blogs. It is just a matter on the day.

I work heavier on Facebook as that has a direct audience for me. If I get a no-follow, I only do so on relevant sites.

[stevewiideman]

Thanks - I love Scott's article and it does list a few tools and a few types of links, and even lists a few destinations to acquire them. However, I don't see an actual strategy, phases, quantities, or an exclusive list of link building tactics one might find after a few dozen Advanced Link Building Strategies sessions at SES/SMX/etc. Do you have a boilderplate one you build off of?

[stevewiideman]

Hi Richard,

All things considered, including juice, traffic and anchor text. Do you have a strategy with channels and phases?

[Getz.pro]

Steven, It depends on what you want that link to do really.

Great anchor text can be had from directories or guest blogging that allow you to name your anchor.

Link juice can be hand from linking properly from your LinkedIn page (using site name of Blog or Personal to pass juice and not company)

Social profiles will be no-followed, but can generate traffic such as Facebook and Twitter.

Are you going for juice, traffic, anchor text? Answering that question will determine which link strategy is best.

[goodnewscowboy]

Hey Steven: Rather than try to tackle this by myself, I'm going to bring in some heavy hitters. Since you are a Pro member, you have free access to the Pro guides, but unfortunately I can't seem to find the Pro Guide to Link Building on the SEOmoz site at the moment to be able to give you a link.

I can however share an absolutely awesme YOUmoz post from by Scott.MClay that got promoted to the main blog:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-building-101-the-almost-complete-link-guide