Since my last few posts have been mostly about what NOT to do when building links, how about if we take some time for some actual Web link building tips and advice...?

1) Did you know there are at least ten different ways you can potentially obtain links from Yahoo? Have a look here to see what I mean. To this list add Yahoo Picks of the Week and Yahoo News Full Coverage, both of which can mean a new link for you but...please only do this if it truly makes sense for your site. There's plenty of ways into Google as well. More on that next time.

2) You can obtain links for individual content elements on your site. What is a content element? Here are a few examples.

Do you have a blog and/or RSS feed? Of course you do. Go get your links...
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

You're podcasting? Excellent. Seek links here...
http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm

You have content just for kids? Roll up your sleeves and ask for links from the sites listed here...
http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156191

Sweepstakes? Did you say sweepstakes? Have at it...
http://contests.about.com/library/blsweepslist.htm

You have some awesome Flash apps? Seek your props...
http://www.thefwa.com

A bunch of boring White Papers? Not boring to these folks. Submit away...
http://www.ebizq.net/white_papers/submit.html
http://www.webbuyersguide.com/buyers_guide/whitepaper.asp

Good old fashion Web Cam of your back yard? Surely not...
http://www.camcentral.com/

The key here is to recognize your site is the sum of its parts. And often those parts can be linkworthy. See beyond your homepage URL.

3) You can simplify the process of having others link to your blog posts by using this nifty social bookmark link creation tool. It's free. http://www.toprankresults.com/tools/social-bookmark.php

4) People can link to your site in many ways. The most common way is by using your company name, like this

IBM Corporation

The part of the link that is clickable is called the Anchor Text. Many people feel that anchor text comprised of keywords helps their search engine rankings. Like this.

IBM Securty Products

So far, so good. But then everyone goes overbvoard and asks 5,000 other sites to link to them using the identical anchor text. Silly. All this does is end up creating an unnatural inbound linking universe for your site. And you could get flagged for it. Better approach: Create a really detailed Linking to Us page. (http://www.healthfinder.gov/aboutus/linking.asp).

Side note: Have a look at who ranks first for the search term "click here". Makes perfect sense to me.

Eric Ward
http://www.ericward.com