Online entrepreneurs know that link building is one of the best ways to increase a site’s rank in search engines and thereby generate more traffic. Despite understanding that link building is an essential component of search engine optimization, many business owners balk at the complicated and time-consuming task of getting well-respected sites to link back to their websites. These 10 tips will give you the guidance and tools you need to maximize the effectiveness of your link building efforts without wasting your time and resources.

1. Check out what your competition is doing. Never underestimate the value of experience, expertise and most important, results. You can discover high-ranking competitors who target your same audience and then determine what their most effective links are.
2. Focus on pages that already rank well for search engine queries you’d like to rank for. Pages that rank well for the keywords you’re using have successfully established themselves as authorities and thus are great pages from which to acquire links. Of course, in order to get a link from those pages, your link will have to add value to them.
3. Investigate the age of prospective linking partners. One of the most significant factors in measuring the quality of a domain is how established it is. Simple queries using readily available free tools can show you how old a domain is, which is one factor in determining how established a website is.
4. Keep the focus on quality. A few high-quality links will benefit you much more than a large number of mediocre ones. Concentrate on established, trusted domains with content that directly relates to your site and target audience.
5. Use effective anchor text. If the words “click here” appear anywhere on your site, fire the person responsible! Internet users don’t need to be told where to click anymore, but search engine users do need to be able to find you; without meaningful anchor text, the chances of that are pretty slim.
6. Provide superior content. The battle may always rage, but now more than ever content really is king, and sites that offer relevant, compelling copy are rewarded in many ways, including by attracting quality links organically.
7. Submit your articles to article directories. Now that you have relevant, high-quality content, submit it to a directory where webmasters can post it to their own sites with a link back to you, driving traffic to your site and creating opportunities for the content to be picked up by trusted sites that bestow link authority.
8. Become a blog commenter. Focus on blog posts that are directly related to your niche and offer commentary that is constructive and useful to the reader.
9. Submit your content to social media sites. Tailor your headlines to individual sites for the best response; the idea is to inspire people so that they spread the word for you, generating quality links in the process.
10. Network via email. Building partnerships with others in your niche can help grow your brand. When writing your email copy, use the same rules you would for articles on your site: Write an attention-grabbing headline and follow it with useful content that benefits the reader.

Guest Author: Randall Davidson is a co-founder of AudioTranscription.Org, a San Francisco-based audio transcription company that provides high quality general and business transcription services. Through founding and developing his audio transcription business, Randall has learned the importance of link building in order to increase search engine rankings and to drive traffic to his site.