These link building techniques not only benefit the long term goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Page Rank but at the same can be great sources of direct traffic to your sites as a part of your Internet Marketing Strategies.

Website traffic promotion is a crucial element of marketing your websites and blogs. The notion of “if you build it, they will come” is total crap, this is a hands-on business and it’s never more true than in regards to website traffic.

You can read a comprehensive guide to link building basics at: Are You Pulling Enough Link Juice? Link Building Basics.

1. Relevant/Reciprocal Link Exchange

This is where you exchange links with sites that are relevant to yours. Make sure they are relevant sites, links on a computer site to a weight loss site are a useless wastes of time!

You can do a search for “link exchange + your niche” to search for link partners.

Digital Point Forums is a great place to find link partners through the special forum section for link building.

WebConfs Backlink Builder is a great tool that searches for websites of the niche/theme you specify that contain keyphrases like “Add link”, “Add site”, “Add URL”, “Add URL”, “Submit URL”, “Add Article” etc. Then presents them in a list with hyperlinks, no easier way to build backlinks for you websites.

Also you can use a service to find link partners, such as Link Market, this is a site where you can network with other webmasters who have sites relevant to yours and then exchange links. The paid version has some extra features, but I use the free version which is limited 5 link requests per day, but it’s good enough for me.

2. Links from Directories: One-Ways & Reciprocal Links

Another way to get backlinks is by placing a listing of your sites in Internet Directories. These links vary depending on the directory. Sometimes directories require reciprocals, and sometimes they are one-ways. Of course, you want to get the one-ways as much as possible and the higher ranking directories are best as far as link juice goes. But overall when your site is new getting links in as many good directories is an important part of your Internet Marketing efforts even if they have a lower page rank.

Some of the more popular higher ranking directories, like the king of directories DMOZ, have a long wait so it is important to submit to the less ranking directories to get the links quicker. Also directory listings are in in of themselves a good source of web site traffic since many people use these directories when searching the net.

Add Url has the longest list of directories on the planet 700 to date, ordered by Page Rank and presented with hyperlinks for easy submission.

I use Directory Service which submits for me, their service starts at $10, saves loads of time and gives full reports.

3. Link Building with Forums – One-Way Links

A great way to get a backlink and also get relevant targeted traffic is joining forums that are relevant to your sites theme and those that allow a backlink in the signature. The key to this technique is having a genuine interest and knowledge within the theme.

But, don’t join a forum just to get sales, with this attitude your posts will quickly translate to SPAM and you will get booted faster than you can say boo. Instead add helpful and meaningful posts, answer other members questions in these forums, participate in a genuine manner and not only will you get a powerful backlink, it will also increase your web site traffic. Traffic that is relevant and will likely convert into sales since the visitors to those forums have a deep interest in the respective theme.

You can find relevant forums for your niche by searching “forums + niche” in Google or use my list 144 Do-Follow Forums by Niche.

4. Comments on Blogs – One-Way Links

A great way to build one way links to your sites is by leaving comments on blogs relevant to your sites theme.

Some blogs use a “no-follow” command for links which is a code attribute value used to instruct some search engines that the link should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index. But, if you visit high traffic blogs that are of interest to you this often becomes a source of traffic to your site from the other readers of those blogs.

Also there are tons of blogs with many topics that offer Do-Follow Links in Comments, like this one, I am not stingy with the link juice.

Free Fast Blog Finder is a fantastic software that searches for Do-Follow Comment Links blogs for the keywords entered. Free version provides 50 results for each keyword.

Here is a great Do-Follow Diver Search Engine where you enter your relevant keywords and it generates a list (with hyperlinks-which is so convenient ) of do-follow blogs.

You can search the “Do-Follow” Blog Directory

I always read and comment on SEO Horror Blog, great information and a Do-Follow!

5. US Free Classified Ads

Get the backlink, it’s marked no-follow so does not count for Google, but Yahoo ignores the no-follow, so counts with them. Also, Google loves USFree Ads and so your ads will rank high for respective KW and they have a lot of traffic, people looking to buy! You can submit several adds for different products/niches within different categories.

6. Link Bait – One-Way Links

Another great way to build quality one way backlinks is to use a link bait on your site. This is the method of choice to get get higher page rank sites to link to lower page rank sites. Link Bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. These link baits could be, information hooks, news hooks, humor hooks, tools hooks like a widget or some helpful tool that other sites can use.

7. Unasked- One-Way Links

Wiki Answers – Answer questions from lots of categories, leave a backlink to your sites in the question, as well as in your profile. Lots of traffic and lots of profile views daily.

Unasked is a site where you answer people’s questions (like Yahoo Answers) on a variety of topics. When you answer a question with a link to your site, the link is “nofollow” so it doesn’t count as a backlink, but, every time you answer a question, it links to your profile, which contains the “dofollow” link to your website, with the anchor text of your choice. Good method for one-way link and getting traffic to your site for your respective niches.

8. Work.com – One-Way Links

If you have ever heard of Business.com, this is one of the top directories on the net with lots of link juice, like Yahoo Directory and DMOZ, and it also comes with a price tag of $299 per year. Yeah, like I’m going to pay that?!

The good news is that business.com has another site which is Work.com, a great site where you can post how-to guides related to your business/websites and get a powerful backlink free!

Also, this site ranks high with Google and if you use good keywords in the title of your guides they will rank high and you can get traffic to your sites. Plus, the site itself has lots of members and you could get your guide featured on business.com which exposes you to all of their high traffic.

9. Write a Press Release – One-Way Links

Make sure to educate yourself on how to write a press release, many confuse these with sales ads and that is not what they are. You can learn the steps to writing a press release at PRWeb – How to Write a Press Release

This method is not only great for link building but great for website promotion as well.

Here are some of the top Press Release Sites:
PR Free
Ezine Articles Press Releases
SB Wire
Press Exposure

10. Link Building with Social Sites – One-Way Links

The social revolution is hot on the web. Social News and Bookmark sites are growing in huge numbers and have tons of traffic and members. Join sites, like Facebook, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Furl It, just to name a few.

There are many of these sites and with specific categories where you can submit your site content and get a backlink. Plus, these sites can be a great source of traffic since several of them have high traffic.

Read this post to get a hyperlinked list of 45 Social Websites with ratings and category details: Social Marketing – 65+ Social Bookmark and News Sites

11. Create a Squidoo Lens – One-Way Links

A Squidoo lens about your site is a great way to advertise your website, get a backlink and traffic. The key to Squidoo is using certain techniques for content and design and they will rank and you will get lots of traffic. You can learn all about Squidoo on my post: How To Squidoo – Steps to Building the Best Lens for Website Promotion

12. Qassia - One-Way Links

Post some intel, you will get a powerful backlink. They are a PR5

13. Article Marketing – Best One-Way Links

Last but never least, Article Marketing is the BEST way to get quality one way backlinks and at the same time get direct targeted traffic to your sites. There are many benefits to this method, including getting relevant and targeted traffic which converts well into sales if you follow the method of “relevancy” with KW anchor text techniques. I use Unique Article Wizard a service to submit my articles with the click of one button to tons of places and I highly recommend that service.

You can learn more about Article Marketing at my posts: Are you Writing Garbage? – Keys to Writing Great Articles and Article Marketing 101and the Huge Internet Marketing Benefits.