If you want a decent position in the search engine results pages, you need a good link profile. This means not just a large number of links, but a large number of high-quality ones. Getting the right mix of links is probably the most difficult part of search engine optimisation, and the temptation to break the rules is strong.

There are many ways to get your site some inbound links, and many of these are strictly against the search engines’ rules. In fact, almost any way to approach building your link profile is against the search engines’ rules. This is because the only link that is absolutely pristine, from a search engine’s perspective, is one that happens absolutely naturally. As link building is by definition artificial boosting of your link profile, you’re up against a wall if you want to play strictly by the rules.

The option that every site takes is to find ways to build links that escape the detection of the search engines. Some of these ways are closer to being in keeping with the rules than others. Paying for links, for example, is a lot further over the line than asking someone to give you a link for free. A smart site owner will build a link profile using a combination of techniques, making sure that at least some of the links are absolutely solid in case the search engines decide to investigate.

Finding a way around the rules

The search engines recommend that the best approach to search engine optimisation is to act as you would if search engines didn’t exist. The guideline you can realistically take from this is to work to please your site users as much as the search engines. You can talk to us about ethical methods of link building at SEO Consult Australia. Here are some linking methods that benefit your users and your link profile:

• Article exchanges: Link exchanges don’t work very well because there’s no contextual worth in the link. Exchanging articles, however, is a way to provide valuable reading to your users while exchanging links. The link is really only proper credit for the article’s writer.

• Sponsorship of blogs: Providing a reward to bloggers for supplying you with a link is a good way to forge links. Supplying a prize for a competition the blog could host, or a discount code for the blog’s readers is a valid way to get yourself a link.

• Support networks: Businesses have always used support networks for promotion, and the same applies for internet marketing. Forming a network with other businesses in your industry gives your users some good contacts and nets you some good links.

It’s always best to stay as close to the search engines’ guidelines as possible. As noted above, it’s impossible to SEO and not break the strict rules of linking. You can’t always count on the search engines never discovering underhanded means of linking. Your best option is to lay the foundations of a defence. Providing links that are of value to your target users is the best way.