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The Web is built on links, and a solid link building strategy is absolutely essential for any business that wants to thrive online. In essence links that point back to your site do two things: they bring you targeted traffic and they enhance your search engine rankings.

By placing your links on another site that is related to your content, you can bring visitors to your site who are interested in the sort of content you offer. And Google, king of the search engines, places more value (and therefore greater rankings) on sites with multiple links pointing back to them.

I'm sure you've heard just about every urban myth imaginable regarding the right way vs. the wrong way to generate links back to your site. Let's forget about all the hoopla for now and look at the simple basics that apply to a good link building campaign.

The first obvious step is to identify placings that offer you targeted exposure. If you have a Website about auto repair tips, you need to find sites and directory categories pertaining to auto repair and place your links there.

Simple enough right? So let's focus on some of the specific types of sites you should be looking to get links from.

Link Directories:

This almost goes without saying, but just to be safe I'll include it. One way link directories are a good place to submit your links.

Avoid services that offer to broker reciprocal linking between you and other Webmasters, as these programs are often viewed as link farms by Google and can get your site booted from the search engine rankings.

Article Submission:

A fantastic way to acquire links back to your site is to write articles related to your site content and submit these to article directories and newsletter publishers. At the end of each article you write you'll include a resource box (see mine below) that provides links back to your Website.

Forum Signatures:

Join forums that are related to the theme of your site and get involved in the discussion. Please do not join a forum and just post a blatant ad about your site, as this will get you ridiculed and possibly deleted; actually join in the conversations, and include a link to your website in your forum signature.

Blog Comments:

You definitely need a blog of your own, but that's a subject for other articles. In this piece about link building I want you to understand the power of simply posting comments on other people's blogs.

Find 10 to 20 blogs that relate to your website, and bookmark them or subscribe to their RSS feeds. A few times each week, visit these blogs and post comments on some of the more interesting articles.

You see, when you fill out the comment form you will be asked for your name and website URL, so you can create a hyperlink with your name or business name that leads right back to your site. Be sure that your comments are legitimate contributions and not just some silly ad for your website.

As blogs are often updated regularly, and have many incoming links to them, your comments (and therefore your link backs) are likely to receive a lot of traffic from search engine spiders and real people. So blog comments are a simple but very powerful method for linking back to your site.

Take the contents of this article and put them to use. This is a totally easy, but definitely effective outline for starting a long-term link building campaign that will bring you lots of traffic and good standing with the search engines.

Tim Whiston is a professional entrepreneur who enjoys helping other entrepreneurs achieve success. He has created hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit for his clients and owns many Websites and products. If you'd like to discover some great tips for building your own sites be sure to check out his Learn HTML program.