Part of any good link building campaign will require you to request links from other websites. You might talk to vendors, customers, or fellow members of the industry. Regardless, all of your requests will need to have one thing in common: you must incentivize them.

Usually, the best incentive you can offer is a link in kind. There are number of creative ways you can trade links, some of which include:

Guest Blog Posts – Guest posts are a classic way to trade links with another site. If the other site has an authoritative blog, you could be getting a good link that your competitors don’t have. The best part is that this can work both ways. You can write a post for their site that includes links to your site or the other site can write for you – then post a link on their site saying “read the guest post we wrote here.” If possible, each party can write a guest post for the maximum amount of links.

Interviews – Like the guest blog post, granting an interview with someone at your company or interviewing a leader at another company is a set-up to produce more content for your site via article, blog post, etc. As an added advantage, whoever participates in the interview establishes authority and thought leadership within their industry – which builds the company’s reputation and has inherent value for future link building.

Grant Special Acknowledgement – You will want to keep it relevant to your site, but you can create a page or blog post to give awards, spotlights, trusted partner status, etc. to companies you want a link from. Eager to brag about their acknowledgement, they’ll likely link to your site when they mention it.

By creating a well worded personal approach to other websites with a good incentive, you gain a number of opportunities for great link building and networking.

Press releases, or PRs, are often seen as formal documents put out by large corporations. However, they can be immensely beneficial as a link building tool for a business of any size. To maximize the traffic from the press releases you create, there are some things you need to keep in mind.

When writing your press release, make the effort to optimize its search visibility. Do some keyword research based on the subject of your press release and be sure to include relevant keyphrases in the release to increase it’s visibility to your target audience. If you run a small business, mention the cities you serve and include the address and phone number of your business to increase your chances of appearing in local search results. Of course, you will want to include links back to your website or to your social media accounts within the press release.

After your press release is written, there are more ways to spread it besides the traditional submission to a PR website. Create a PR section of your website that hosts and archives the press releases you create. That way, your site can benefit from the optimized keyword content you included in the release. Once your release is live, promote through your social channels.

If you can, email your press release directly to publications, journalists, and bloggers that cover topics and areas relevant to your business. Not only does this increase the chance that your press release will be re-posted on other sites, in may result in these professionals writing about and linking to your business.

Whether your business is big or small, writing and spreading a press release every now and then is a great way to increase consumer interest in your business, as well as visibility.

Just about anyone in SEO will tell you that building a strong catalog of backlinks to your site is important for success. There are several link building techniques at your disposal you can use to accomplish this. However, the best way to build links is to have interesting, quality content on your site.

Creating content that other people will be tempted to link to is known as link bait. There are many strategies available to create some irresistible link bait:

• Breaking News: If you can be among the first to report the latest news in your industry, you will be the first to start getting links. Better yet, if you can do this consistently, users will come to see you as an authority on the subject and may begin to link to other materials on your site.
• Instructional materials: “How to _____” is among the most searched topics on the Internet. A comprehensive “How To” article or video can become quite popular among users. People use the Internet to learn and share, and you can help them do both with instructional material that generates backlinks for you.
• Information Presented Interestingly: Your website is full of information. Then again, so is everyone else’s site. If you want your information to stand out and collect links, it must be presented with an interesting angle. Set yourself apart from the walls of text found across the rest of the Internet. Bullet lists, infographics, cartoons, and comic strips all have stronger potential for link value that text alone. Try to present your content in entertaining ways that people will like to absorb and share.
• Polls and Reviews: These are a great way to engage your audience in conversation. As the conversation grows, so does the potential to get more links.
• Tools: Users love free widgets, software, or other tools. Take, for example, MoreVisibility’s Google Analytics URL Tagging Tool. When you can simplify a task for a user, they will share it.

As you can see, creating quality link bait can require a lot of time and creativity. It’s no coincidence that link building can be the most difficult part of an SEO campaign. But, with effort and perseverance, you can get the links you need to increase your traffic and conversions.