The second part of basic optimization is link-building. This practice involves scouring the web for other sites and pages that will link to your website and getting them to link to you with the anchor text of your choice. A link-building campaign is a difficult, tedious process, but it can be made easier through several critical steps.

Step 1: Create Anchor Text & Descrīption Variations

The careful crafting of your anchor text and descrīptions when you place your link is crucial to success. The key rule is diversity - use as many unique combinations of keywords, phrases & anchor text variations as possible, so as to create the most natural looking links and descrīptions. A common mistake is to always use the exact same anchor text and descrīption when submitting your site to directories, resources, link lists, etc.

For this step, focus on 5-10 variations of your anchor text. I have used the example of SEOmoz below, with my two primary keyword phrases for traffic being:

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These variations in anchor text can make a big difference in making your site's link building efforts seem as natural and organic as possible. If I were conducting a large scale link building campaign, I would attempt to have an even greater variance of anchor text.

The next part of this planning stage involves preparing descrīptions for your link pages. Remember that every link you buy, obtain or trade for will have a particular maximum length. The optimal length is usually the maximum allowed by the site, as more text gives you a greater relationship between the linking page and your own site.

As with anchor text, the key is to vary the descrīption text as much as possible. In order to do this, I typically will write something as long as neccessary on the fly, trying to duplicate as little as possible as I submit site descrīptions. Focus on different aspects, use synonyms and related concepts and vary sentence structure. If possible, however, I like to use a unique 2-4 word combination in each of the links that I build for the sole purpose of being able to find all of my links through a Google search in the future. If the business name is too generic, try to embed something that will let you find a list of all the pages that link to you in the future. This can be the single constant element in your link building process.

Step 2: Setting a Budget & Deciding Where to Submit

The primary limiting factor for most SEO link building campaigns is budget. Depending on the strength and number of links your site requires to be competitive, you could require a great deal of links, and therefore a great deal of money for buying links, submitting to directories, etc. A short chart follows below:

Competitiveness, as per
KW Difficulty Tool Recommended Budget for
Link Building
0-10% $50-$100 per month
10-20% $100-$250 per month
20-30% $200-$400 per month
30-40% $300-$500 per month
40-50% $400-$750 per month
50-60% $500-$900 per month
60-70% $600-$1000 per month
70-80% $750-$1500 per month
80-90% $1250-$2000 per month
90-100% $1750-$3000 per month

The numbers above are very rough figures, but can help you determine if you have the budget needed to compete for a particular keyword. Note that the monetary figures are recommendations, now requirements. SEO link building can be done cheaply, but it requires considerably more effort & cleverness.

The second part of this step is deciding where to submit your website. The big web directories are a good choice, but the most valuable links will come from sites and pages that are well ranked for your keyword phrases. An excellent starting point is the first 50 search results for your keyword phrase at each of the major search engines (Yahoo!, MSN - in Beta & Google).

Step 3: Link Building Strategies

There are literally hundreds of methods for building links on the web. But, rather than list them here, I've created a completely separate article, entitled Advanced Link Building Strategies, that should help new & experienced SEOs alike to succesfully build the links neccessary to compete.