Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Webmasters get lots of requests for links.   Webmasters who own good websites get so many link requests that they are tired of them.  They quickly start deleting these requests and cussing about them.  Why?  Because most of these requests want you to link to a trashy little site that has no interesting content.

"Please link to my website!"   DELETE

If the site does not have good, unique, interesting content then nobody is going to link to them unless that person is paying you.

"Hello Mr. SEO Blogger, We just published an article that explains how our team earned #1 rankings for the keyword "widgets" by publishing a group of comprehensive articles about widget history, manufacturing, appraisal, uses in commerce, collecting and more.  Perhaps you would be interested in sharing this on your "SEO Success Blog".   Let is know if we can help."

So, if you want to build links and have a good chance of being successful, then your site needs to have something great on it that other webmasters will want to share with their visitors.  Sharable content is the first step of building links (without buying them).  If your site doesn't have kickass sharable content then you need a magician and not a linkbuilder.

Hey 1902,

I'm a small business owner, with little to no experience in SEO. I've learned the basics just by doing research online and reading a lot of articles. I rely on my website to get new clients and generate pretty much all of my business. When I first got started, I avoided trying to get backlinks by writing articles and guest posting on other sites because I thought it was too time consuming and difficult to write "kickass" content. I didn't think I had anything amazing to say and didn't think I'd ever be able to get published on sites with really high domain authority. After spending a lot of money on pay per click campaigns, I finally decided to try it.

Before I really started focusing on writing articles (about 3 months ago), my site was showing up on page 5 or 6 of organic search results on Google for my focus keywords. After about 2 months of focusing solely on writing, my page is now showing up on page 1 for several of my focus keywords. Guest posting on other sites has by far been the best return on investment for me in getting meaningful backlinks that have increased my organic presence on Google.

It did take time, but it wasn't as hard as I thought. I just started Googling reputable sites that posted articles relevant to my industry. I emailed those sites and asked if they accepted guest submissions for publication. A lot said no (or didn't even respond), but enough said yes. I'd say I have about 5 solid sites that I can now submit content to and they provide a bio in each article with do follow links back to multiple pages on my site. These key sites have domain authorities of 60 and above--the best sites have domain authorities of 82 and 92. My content is not anything amazing or groundbreaking. My articles probably aren't going to become the go-to authority on their topics. But they are relevant and they are publishable. I thought it would be nearly impossible to write for the really reputable sites, but I'm now a regular contributor to U.S. News. All I did was email and ask if they'd be willing to accept guest posts and submitted a writing sample on a suggested article.

Moral of the story is that, at least for me, writing articles to get back links has by far been the most effective way of boosting my site. Definitely worth the effort and not as intimidating as I thought it would be. I saw significant results after just a couple months of focused effort. Hope this is helpful. Best of luck to you!