Here are 11 legitimate ways to build quality links to your site:

• Article Marketing – where you write and publish articles to article directories.
• Directories – does your town have any websites that list local businesses? Also search for directories specifically for your niche; real estate, automotive, plumbing, storage, etc.
• Press Releases – most press release distributors will allow a link, sometimes with an extra fee, but it’s worth it.
• Association Sites – Does your Chamber of Commerce post the links of their members’ websites?
• Social Media – Facebook, Digg, Delicious are all great places your site should be although not all will count towards SEO.
• Link to Others – gets their attention and they may reciprocate.
• Make Contact – yep, good old fashion asking. Ask colleagues, associates, family and friends to put your site in their blogroll, please.
• Blog Comments – Comment on other blogs most allow you to post a link. Again, not all will count towards your SEO but some will and it will get the attention.
• Forum Posts – Along the same lines as blog comments but your link is included in the signature file of your posts.
• Guest Posts – See if you can do a guest article for blogs that would benefit from your information.
• Hub Sites – Create pages on sites like Squidoo, Hubsites.

A main component of SEO is link building. This is where you get as many websites to link to you as possible. You can use online directories, article marketing, associations you are a member of, get people to write on their blogs about you, etc.

There are many ways to try to do this but it is tough. Ask yourself, “Why would somebody link to my website?” Sometimes people will link to your site if you provide quality content or something of value.

The search engines look at links pointing to your website as a “vote” for your site. So the more votes you have, the more authority it must carry. Like any other SEO method, link building has been tried to be manipulated as well. Search engines are getting smarter all the time, so even if you think you’ve pulled one over on Google, don’t count on it to work for long.