11 top link building tips from Matt Cutts

Matt Cutts recently posted a Google Webmaster video containing some useful link building tips. Whilst there’s nothing particularly revolutionary, it nicely articulates a number of useful basics in a sub 8-minute video. Of course these are ‘Google approved’ and it’s good to hear it from the proverbial horse’s mouth.

Here’s a summary of the key points:

1. Controversy/link bait – useful for catching people’s attention & links, but don’t overuse for fear of seeming like a rant
2. Answer questions on forums & blog comments with links back to your own site where relevant (don’t comment spam)
3. Original research – spending a bit of time researching a subject can create attractive content to link to
4. Newsletters – good for reminding people to come back to your website
5. Social media – Twitter/Facebook/Friendfeed, get on social media sites where your customers will spend time
6. Lists – e.g. top 50 ways to write articles can attract links, but again, don’t overuse as it can become boring
7. Get a blog – establish yourself as an authority, it’s a
8. How-to’s, tutorials – can attract links through having a unique resource
9. Build a tool service – e.g. Firefox extension/Wordpress plugin/Online service
10. Site architecture – make sure all pages on your website can be crawled and your html is well formed
11. Videos – can be good value and attract links. Sure enough, I’m now linking to Matt’s video in this very post…

And a couple of bonus tips from me:

1. Auto-post links to social media sites
2. Article campaigns are great for building in-context links
3. Free directory listing (don’t spend too much time on this, but every little helps)