Revisiting SEO in 2012: More of the same

Year 2011 will go down in the history of Google as the year of Panda. Major changes in SEO industry happened last year. Many sites were washed away in the storm. Many others escaped Panda’s wrath but the proverbial Damocles sword is still hanging over them.  While SEO pundits have come up with new theories on how to manage Panda updates, the basics of SEO and link building have not changed a lot. In fact, they are more or less the same. Content is still the king and high quality links are still invaluable. Link diversity is even more needed.  Do not hedge your bets on just one kind of links. Diversify your link sources.  While earlier, link exchanges and directory submissions may have given you good results for your non-competitive niche website, the road ahead will be much tougher.

But don’t fret. Though link building is getting tougher, here how you can start building links to your barely-visible-not-generating-traffic website in the year 2012 without hiring expensive 

Articles: Nothing beat article submission when it comes to link building and strutting your knowledge and expertise. With article directories displaying zeal in improving the quality of the content submitted, they are back in business. All you have to do is write good quality article about your niche.  Make your article informative, interesting and useful. Submit them to reputed article directories and see your traffic and rankings increase. Biggest plus point: Totally safe

Guest Blog posts: Seek out blogs related to your industry and ask them if you can write a guest posts for them. Write a great post with a link back to your website. In no time, you will get targeted traffic and a boost in rankings. Guest posts are also a great way to build a formidable authority and to connect to likeminded people.

Write for your own blog: If you have a website, get a blog also. Write posts regularly about your industry, your life, solve problems, share tips. Soon, your blog will start getting noticed. Other bloggers will start quoting your posts and even link back. These are most natural backlinks. These are pure gold when it comes to inbound links.

Blog commenting: Though discredited because of widespread abuse, they can still bring in backlinks and traffic.  Carefully thought of and useful comments, not only add value to a blog post but also to your reputation

Forum posting: If you frequent forums related to your industry then signature can bring it backlinks.

Directories: A good way to get high number of low quality links. Not too valuable but still needed for link diversity

Social bookmarking: Easy to get but not of much importance.