Link Building (also known as off-page optimization) is one of the biggest and most important SEO challenges every website promoter has to meet. You can do whatever you want to your own website: change the structure, play with the keyword density all you want and optimize your content in all possible ways, but when it comes to making other people do something on their site for you, it's quite a different cup of tea.

The question almost every webmaster is concerned with is "how do I get links to my website?' Here are 12 proven ways to build relevant links to your website that are sure to boost your link popularity and give you more leverage in the search engine rankings.

1. Submit Articles

Write unique and compelling articles on a topic relevant to your website and submit them to the biggest article directories such as ezines, articledashboard, etc. There are lots of them on the Internet and most of them allow you to put 1 to 4 links to your website either in the body of the article or in the resource box or both. Do read the ToS before posting!

The link value you get from article submission is not very big, but the upside is that you shape the content yourself; therefore the link will come from a topically relevant page. As an extra bonus you get some traffic from the article and if it's good enough it will be republished on more websites and blogs.

2. Comment in Blogs

Blog commenting is another link-building technique that has become quite popular these days. Search the web for authoritative blogs in your niche that allow do-follow commenting and speak your mind there. Make sure you read the post before commenting and try to make a point with your comment; don't just go on spamming blogs with links to your website, or you'll just get your comments deleted and end up with no links and a spoiled reputation.

3. Social Media

Social media websites can provide tons of valuable links if you manage to bring your story to the top. But you'll need all your creative power to do that and maybe a bit more. Since social media sites are seeing more and more spammy content submitted to them by marketers of all sorts and fashions, running a successful social media campaign gets harder every day.

4. Press Release Submission

Write a press release about your company or product and submit it to PRWeb and similar resources. Take the time to make your press-release newsworthy and the chances that it will get syndicated increase depending on how good you manage to make it.

5. Submit to Directories

There are a lot of directories on the internet where you can submit your website. Although links from them won't give you any drastic jump ups in the rankings, they are still worth submitting to, especially if you have a young website. Make sure you submit your URL into a relevant category.

These link building techniques are sure to get you quite a number of quality and relevant links that will add good value to your website's search engine rankings. To achieve best results with your link building always keep track of the links you get and evaluate your off-page optimization campaign. The most efficient way to do it is to use special tools for link building.

Check out the second part of my article Link Building - 12 Ways To Increase Your Site's Ranking with Quality Links - Part II for more link building techniques you can use.