With customers to tend to and a business to run, marketing your website can often get pushed down to the bottom of your overflowing to-do list. And no task gets the "I'll do it tomorrow" treatment more than link building. Which makes sense: building quality backlinks from related sites takes serious resources. And even when you do find the time, you need to spend that time keeping up with Google's ever-evolving algorithm. But it's a crucial part of SEO.
Fear not: here are 5 do-it-yourself link building strategies that are timeless, effective, and (most importantly) quick.
Strategy #1: Link Reclamation
Even if your business is on the small side, people are likely mentioning you on the web. And some of those people use what's known as an "unlinked mention". That simply means that when they mention your brand name, they don't link to you. These are some of the easiest backlinks to get because the site owners have already shown a tendency to mention you. It's just a matter of turning that mention into a backlink. How? By emailing the reporter or blogger to first thank them for the mention. Then, ask them if they'd take the time to add your link so that people can easily access your site.
You can also find potential unlinked mentions using a service called Mention.net. It automatically collects all the mentions of your brand name (both linked and unlinked) on the web. And for further reading on link reclamation, read Link Reclamation Best Practices – The Complete Guide and The 6 Month Link Building Plan for an Established Website.
Strategy #2: Resource Page Link Building
Resource pages are fantastic link building opportunities that don't take a lot of time to take advantage of. In case you're not familiar with them, resource pages are simply curated pages that link out to other useful pages on the web. And because they exist for the sole purpose of linking out, they make stellar link building targets (there's no need to beg, lie, cheat and steal for your link).
Here's one in the weight loss niche: 
Even better, they're super easy to find using these search strings in Google:
- "your keyword" + inurl:resources
- "your keyword" + "helpful resources"
- "your keyword" + "helpful links"
Once you find one, reach out to the site owner and ask them to add your resource to the page.
Strategy #3: High Quality Directory Submissions
Because submitting to web directories became an overused SEO strategy, Google significantly devalued web directory backlinks. But that doesn't mean web directories are completely worthless. In fact, a recent interview with a former Google engineer revealed that Google still values links from certain high-quality web directories. And you'd be hard pressed to find a faster link building strategy than web directory submissions, as most submissions take only 5-10 minutes.
Here are a few directories (a mix of free and paid) to consider submitting your website to for quality backlinks:
- BOTW.org
- Yahoo! Directory
- DMOZ.org
- Family Friendly Sites
And here are a couple of more resources to find quality directories to submit to: 17 Untapped Backlink Sources and The Four Keys To Post-Penguin Directory Submission Happiness.
Strategy #4: Customer Link Building
If you do B2B marketing, your clients and customers probably have websites. And I've found that they're usually open to linking to contractors that they work with. Obviously, you want the links to come from relevant sites whenever possible. But considering how easy these links can be to land (one phone call usually does the job), you don't need to be picky. And if you feel that your client might be reluctant, consider offering them a guest post in exchange. That way you can provide some value to their target audience and get your link—a win-win situation for everyone.
Strategy #5: Press Releases
While not as powerful as they once were, press releases can help you land quality, contextual backlinks from authoritative sites. The key is to avoid the mass submission service that syndicates your PR to hundreds of sites. Instead, hire a professional to write a press release about your business and distribute it using a high quality news wire, like I-Newswire.com and PRWeb.com. Then reach out to local journalists and industry bloggers in your niche to give them a heads up about your news. Even if they don't republish the PR, they will often mention it in an article and blog post and link to your website.