Page rank used to be a determining factor for ranking web pages so webmasters focused on only getting links from high page rank websites. This no longer works because Google now uses other factors to determine the value of a backlink.

Andre Weyher who was a former member of Google’s web spam team, gave an interview in which he revealed several factors that can be useful to improve your search engine optimization campaign.

One of the most important factors he mentioned was
Link Relevance…

“Getting a link from a high PR (pagerank)page used to always be valuable, today it’s more the relevance of the site’s theme in regards to yours, relevance is the new PR.”

This means getting a link related to your own website is more important than getting a link from an unrelated high PR webpage. Using automated link building tools for rapidly building unrelated links to your website will put your website at risk. Instead a link building campaign should really be called a relationship management campaign.

Google judges your link profile by the quality of pages linking to your site so getting 3 links from authentic pages will do much more than getting 1000 links from splogs. Instead of investing your precious time getting hundreds of non-relevant links invest in acquiring relevant links.

So how do you find relevant links?

First create an Excel spreadsheet that lists 100 websites related to your niche. Use this list to add comments (containing a link back to your website) to a variety of relevant sites in your niche.

Here Are 7 Ways To Find Relevant Links To
Improve Search Engine Optimization

1. Blog search

Use Google’s blog search (http://www.google.com/blogsearch) to find the top blogs in your niche. Visit each one of them to look for visitor engagement. For example if a blog contains recent posts with multiple comments means it’s an active blog worth adding to your list.

Example
Say you build a website on fitness, then simply search blogs related to fitness, health, etc.

2. Social media search

Utilize Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube to interact with people that have the same interests. Google and other search engines use social signals to rank websites. If your website has a lot of visitor engagement it will help out rank your competition.

3. Google alerts

Create a Google Alerts account in your niche to receive instant notifications on new developments in your industry. These may include press releases, all posts, news, etc. It will help you keep abreast of what’s new and add new sites to your list.

4. Niche directories

Avoid getting links from unrelated directories. Instead search for good quality directories related to your niche. The best niche directories are one’s that are constantly updated. Don’t discount local directories because the more links you get in them the better your chances of attaining high rankings for your website. To find niche directories enter keyword+directory in Google’s search box.

5. Press releases

Submitting a release on the topic of your website is a great way to build a lot of relevant links in a very short time. Many news websites have high visibility in the search engines so getting a link on their website will boost your rankings.

6. Quality content

Creating quality content naturally attracts high-quality backlinks (even when you’re not seeking them). If you provide solutions to the biggest problems of your target audience they will not only read your content but want to share it with their friends.

7. On page optimization

Even though off page optimization is one of the key factors for gaining high rankings on page optimization is still very significant. For example make sure you put your main keyword phrase in the title tag, create a captivating meta description, utilize H1, H2 for your content titles and subtitles.

Note: Don’t place more than 2 commercial keywords in
your titles or Google will frown upon it.

Tip
When writing your web copy don’t write based on pleasing the search engines. Google penalizes sites for over optimization. Instead write as if you are speaking to a person sitting opposite you. This will make it read naturally to your visitors.

Resources (PDFs)
Cheat Sheet: Linking at a Glance
Linking How To Guide