Link building. One of those SEO strategies that has been around since the 1990s and is still being mentioned today. But is it still relevant? And, more importantly, is it still relevant for home builders? To answer these questions, it's necessary to make a distinction between early link building and modern link building. In the late 90s, link building consisted of visiting different blogs or forums and posting a comment with a link to a website. It didn't matter what type of website it was. I could have pasted a link to a builder website on a Coca Cola forum or on a fashion blog and the outcome would have been about the same. At some point, Google would pick up on a volume of links to the builder site and that site would climb to the top of the search results. It took minimal effort for maximum return. It was a service any SEO could offer for a very low cost. Eventually, everyone caught on and started building links this way. Hopefully you can see why this couldn't last. Google had to start ignoring links passed between two completely unrelated websites. Then it had to start devaluing links in forum or blog posts period since it's way too easy for people to just start spamming websites with links to the site they're trying to promote. Today, you can actually get penalized and even blacklisted for the very same link building techniques that used to work in the 90s. Today, link building looks much different. It requires real effort, real connections, and lots of time. However, it is possible and it can still benefit a site's SEO. The SEO Moz blog has a great video about what it takes today to earn links with real value. Essentially, earning links today begins with creating some sort of content, like an article or video that is hosted on your site and provides significant value to a certain demographic. It could be something as complex as answering the fifty most common questions asked about home mortgages or something as simple as why your city is the best place to build a new home. The content then has to be delivered to the websites that you would like to receive a link from. This requires a personalized email to each site inviting the webmasters to view and share your content because their audience would also find it interesting. As this type of SEO service requires much more than simply pasting links in comment boxes, expect to pay top dollar to have an SEO expert work on link building for you. With smaller, hyper local builders, this tactic no longer makes sense to pursue, as tens or even hundreds of links are needed to make any kind of impact, and likely still won't help in the competition against a larger, national builder and sites like Zillow or Trulia. A small builder's best bet is to invest in online marketing instead of organic SEO, since the money it would take to gain an organic ranking in one market would be much better spent on promotional ads via Facebook and Google Adwords. On the other hand, link building could still be a viable strategy for a national builder who is trying to rank well in multiple competitive markets. Investing in high-level SEO strategies pays off when increasing your overall ranking potential is earning you more visibility in several major metro areas instead of just one. Keep in mind that simply asking webmasters to link to your home page because it exists is not going to cut it, even if you hire a savvy, persuasive SEO to write these emails. Your strategy will likely require some content generation and possibly even integration with your marketing and outreach in order to truly be successful. If you're a national builder that builds near a military base or has product for first-time homebuyers, consider creating website content and promotions around these specific demographics. Whether you offer special financing for military families or donate homes to wounded veterans, you have an opportunity for natural link building just by getting the word out in your community. Some of the most successful marketing and SEO stories have originated as an act of goodwill gone viral. So whatever you're offering homebuyers, make sure you blog about it, post about it on Facebook, and get the word out however you can. Links will happen more frequently and naturally when you have something of value to promote.