You can write awesome content for your website but if it doesn't get any eyeballs, you might as well just be writing in your own diary. The most effective way to drive traffic to your site is writing great content and attracting natural traffic with it through effective link-building. Here are some surefire strategies that will help you build your links and boost your seo rankings.

Using Social Media Sites

Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit allow you to get your content seen by a large number of people in a short amount of time and it helps you build authoritative links. To be successful on these social media sites, you have to study the type of articles that go viral on them. Make sure your headline is very compelling and that it includes your target SEO keywords.

Another important aspect of submitting to social media sites is writing a killer summary of your article. Many people don't even bother looking at the content and just vote based on the headline and summary. And if you're looking to make your content viral, don't submit your stories yourself because that is looked down upon in the social media world. Have a friend submit it instead.

Growing Relationships with Others in Your Niche

If there are high profile bloggers or others with great influence in your niche, try to contact them off the record. You can send out introductory emails with a compelling message explaining what you offer, connect with them on Twitter, or use instant messaging. Rather than trying to beg for someone to link to you, offer them something interesting so they are enticed to help you out in the future.

Make Guest Appearances

If you are a writer, write guest blog posts on popular blogs in your niche. In order to get the opportunity to do this, it's obviously helpful to network first. Write killer blog posts when you make guest appearances and link to relevant content on your site throughout your post if possible. Some blogs may only allow you to link to your content in your byline.

Your byline will make a big difference between someone clicking through or ignoring your link. The biggest mistake people make when writing a byline is to write a bio instead of writing about what benefits their link could offer the reader.

Submitting Your Articles to Article Directories

Submit original articles that are not on your site to article directories such as Ezinearticles. An article directory like Ezinearticles gives you a resource box where you are allowed to place links to your site. This alone does not add up to an effective link building strategy since content on these directories is often re-published on hundreds to thousands of sites, making their links have less value to search engines. However, you can build a substantial amount of organic traffic to your site with an article marketing campaign. Furthermore, sites that can provide you with powerful links may also reproduce the content, making article marketing an effective link-building strategy for the long-term.

In conclusion, use these link-building strategies to get your content seen because content that doesn't get read may as well not exist. These link-building tactics will drive traffic to your content in addition to building your site's authority in your target niche.