Last week, Google published an official statement about quality links and their effect on your website rankings. In the statement, Google wants to explain their viewpoint on earning quality links.

Google recommends that you do the following to get more links to your website:
1. Get involved in the community around your topic

You should interact and contribute on forums and blogs that are related to your website. Building a good reputation can drive people to your website. If these people like your website, they will link to it.

2. Offer long-lasting, unique and compelling content

This is a no-brainer. The more compelling your website is, the more people will link to it. In addition to unique articles, you can offer useful tools on your website.

3. Solve the problems of your target group

If your website offers solutions to common problems of your target group, your website visitors are likely to link to your site. Publish tutorials or videos on your website or offer practical tools.
Surveys and original research can also attract links. According to Google, both methods grow your credibility in the community and increase visibility.

4. Humor can help

Entertaining content is shared more than ever before. If your website offers something funny (a humorous downtime message, amusing content, etc.), chances are that people will link to your site.
However, these short-lived link-bait tactics usually wear off quickly and they do not contribute much to a long-term linking strategy.

5. Directories help you to get links

According to Google, there are great, topical directories that add value to the Internet. However, there are also a lot of low quality directories.
When you submit your website to a directory, make sure it's on topic, moderated, and well structured. Do not bulk-submit your website and make sure that your website will be added to the right category.

6. Avoid spamming methods

Any legitimate link building strategy is a long-term effort. There are those who advocate for short-lived, often spammy methods, but these are not advisable if you care for your site's reputation.
Buying PageRank-passing links or randomly exchanging links are the worst ways of attempting to gather links and they're likely to have no positive impact on your site's performance over time.
If your site's visibility in the Google index is important to you it's best to avoid them!