SEO can be intimidating, confusing, and even overwhelming for business owners.

If you're a business owner but not a search engine optimization expert, you're probably still aware of the importance of having a wealth of quality inbound links to your website. It's not exactly a secret that links are pretty much the entire ballgame.

So how do you acquire links? There are a bunch of methods, but if you are new to SEO (or are trying to understand it), then here's a simple way to think about it.

1. Manual method: this could also be called the "copy-your-competition" method. It starts with going to Google and doing a link search to find out which websites link to the competition that ranks better than yours in organic search results. That's the easy part.
   
   The hard part is trying to get those same websites to also link to your website. What's the best way to do that? Unfortunately, to be done right, it has to be done manually. That means you have to contact each website individually (via phone or email) and ask them to be a link partner. This is A LOT OF WORK. It takes a serious amount of time an effort. In fact SEO firms will charge thousands of dollars per link because it is so resource-intensive.


2. Build great content: (quick reminder: the whole theory behind link importance is that the better the content, the more people will link to it, like a validation of its value as a resource. If there's a website in your industry that has thousands and thousands of inbound links, it's probably because they produce valuable, desirable content.)
   
   Think of this method belonging to the "Field of Dreams" category - if you build it, they (the links) will come. Simply put, if you can make an investment in your website, the best move for the long term is to create valuable content. It's even a better move than hiring an SEO firm for a short term boost in organic rankings.
   
   If your website becomes the authoritative voice of your industry with the best content that people will turn to for learning and advice, then your website will get significantly more links in the long term than the manual method.
   
   This method takes a lot of time and effort as well. It's not a shortcut. In fact, this might require even more patience and vision. But it's definitely worth it.

As a business owner, you have options to acquiring inbound links. All things being equal, building great content is the best way to get the valuable inbound links it needs to perform well in organic search engine results.