Every website owner knows there is no question about it, the more links to their sites, the higher their rankings in Google, Yahoo, and MSN will be. Here are eight ways site owners can get those links.

1. Requesting links: it’s time consuming but it does work. If you have a site with good content, you may be able to get some one-way links. Generally, however, you will need to reciprocate.

2. Submitting your site to directories can result in your obtaining a lot of links in a relatively brief period of time. If you can get listed in dmoz.org, you may get an immediate rank boost. No other free directory is as important, but those with high Google PR, like the-big-brain, will also help your site.

3. Article writing: like requesting links, article writing is a lot of work, but it is well worth it. By writing articles and submitting them to article directory sites, one article (with links to your website in the article box) may wind up on thousands of websites.

4. Distributing news releases (which include your website URL) is a little known but effective way to obtain links as a well written release may appear on hundreds of websites. Website owners can create releases or pay a service to do so. Similarly, the releases can be distributed by website owners or by professional distribution services. Costs are not prohibitive.

5. Unlike the other kind of writing which can generate links, blogging is very simple because you can write about nearly anything related to your website, and good blog posts need not be very long. All webmasters should have at least one blog, write a minimum of one post a week, and link from the blog(s) to their website(s). In addition to short articles, many bloggers post link exchange offers.

6. Social networking sites: many successful website owners promote their websites on Facebook and similar sites. Just be sure to follow the rules.

7. Guest blogging, like blogging, is fast and easy. Offering articles to bloggers who share your niche is a great way to get links and reach your targeted audience at the same time.

8. Posting: unfortunately, many website owners try to promote their sites by spamming forums and blogs with useless comments. While that is inappropriate, it is perfectly acceptable to offer comments, with links in your signature, that contribute to the conversation.

Whatever else you do, link buying is probably not a good idea. Google has weighed in against it, and it is likely that all the search engines penalize sites that purchase links. Website owners are far better off using the techniques listed above.