Link building tactics are the practical techniques you deploy to get other sites linking to yours. They range from white-hat editorial approaches to grey-area strategies that carry varying levels of risk. The core tactics that actually work include guest posting on relevant industry sites, creating linkable assets like original research or tools, broken link building where you replace dead links with your content, and digital PR that lands coverage in news outlets. Resource page link building targets curated lists in your niche, while unlinked brand mentions can be converted into links through simple outreach. Competitor backlink analysis lets you reverse-engineer where rivals earned links and replicate those opportunities. Directory submissions still matter for local SEO (Google Business Profile, Yelp, industry-specific directories), but general web directories died years ago. HARO and journalist outreach connect you with reporters needing sources. Scholarship link building, testimonials, and partner/supplier links work in specific contexts but often yield low-authority placements. Tactics to avoid include private blog networks, paid links without nofollow tags, automated comment spam, and mass directory blasts. Google's algorithm spots these patterns quickly. Link exchanges and three-way swaps technically violate guidelines but remain common in practice, though they're high-effort for minimal gain. At Ottawa SEO, we focus heavily on creating content that naturally attracts links—industry studies, local data analysis, comprehensive guides that become reference material. For our portfolio sites, we've seen 30-80 referring domains accumulate within 12 months primarily through one strong linkable asset plus targeted outreach to 50-100 relevant sites. The conversion rate on cold outreach sits around 5-12% when the content genuinely helps their audience. The tactic matters less than the execution quality. A single well-placed editorial link from a DR60+ site in your niche beats 50 directory submissions. Choose tactics based on your resources, risk tolerance, and whether you're building a portfolio site you might sell or a long-term brand where reputation matters beyond rankings.