But still you need links.....specifically what is referred to as inbound or backlinks, where other websites create a link back to your site.

In a fraction of a second, Google and other search engines evaluate how many backlinks come into your website and what the value of each link is.  If you have a lot of relevant inbound links it will be an immense help to your organic search results.  

If you do not, you are probably scratching your head trying to figure out why you site is nowhere despite your other SEO efforts.

There are many link strategies, some useful and legitimate, other questionable and designed only to drive a large quantity of backlinks.

Perhaps the very best type of links you can have are natural links.

Natural backlinks are inbound links where the webmaster of another site linked to your content by choice.  You did not request or buy the link.

They linked to you because your content has information they deemed of value and are willing to guide their readers to.  In essence, a natural backlink is like being cited.  Your website becomes a reference or resource that is part of the bibliography of another site.

How to Get Natural Backlinks 

Value draws natural backlinks.  You have to create website content that is authoritative, relevant, and useful so that other website publishers will see value in citing your work.

This of course starts with excellent content.  To get natural links, you need to publish informative and well researched article content.  These are stand-alone pieces that have independent informational or editorial value. 
 

You might think of this type of content as short white paper formatted to be a webpage.  The topic is researched and the writing style objective.   This is not company centric content or direct response sales copy, which no one is ever going to choose to cite. 

You won't get natural backlinks if no one ever finds your content, so you will need to consider SEO and social media to promote it.

Your article content can be web pages or blog entries.  The best informational content on the web is designed to answer specific questions that prospective buyers pose when they need timely information to solve a problem.  Web content marketers need to focus this content on keyword niches that will bring targeted traffic to their site.

Optimize articles for long-tail, keyword questions that a searcher puts into search engine query. The more specific the term you are optimizing for the better chance you have to come up on search results.  The content becomes a clear, well organized answer found on search result pages.

Note that if you cannot completely optimize content using your blogging tools, then you may need to put this type of content directly on your website in a section organized for articles.  

Also, it may be more difficult to have other sites cite your blog because of perception that blog content is not generally researched or objective.  In fact, you may want to change your blog so it does not appear to be one, but rather an article or tutorial section of your site.

You can also use social media to promote new content.  When you post a new article, Tweet it, post it on Facebook and LinkedIn, and post comments on related blogs with a link back to your article.  

All of this drives traffic and exposes your content.  If what you write has value, it will begin to draw natural backlinks and then more traffic.  This process can build on itself for years, delivering high ROI from just a single article that will do wonders to your site optimization, traffic, and ultimately conversion goals.  

Natural backlinks are the most difficult and time consuming to build up, and that is precisely why they are the most valuable.