We all know it's not easy to be found on page one of Google, Bing, or even your mom's address book. You have to work hard with the right tools over an extended period of time to improve web rank and to drive traffic to your site. One of these key tools is known as link building for search engine optimization, a practice that has certainly drawn the attention—and sometimes ire—of online marketers throughout the years.

When done correctly, SEO link building can have a quite an impact on your website's link popularity and, consequently, page rank on major search engines. Here are a couple key methods to keep in mind when engaging in link building on behalf of your website.

It starts with you… Before you can connect to anyone else, your own site's content must be linkable. It has to have a sense of uniqueness on the web—that is, your target audience must see your content as relevant, informative and helpful to them in some way. This gives them a reason to link back to it, enhancing your overall web presence and eventually your page rank. But this can't happen unless your site is easily navigable and allows others to link to it.

…And ends with them. Once your web audience decides you content and website are worth sharing with others, they will utilize the link however they choose—whether that's by using your own sub domain or other domain. Often link builders create their own sites solely for link building or even an extension of your site.

Manage Expectations. If you're working with link builders, lay it all out on the table—your current situation, specific goals and objectives, and expectations. If you currently have high or low link quality, don't hesitate to ask why this is the case and how you can change/maintain this trend of quality links. By assessing previous link quality you can construct a measurable set of expectations for your new link building campaign.

What are some different link building tactics you have used?