After discovering a paper on establishing web credibility on the Web [PDF] published by Stanford University in 2001 I was astounded by the timelessness of Web credibility. While you might imagine that a study conducted 8 years ago would be outdated by now like IE6, the browser every developer loves to hate, the main points, even the examples of the research are still valid. You might add some new sites or factors but the main pillars of creating a successful website and web based business are still the same.

Foremost you need credibility on the Web to be taken seriously. Even more than that, you need credibility to be taken into account at all.

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Most website owners rely on quick website tweaks and the right tools for measurable website success. That’s not wrong but that’s also not enough. Being serious about business, a webmaster must get links to get additional exposure via search engines, of course predominantly Google.

Google still judges a website mostly based on the number and quality of links pointing to it (backlinks). So even today you got to get links, be it via outstanding content, viral campaigns or just conventional link building. Still most people do not take all the measures easily available on the Web today. Some have been around for ages, others just popped up recently. Check the 30 easiest ways to get links and exposure.

Instant Link Building
1. Submit to paid web directories free ones are often low quality lately
2. Submit to a few quality article directories
3. Send out a press releases via a few online services
4. Answer questions on Yahoo Answers etc. and in forums
5. Add resources to user generated content sites like Zimbio, Associated Content or others
6. Ask your friends, family, employees to link to you
7. Add your link to your profiles on Web 2.0 services like MySpace, Twitter (in the Bio) or Propeller

Common Linking Incentives

8. Get a Delicious badge, and display the number of bookmarks as well as the tags
9. Offer a badge of honor, something like “a carbon neutral site”
10. Offer a button for voting to install on other websites & blogs
11. Offer a widget for bloggers, something useful that will spread by itself
12. Stage a contest, it should be fun and the prizes should be worth it
13. Organize a blog carnival choosing a topic that matters for many people
14. Link out plenty, especially to bloggers, some will link back others will bookmark, some links will appear directly as ping and trackbacks
15. Contact people who might link to you (I do not mean a reciprocal link request)
16. Mirror a popular high traffic site, all the webhosters do it that way
17. Give away content with a creative commons license, especially if you can offer images or music (or other audio)
18. Let people translate your content and republish it for free

Link Bait Ideas and Practices

19. Praise experts in your area who have blogs
20. “Pull a Calacanis” – Say something stupid to stir controversy (like “SEO is bullshit” or “Web directories are Web 3.0″)
21. Be the first to break a story, indeed check original sources first before just recycling news
22. Write a useful list, “100 ways of something” always get linked
23. Give away a real freebie, a fee version of your product, should be valuable for users
24. Use images of barely clad ladies, sorry I mean beautiful women to illustrate your point
25. Support a cause, like Blogcatalog does
26. Write something unbelievable, intriguing or that “strikes a chord”
27. Do something useful for the Linkerati, a list of Digg users who blog for instance
28. Create something for the lowest common denominator, best topic is cute cats
29. Declare something alive and kicking dead but in a way it makes sense
30. Say something funny like “SEO is Dad” ;-)

Please not that I intentionally did not include some not entirely ethical grey hat methodes like “submit to social bookmarking sites” or “comment on dofollow blogs” as these tend to become spammy in the wrong hands.