If you've been in the SEO world a while, you're undoubtedly employing search queries to help discover and earn links (e.g. this blog post, this search query cheatsheet PDF, our LAA tool in Labs, etc). Query lists are handy to help in the manual link building process, but most of what's out there is designed for very direct, obvious link acquisition methodologies. This post is to help with some more obscure, less direct link building tactics.

#1 - Awards

Nearly every city, every industry and many communities on the web have annual awards they give to individuals, websites or companies. If you're creative in your searches, you can find these, apply for them, sponsor them or volunteer and almost always earn a link (as well as broader recognition to help all your inbound channels). Here's some searches to help:

• City+Annual+Awards (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+annual+awards)
• Industry/Niche+Awards (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=literary+awards)
• Best+Industry/Niche+Year (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=best+mobile+apps+2012)
• Top+Industry/Niche+Year (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=top+food+blogs+2012)

#2 - Job Postings

If your company's hiring, the web's giving away links like they're going out of style! In addition to helping to promote your open positions and hopefully find that perfect match, you can often get links to your site's homepage and/or job listings page. Try these queries to help discover sources for placement:

• Industry/Niche+Jobs (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=graphic+design+jobs)
• Industry/Niche+Jobs+City (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=zookeeper+jobs+florida)
• Industry/Niche+Employers (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=publishing+employers)
• Industry/Niche+Recruiting (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=financial+recruiters)
• City+Job+Board (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=denver+job+board)
• City+Job+Postings (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=denver+job+postings)

#3 - Guest Authoring Opportunities

The challenge with guest posts isn't that they're hard to find, but that the truly worthwhile ones are the least likely to accept your work and help you reach their audience. Guest blogging has also been associated with the definitely-not-high-quality tactics of "article marketing" and "article spinning," which I'd recommend avoiding. Instead, seek out high quality publishers of unique content that has significant reach. After all, if there's no one reading, there's no synergistic benefits from branding, exposure, earning trust, etc. You might as well go buy some spam. Below are searches that can help target the high-quality content sites (though you'll need to keep your quality-radar running at all times):

• Guest Author (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22guest+author%22) - surprising, but the generic query actually brings up lots of good ones
• Industry/Niche+Guest+Author (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=recipe+%22guest+author%22)
• Industry/Niche+Guest+Writer (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=fashion+%22guest+writer%22)
• Industry/Niche+Guest+Contributor (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=scifi+%22guest+contributor%22)
• Industry/Niche+Guest+Editorial (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=cars+%22guest+editorial%22)
• Add &tbm=blg to any of the above to see only results from blog search (which can be very handy)

#4 - Social Networks, Forums & Discussion Sites

The Internet is filled with communication and interaction platforms, but discovering the ones relevant to your niche can be a sizable challenge. I certainly wouldn't recommend participating in these just to "get a link." In fact, many of those that provide a followed, profile link may not be high quality, reputable sources. Instead, your goal should be to participate in order to earn the attention, awareness and following of those participating in these commmunities, which is then likely to yield social shares and links through naturally discovered, editorial means. Try these queries to find sources for participation:

• List of Social Sites (from Moz)
• Industry/Niche+Register+Account (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=register+account+librarians)
• Industry/Niche+Create+Account (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=create+account+yachting)
• Industry/Niche+Create+Profile (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=create+profile+plumber)
• Industry/Niche+Register+Profile (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=register+profile+jewelry)
• Industry/Niche+Forum (https://www.google.com/search?q=scotch+forum)
• Industry/Niche in Google Discussion Search (https://www.google.com/search?q=scotch&tbm=dsc)
• Keyword Phrases in Google Discussion Search (https://www.google.com/search?q=scotch&tbm=dsc)
• Keyword Phrases in BoardReader (http://boardreader.com/s/flying%20lessons.html)
• CompetitorBrand+inurl:forum (https://www.google.com/search?q=tsubo+shoes+inurl:forum)

#5 - Mentions Without Links

If your brand or site is gaining traction in the press or blogosphere, you've undoubtedly been the victim of discussion without attribution. When this heinous journalistic crime occurs, you can often salvage a link opportunity by reaching out to the offending party and noting the mishap. In many cases, a comment can do the trick, but if not, reaching out via email or publicly over social media (most bloggers, journalists and writers have a Twitter account) can work, too. Below are some query samples:  

• Brandname -website.tld (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=seomoz+-seomoz.org)
• I highly recommend using "&tbs=qdr:d" or "&tbs=qdr:w" at the end of queries to help get more granular in timeframe (since it's harder to get writers to fix up older stories)
• Brandname -site:domain.tld in Topsy (e.g. http://topsy.com/s?q=seomoz+-site%3Aseomoz.org)

With any luck, this excercise has done more than just expose a few quick link acquisition tactics. There's a remarkable world of possibilities when it comes to inbound marketing and the beauty of any tactic like this is the synergy it builds by bolstering multiple channels at once. Invest in any of these and you'll see returns across the board.

p.s. Looking for some thumbs up? Please do suggest other queries in the comments. I'm sure your fellow marketers will appreciate and reward :-)