How to get reciprocal links
By David Callan
Now you know how important reciprocal links are and who
you should target when looking for links, but when
you've found
your targets what's the best way to actually get them to
link to you. What should you say to the webmaster in
the email or
phone call that'll increase your chances of them linking
their site to yours.
First things first, always personalize the email you send
to any webmaster. This means actually visiting his or her
site, noting anything significant details about it, finding
the correct email address and the name of the webmaster if
possible.
This shows you're serious about exchanging links, that you
really do value a potential link with them and separates
you from the non-serious people who couldn't be bothered
to personalize and might as well be emailing hundreds of
sites with link exchange proposals.
Secondly many online email accounts and desktop email programs
are set up with advanced spam filters and if an email is
not directly addressed to a particular person it'll be automatically
deleted and hence will never be read. Personalizing emails
by sending them one by one will enable your emails to get
into the inbox.
Thirdly many webmasters are spammed on a constant basis,
this is because marketing spammers have sent out email extractors
to extract email addresses from sites under a particular
keyword or keyphrase. Webmasters therefore regularly ignore
messages they suspect as spam. Having their name or website
name in the subject will ensure your email is not dismissed
as spam.
If you do personalize you'll see a much better response
than if you didn't as you're making the webmaster feel special.
Look at it this way, if you don't care enough to find out
some relevant details and send a personal email to your prospective
linking partner, why should he or she care to link with you?
Many webmasters particularly on high traffic sites are weary
of others trying to get something for free off them, when
you email them your proposal they might think you're one
of these people.
What can you do to put them at ease and to show them you're
offering a fair deal? Well I consider this one a bit of a
golden rule, it is this, always put a link to them first.
Do this even before contacting them, this seems to them more
genuine and makes them believe that you do really value their
site as you've already linked to it. Another advantage of
this would be the fact that they might already have seen
in their logs that you're sending them traffic and want to
make sure this continues by linking to you. It is a good
idea to give a little description of perhaps a line or two
which makes the site out to be great. Everyone loves flattery
and this should increase your chances of getting a return
link from them.
Now on to the main body of the email. Tell the webmaster
who you are, give them the address of your website and tell
them a little about it such as what services and products
you offer from it.
Inform the webmaster that you liked their site and found
it very useful, tell them why you thought it was useful and
mention which sections you found particularly interesting.
Always include the URL of the website you liked as many webmasters
have more than one website.
Next you want to tell them you liked it so much that you've
added a link and a description for their site to your links
page already. This will increase your chances as many webmasters
feel obliged to repay a favor to someone who has said lots
of good words about their site. Make sure you give them the
URL of the page where their link can be found.
With that out of the way you need to suggest to the webmaster
that they add your site to their links or resources page,
mention once again that you've linked to them as you think
your visitors will be interested in and benefit from their
site, then ask if they'd consider doing the same for you.
Have a couple of lines or two explaining how this will benefit
their visitors, direct the webmaster to particular articles
or areas of your site which would be of interest his or her
visitors.
By now they should be interested. Next you need to give
them the extra push by including the exact HTML code needed
to add your link to their page, you should include a little
description of your site in this HTML code. Remember the
easier you make it for them the more likely they will link
to you. Make it clear that you can change the description
of their site if they wish.
Last but not least thank them for taking time to read your
email and say you hope to hear from them soon. Include your
email address and phone number.
Most webmasters will go to your links page to verify that
you have actually added their link like you said, with this
in mind a technique I have used in the past which you could
also imply is to deliberately misspell their company name
or place an incorrect URL into the hyperlink which is supposed
to be pointing to their site. The point here being that the
webmaster will email you telling you that the link doesn't
work or that their information is spelled wrong and once
they do that the lines of communication are open and it is
now much easier for you to get them to reciprocate the link.
Following the above advice usually brings a 20%-40% success
rate, which is really good. It's best not to rush in and
email 100 or 200 sites at once. You should be seeking to
add about 10 good sites to your links page every week, this
usually requires emailing about 30 or 40 sites depending
on your sites properties like contents and traffic.
One thing is for sure though, it'll take time, usually from
six months to a year to develop really good traffic from
reciprocal links. It's well worth it however as your securing
free long-term traffic for your site.
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