I see a lot of my competitors, having "link to us" code for its visitors. I am just wondering, isn't that against Google quality guideline? Can I ask people to link to me with anchor text? If i am not paying for it, it's not paid links? Or is that manipulation of search engine?
Don't confuse Google with Fidel Castro . There is nothing wrong with requesting back links from your users. If they liked your site/content most of them will link on their own and there is absolutely nothing wrong with "guiding" them on what you would like to link to look like.
There's nothing wrong with asking for a back link.. As long as you follow the guidelines everything's going to turn out okay.
That's not against Google's guidelines. What Google prohibits is participating in excessive link exchanges.
This is how the web works, Google wants people to link to each other so they can determine relevance ;D
I don't think its against by TOS by Google. All i know is if you buy links and link to link farms then they will treat your site as spam or there could be a possibility that your site will be penalize by Google.
It is ok to ask people to link to your site, it is a good idea to make sure it will be useful to their visitors and their site is not a link farm.
You are just making it easier for people to link to you. Someone who wants to link to your site would most likely be giving a dofollow link anyway.