Are there any guidelines to follow when requesting a link exchange? Not talking about here in DP, but more like contacting a site owner via email. For example, I discovered some sites that are highly relevant to my niche, and they have a "related links/blogs section". It's not just random sites with high PR. What are your thoughts on requesting link exchanges in this manner?
I had no luck with exchanging links. I wrote a few nice letters to the site owners who wanted to exchange links but never got any response from them. I think it's just plain rude not even to write something back.
In order to develop a successful link exchange campaign you need to consider your audience. First off, think about how you found the site you’re requesting a link from. Chances are many other people found this site as well. So the webmaster could be receiving dozens of link requests every day. Most are spammy and provide no value to visitors. Of course he is frustrated and highly likely to delete your request just as fast. You have to stand out and prove you’re worth the webmasters time. Remember quality links are much more valuable, over quantity, these days in Google. Try calling the webmaster. It might take a few tries to find the right person, but making that effort will go a long way. Compliment his site and be sincere. Tell him about yourself and the site you’re purposing he links to. Sell the value of your site to his visitors. Show him the link you’ve already added back to his site. This can also be left on a voicemail. The goal here is not to get the webmaster to drop everything and add your link. He’s busy so be short and to the point. You are simply trying to get him familiar with your name and website. That way when he receives your email he’ll open it. If the link is not added, or you don’t hear back give 10 days before sending a follow-up email, or if the site is really valuable make another phone call. After that I wait 2 – 3 weeks tops.
in my opinion, google is giving lower weigths for the link exchange because of this i dont prefer link exchange
My comment above about quality over quantity should be taken in general terms. I completely agree that Google isn’t giving nearly as much credit to reciprocal links as they once did. However, there are still many benefits. These links can still count in other search engines, and they have the potential to bring quality traffic.
Thanks for the replies. My site is really lacking in traffic, so I care more about bringing in targeted traffic, rather than just PR. I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling the webmasters, sometimes their personal info can be hard to find, usually their email address is the only info that's available from them. I think I will start by emailing. I mean, the worst that can happen is that they refuse, right?
If your blogging, whenever someone comments on your site, send them a request to do a link exchange...I get the best results that way. I tried randomly asking (emailing) to do link exchanges, and got no response
There are no 'guidelines' as such, but I would say don't compliment his/her site (no-one likes a brown-nose), don't go into the benefits of link-exchanging or mention PR (those that know don't need the lecture, and those that don't, don't need to know), and don't do the whole "I've added a link to you, now you do one to me" spiel (does that ever work?). Also, forget about doing an exchange - just ask for a link. Let them suggest the exchange if one is required. Simply be polite, be brief, be humble, and suggest why a link to your site would benefit his/her visitors. Most importantly, work on your technique and approach. Don't be afraid to experiment with different approaches to see what works and what doesn't. Like most things to do with being a webmaster, link-building takes a bit of practice to get good at it. Good luck, Phlegm...
From time to time I get a request from a webmaster to post on my tv, video, games blogging site. If it is a good site with good content I am happy to oblige. I do us "nofollow" on my site, otherwise my PR would bleed to death. However, a good site usually does get some traffic since I get about 2000 visitors a day and I only do one post a day. Good external links are really hard to come by, since a competitive site is usually reluctant to drive traffic to another site and a non-competitive site usually does not provide good traffic. The only good way I have found to get traffic is the "natural way". And this way takes lots of time and energy. Rich
When attempting to get relevant links directly from site owners, I will usually go through about 15 to 20 websites at a time. I usually only hear back from about 3-5 of them but those relevant links are well worth it.
I always reply to link requests but I have not found any that came from somewhere that deserved linking to from my website. For example, I recently had a request from.. a link exchange website with a niche category for my website. A few others wanted links to websites that were similar but non-overlapping and non-complimentary. For example a UK soccer team site would not link to an American Football site, what benefit would there be. Sure, they are both ball sports but how many people would be interested in both. So my best tip for etiquette would be to only request links from sites that would normally link to you anyway, like when it comes up for discussion in a forum post for example.
Wow, 10%. I sent off about 8 link request recently and didn't hear anything back, even from the sites that had a "let's exchange links" thing on their site. I guess I won't get too discouraged and keep trying.
The only problem with stating figures like that is that there are so many variables to take into account with regard to link building methodologies that it effectively makes the 'success rate' meaningless. For example, I regularly get a 25-33% 'success rate' when I do (one-way) link building, but I probably spend much longer in hunting down good leads, composing the e-mail and firing off the request than most people do. It would probably take me an hour to fire off three link requests, whereas other people who adopt a scatter-gun approach probably send out dozens (if not more) in one hour. The latter approach probably yields many more actual links than my approach (even with a lower uptake percentage) but claiming a 'success rate' in terms of a percentage doesn't factor in the quality of the link, whether the desired anchor text was achieved, boost in visitor numbers from through traffic, PR love etc. Phlegm...
Yes you should write them an email and if they don't reply, then they aren't worth your time. To trade links, most webmasters must do at least some to build any traffic or seo. Etiquette is to tell them why you think a trade will be beneficial and etc.
Thanks for the advice, I sent some emails requesting link exchanges (manually, not mass mailing of course) and I'll see how it goes. I don't ever mention "link exchange" in the subject, and I state what relevance my site has to theirs.