Asking for links

[moonshield]

When you write an email asking for a link, how do you ask? What is your tone? Any advice?

Thanks.

[Emancipator]

i never do... and I never read the emails from people who do. I only trade links with people I know.

[thebillionaire]

use a professional tone, well written and good grammer.

[Chris]

I haven't done it since 2001, but then I simply pointed them a link to my site and asked if they thought it useful that they'd add a link. Most of them loved the site and so I got alot of links.

[Emancipator]

doesnt matter how professional the email looks. I get tons of really nice looking form emails I delete every day.

[Cutter]

There are different ways to do it. Your success will vary not only by how your write it, but by who you are writing it to.

I've found that there are two keys to getting people to link to you
1 - Unique & useful content. SEO firms do this by offering free SEO tools. You can do this by offering something unique for whatever niche your site is in; articles, online tools, can be really anything.

Example: for my gaming site I got reviews for brand new games out the day after they were released.

2 - Know the person you want to get the link from. Bulk mailing every e-mail address the same letter doesn't cut it. The most valuable sites to get links from are often run by people who have strong interests in a field. Your interests have to be able to connect.

So how do you write an e-mail asking for a link? From my own experience -- keep it casual. Don't think of it as "asking for a link" but rather, "sharing valuable information."

Keep in mind, this only works if you meet requirement #1.

Even then, there are some people that will not add a link to you no matter how or what you say. Usually thats when money does the best talking ;)

[chromate]

Ask yourself the question, what do you want to see in a link request you receive?

I don't know about you, but I get about 5 to 10 link requests each day. I can't give each one much attention, so normally I just check the page where they're displaying my link. Quick check on the PR, number of other links on the page, quality of site and I make the decision whether to link back in a snap. Maybe 1 out of every 80 link requests will get a link back.

If you have a good quality site and some PR to offer, then getting links isn't that hard. It's like a breath of fresh air when I receive a link request from a quality site. I'm sure it's the same for other webmasters.

[James]

I get some good requests from LinkMetro once in a while. Pretty good for doing no work.

Also, I've just done a quick search on Google, gone to a few sites in the results, and just middle-clicked the URLs so I've got a few that I actually email out of a heap, and they usually don't respond.

Basically your best bet is to exchange links with a few people, then focus more on quality content and SEO, as well as improving usability of your website.

[dburdon]

One positive approach is to add their link first. You're showing that you're serious.

[LuckyShima]

I only open a minority of link requests to have a look, but if I was doing it myself I would state in point form the type of site, the PR on the link page (not the home page), the theme of the link page (if any) and maybe the proposed number of links on the link page. And it would probably be advisable to follow advice already given and have the link already set up.

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Dont say things like
"I found your website out of the ordinary and very rich in content, and I am sure my clients and visitors will find that too" - even if it is true -

This is from a typical general link request email and says to me "I havent bothered to look at your site but my automatic link software found a link and I will try and massage your ego into giving me a link"

If it is a great site then you should have no problem being specific about their great content etc

[Cutter]

Another tip is to make sure you contact the actual owner, not just some webmaster or employee.

[ozgression]

I only open a minority of link requests to have a look, but if I was doing it myself I would state in point form the type of site, the PR on the link page (not the home page), the theme of the link page (if any) and maybe the proposed number of links on the link page. And it would probably be advisable to follow advice already given and have the link already set up.

Yeah, you definately need to just cut to the point and let them know what the deal is.

[Cutter]

Thats one way to approach it, but, believe it or not, there are many webmasters who don't care about PR or SEO. They just want to provide good info for their viewers.

[eMEraLdwPn]

i just sent out a bunch of link requests and they were all one or two sentences. generally when i get a link request and it's a whole page, i don't even bother looking at it, because it's usually spam.

[Masetek]

I keep mine short and sweet. Most of my link building happens when Im just starting a site so it doesnt have a lot to offer PR or traffic wise, so I just want a straight exchange so I can have another backlink. I probably get about 20% of people replying. I get more link exchanges from posting on forums and meeting people that way. I have found people that have a few sites in that niche, and done multiple exchanges that way. I get real tired of finding a site, adding a link to that site, sending an email, waiting and getting no response, removing the link. I've got better things to do with my time.

[dburdon]

Be honest and look for quality and relevance. Don't waste too much time chasing links with sites that won't add much to your standing.

[James]

It's better to get a little PR from on-topic sites than a little more from not on-topic websites. So don't ignore a site you see is high quality just because it's low-PR.

[Blue Cat Buxton]

It's better to get a little PR from on-topic sites than a little more from not on-topic websites. So don't ignore a site you see is high quality just because it's low-PR.

Wise words