Link exchange e-mails sent out; what's the average rate of returning exchanged links?

[tyler_durden]

I have sent out 40 e-mails to other webmasters asking to exchange links with them since Thursday, and have received only 5 e-mails back (3 already linked, and 2 will be doin it within the next week). I placed a link on my site BEFORE i e-mailed them, and let them know where they could find it. What is everyone elses normal rate of return when doing this? I suppose it's still early (2 days), but it's taken me hours to find the sites, set up the link, then e-mail them. This will take forever to get 100's of quality links to my site!

[dvduval]

Hi tyler,

I think of linking as a regular and necessary task. A return rate of 1 out of 8 isn't bad. How many links does the number 1 spot for your main search keywords have? At 5 links per week, how long would it take you to beat them? Also, don't forget about internal links. Keep growing your site. Create a plan to add 5 external links and 5 internal pages once/week. That would be 520 new links per year. Would that be enough? Is this a reasonable goal for you?

[tyler_durden]

the top spot for the word "candles" has a hair under 700 links to them i google. It's a little tougher to add new pages to an actual e-commerce site rather than an information type website, but there are quite a few I can think of such as how a cnadle burns, history of candles, etc. One thing that I am doing that the top site doesn't have is link relevancy. That site has links from webhost sites, free-for-all sites, etc. Maybe I can do more with less links, but better relevant ones?? Thanks for your input...

[dvduval]

Hi Tyler,

Actually, the company in question only has 377 links. For some reason, Google always doubles the number. Keep in mind however that Google only displays links with PageRank 4 or higher.

One of the keys to having a successful eccommerce site, believe it or not, is by providing information. Here are two ideas:
1. Product of the week (that's one new static page per week)
2. Add a forum like phpbb. You could have 200 new pages before you know it.

[maartenvr]

_______________________________________
dvduval: A return rate of 1 out of 8 isn't bad.
_______________________________________

I respectfully dissagree. A return rate 1 out of 8 is in my eyes considered very bad. If you make your link exchange requests personal and professional, your response rate will be more like 8 out of 10!

[dvduval]

maartenvr,

I should elaborate. Response rates will vary based on several factors:
1) Does the site you are requesting have a links page?
2) What is the size of the industry you are in?
3) How similar is the content to yours?
4) Is this site a potential competitor?

1 out of 8? Yes, that is a little low.

[tyler_durden]

I can understand why you would think it's low. I think many users of this forum are in the website/SEO business, etc. The website owners you contact know how important reciprocal/relevant incoming links are. My site is a handmade candle site, with most candle sites on the net being from older ladies who don't understand the importance of links. And i've even had a response back saying they didn't want to lose business to a better looking site (her site was a purple background and yellow text, and just burnt your retinas out). Plus many of these sites have other people doing their pages, not them. So my e-mail gets lost in the shuffle there. I have noticed my rates quite higher, almost 1 in 3 to non-candle sites. Interesting...

[maartenvr]

Well...It is important that the site you request a link exchange with does have a link directory also. There is no point requesting a link exchange if they do not have it.
About linking to sites that do not look good at all, I don't see a point in that neither. You want to link to valuable sites that look goos and you think is a good resource for your visitors.
Linking to non candle sites.. I suggest make sure those sites are still related. Maybe crafts or something.

[Cavemptr]

Originally posted by maartenvr
_______________________________________

I respectfully dissagree. A return rate 1 out of 8 is in my eyes considered very bad. If you make your link exchange requests personal and professional, your response rate will be more like 8 out of 10!

In my experience, 80% would be very optimistic. A lot of your emails are going to be immediately discarded. People get so much spam it won't matter how personal or professional your request is if it never gets read. I'm not saying you shouldn't personalize your requests, it's just that many won't even make it past the recipient's delete button.

[dvduval]

I had a neighbor kid $10/hour to email a bunch of industry related sites requesting a link about a month ago. At the same time he added a link back to their site. He did 58 links. I checked them all today. There were 12 that had linked back. That's a little better than 20%. In about 8 of the cases, the site we were submitting to didn't have a links page.

[maartenvr]

OK. 8 out of 10 is a bit optimistic. But my point is just the importance of personalizing those emails. Because everyone will delete those emails if they look like some sort of a template. I have found out that there is a lot in the title of the email you send out and the first line. Those are critical for personalization.

[SJL]

Originally posted by dvduval
Hi tyler,

I think of linking as a regular and necessary task. A return rate of 1 out of 8 isn't bad. How many links does the number 1 spot for your main search keywords have? At 5 links per week, how long would it take you to beat them? Also, don't forget about internal links. Keep growing your site. Create a plan to add 5 external links and 5 internal pages once/week. That would be 520 new links per year. Would that be enough? Is this a reasonable goal for you?

Hi David:

I understand the reason to create links for better page rank, but what advantage does creating "5 internal pages once/week" provide?

Does this provide better ranking, when google comes back around to spider? Just curious.

SJ

[dvduval]

Hi SJL,

There are 3 benefits of adding new pages:
1) Targeting additional keywords
2) PageRank - If all your ducks are in a row concerning the navigation, then these new pages will link back to the important areas of your site. Yes, internal links definitely count.
3) Hub Status - there tends to come a point where if your site is a leading information provider for your topic area, you become a hub in Google's algorithm. I can't tell you exactly what a hub is or how to become one, but I know that internal pages help.

Does anyone want to describe a hub?

[scottiecl]

A hub has lots of related information and links to relevant sites.

Many people ask, "Does linking out help my ranking?" Well, just a link or two probably doesn't do anything much for rankings( but if it helps your visitors then add them!).

However, a cluster of links around a specific type of information can be designated as a hub and ranked more highly. If your hub is useful, you will naturally get more sites linking to it as well, which may designate your site as an authority.

Think about it like this- anything that helps your target audience is a good thing to do. It makes your site more "sticky" in getting return visits.

A forum, articles, syndicated news feeds, additional detailed product information; all of these things can give people a reason to revisit your site. In cases where people like to revisit your site, spiders tend to revisit as well. And other people find your site and link to it which is all the better.

Build a good site with clear navigation and lots of good content and give people something more, something new, something helpful along with whatever you're selling (think of it as lagniappe- a cajun term for "A little something extra") and you will rank well.

[car-buyingtips]

I have over 400 incomming links and it took me 4 months. I get a response of about 6 out of 10 using zues. I believe anyone that learns zues and uses it correctly has a definate advantage over someone that does it by hand.

Here is a link to zues at cyvber-robotics if someone has never used it before. They have a fully functional free version also.
http://www.car-buyingtips.com/zeus.html

Bill Dearn

[maartenvr]

It is not what program you use to send out the emails, It is what you write in them and if you keep them personalized.

Everyone here knows Zeus. It is the wrong program to use for reciprocal linking. Google doesn't even rank the pages! What is the use of it! I know many people who won't even link to Zeus generated directories!

Sorry to come down hard on you. But I would really suggest using another program. Maybe Arelis.

[scottiecl]

Read a past thread (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4928&highlight=Arelis) on Arelis

[car-buyingtips]

I am sure many know about Zues but those are rumors and totally not true about Google not ranking a Zues page. All my pages rank well and in fact if you search for "tires and rims" one of my zues pages is #10 in Google.

Here is a link to learn all about the rumors and truths
http://www.cyber-robotics.com/Google_and_Zeus.htm



"Like any other program, Zeus is a tool that can be used or misused. Google judges the quality of a site partly by the quality of the pages that site links to. If a webmaster links to poor-quality or spammy sites, that can affect his or her site's ranking. As a program that actively engages in searching out links, Zeus can amplify that factor. Webmasters who use Zeus should be extremely careful - adding links to sites tagged as spam can lead your site to be tagged as spam, and Zeus can clearly play a role in that process."
Matt Cutts

Google Software Engineer and Spam Czar

[maartenvr]

OK. I agree that Google does sometimes rank zeus generated pages. I have seen very few. It is very very hard to achieve this with Zeus. So why bother witht that program and not just find something else that works better. Like Arelis.

About the link to rumours and truths: This means nothing! It is published on the cyber-robotics website who of course do anything and will even lie to sell their software!

[car-buyingtips]

I have 4 other web sites with Zues directories and all of them are indexed. I tried out Zues and put it through the paces and know it works. My site has a 7 out of 10 page rank and is not even one year old yet. I know for a fact without Zues I wouldn't be were I am today. Also cyber-robotics wouldn't lie just to sell the software no business could get away with lying like that. If your program works then congrads but please don't talk others away from a good program just on the basis of rumors. The proof is in the results and I have the results and will be happy to show anyone. I just posted to inform readers of what works for me.

[dvduval]

Both Arelis and Zeus are tools. On the one hand, it's important to avoid automated programs as a means of link pop. On the other hand, I believe these can both be configured to avoid this.

I personally don't use either of them because:
1) I prefer more personalized communication
2) I believe in the old addage: Build it and they will come.
3) I don't do anything that even has a remote risk of getting hit with a zero PageRank penalty.

It's easy to get overly involved with link pop instead of focusing your efforts on building a great site. My personal strategy is to request 3-4 link exchanges daily. Then, after a while, I'm #1 or #2 for the keywords and I stop requesting links as often. I have 6 sites that are #1 or #2, and about 6 sites that are newer and are still gaining. With that said, I really focus on building a great site with lots of content. The search engines love it when I do that!

[car-buyingtips]

I do agree with you totally David. I built my site with tons of content first since no one would link to a useless site. I was just saying that I use Zues to automate my tasks . I also visit every site and look it over first and send a personal message geared to every site I feel fits my sites content.

[maartenvr]

Well..I did not mean to come over that hard. Zeus definately has some features that are good. One that I like about it is that it will search for new potential link partners by spidering unattended. Where as Arelis at the other hand just finds 100 at a time.

I really just look at the major differences and also the price. Zeus is twice more expensive then Arelis. But is it that much better? I guess for some people some things work better then for others. It looks like Zeus is working very well for you. And why change a good thing? I personally would just not recommend it to newbies.