Reciprical Links

[Gregsta]

Hi there all,
I am about to start looking at other companies for reciprical links to my companies website and I was wondering if anyone could help me out by giving me a few do's and don'ts from past experiences.

Thanks in advance,

Greg
http://www.axiossystems.com

[kneelsit]

Hi Greg,

First off I notice you have a couple of good testimonials
already on your site. Have you asked these[/] firms for a link??

Mainly, I think the most important thing is to set up a link to the site you would like to get a link from FIRST. (One of course that is going to be of use and value to your visitors).

[b] Then write to them, tell what you have done and WHY you admire their site and ask them humbly if they might consider giving you a link back.

It is a slow but sure way to gradually build up a number of good links AND it gives YOUR site more credibility and value.

[Jamesgray_helpu]

Also, when you email them offer to change the text of the link on your site - they may like a specific phrase or call to action, they may also like to include their keywords in the link...

[Blue]

Hi Gregsta,

Do's:

Ask for links that will be of value to your sites visitors.

Make sure the email you send is personal. Do your research and find out, if you can, the persons name.

Tell them why you believe they should link to your site. What value does it have for them?

Be specific in the format of the link you ask for. Give them the full HTML to the link.

Include the - target="_blank" - code. They'll appreciate it.

Don'ts:

Don't associate with "link farms".

Don't send out mass emails.

Don't send out "canned" or "boilerplate" emails.

[maartenvr]

Some of this might already have been said but I cut it out of an article I wrote and changed it a bit.

One thing that is very important is the quality of the links that link to your website. Links pointing to your from a low ranking, low traffic website are very close to pointless.

What not to do:

- Do not add your link to a large link list that many webmasters upload to their website and consist of links only. This is considered a link farm. Important search engines like Google recognize these links pages as link farms and will not count these as incoming links. In fact it could hurt your rankings. Some other search engines are know for banning your websites if you participate in one of these link farms.

- Do not create a link directory and use this directory for multiple websites. Not only does this get close to being a link farm, it also creates a “links nest”. It is very easy for search engine spiders to recignize that all these pages are the same.

- Do not use Zeus for creating your links pages. Google does not spider links pages created by this program which makes it pointless.

Do:

To evaluate each potential link partner website I recommend using the Google toolbar as well as the Alexa toolbar. These toolbars will help you evaluate each website you visit. The Google toolbar will tell you the page rank of the website you are visiting and the Alexa toolbar will tell you what kind of traffic rankings the potential link partner has. There is no sense requesting a link exchange with a low traffic website. If it hardly gets any visitors itself, how many will you receive from it? Also look at how high these websites rank in se's which will let you know how much traffic they could send you. The Alexa toolbar only tells you a little.

As you visit each website, you will also visit many search directories. As you visit these directories don’t forget to leave your link. You don’t have to link back to these sites. Many of these directories will not just help increasing your link popularity, you can also receive some substantially good traffic from these!

Make sure each potential link partner already has a link directory on their website. If they don't, chances are they will not link to you but...If you see an opportunity where your link fits in nicely, you can still try!.

Make sure you have a link from your main page pointing to your link directory. This will help search engine spiders spider your links pages.

Do not use templates to send your link exchange request. You want to make sure that you personalize each and every single link request you send out. These days, webmasters get too many junk emails. Personalizing your link request will give you a bigger chance to get response from the webmaster you are contacting. Don’t forget to add something nice to your email. Also, include your linking information to your website for them to add to theirs. Make it as easy for them as possible. Give them a reason to add your link to their site. Don’t start off your request by telling this webmaster telling him how important link popularity is. They should know. And if they don't, they probably don't have a link directory.

It might take some webmasters some time to respond to your request. Don’t make them angry by keep sending them emails. Send one, if you don’t get an answer for a month or so you can send another request. Not all webmasters will respond at all. But if you keep your email requests personalized, professional and friendly, you should be getting about an 50%-80% response.

[BZProd]

I've found that sometimes all you need is a phone call. For some sites that are very popular, they get 100s of emails per day and a phone call does a great job here.

I have received many good links as well as contacts due to a friendly phone call.

God Bless,

Patrick

[maartenvr]

I agree Patrick, Phone calls are an exellent way to do this!