Link Requests

If you are doing a good job with your SEO, then you find that you will be sent emails requesting a link. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this but  they just go about it in the wrong way. Often they are thinly disguised with praise for you site.  Typically, along the lines of:  I was surfing the web and I came across your excellent site on kitchen cupboards… would you mind if we add a link to your site from our site… and would it be possible to add a link to our site selling prosthetic limbs to your homepage. No it bloody-well wouldn’t.

Good links are increasingly sought  after due to the widespread knowledge of search engine optimisation and the devaluing of certain kinds of linking practices such as reciprocal linking and link directories. How should you go about asking for a link from a website?

Firstly, don’t send emails to irrelevant sites. This is the most annoying part about receiving link requests. Most webmasters are happy to add links to good websites. Find sites that really would benefit from a link. This can be difficult for business websites as the most relevant sites can often be your competition but there are usually related businesses. Think about the groups of people that use your product and the industries that are in the same horizontal market.

Links from related sites with plenty of original content are good candidates, not necessarily with high-PageRank; new websites can be useful.  Today’s unranked website could become a PR 4 during the next PageRank update.

In the subject heading of your email you   should be  subtle and to the point, for example:  Link suggestion or link proposal are fine. I have always found that a polite but to the point email works well. You don’t need to waste their time bullshiting them about how great their website is. While people like to here praise, if it is associated with a link request it just sounds insincere even if your website is great.

Find out the webmaster’s name if possible and use it in the email or contact form. Explain that you think that you have looked at their site and your link may be relevant to their visitors. Ask for the link. You should make their job as simple as possible for the link to be implemented. Include the link code in your email. This also gives you more opportunity to control the anchor text.

How do you request your links?