'How to Request Reciprocal Links (and How Not To)'

How to Request Reciprocal Links (and How Not To)

By Brian White at 05/28/07 09:44

If you have a website, a good way to get some traffic and search engine preference is by getting other sites to link back to you. There are right and wrong ways to do it.

Best way is to pick out a handful of sites, and link to them first. Don't even tell them that you did, just do it. Some will notice it and write to you with thanks (or maybe blog about it). Once a month has passed, write to the rest of them and say "I've been linking to you for a while, please consider linking back". Most will be flattered and give you the link.

No matter what you do, don't carpet bomb random sites, or even the sites that you love, and say things like, "hey, if you like to me and show me where the link is, I'll link back to you!" Don't ask me to do something you won't even do for me!

And in general, don't carpet bomb. If you send the link request to a thousand sites, we'll know it and you'll get no respect. Give that much better, and when you do give links, don't bury them deep inside your site. Keep them prominent, so they'll actually benefit the other webmasters.

[Ed note: don't send a email saying you saw someones website and think it is great... especially if you have never looked at the website]

I would basically tell anyone that emailed me asking for a link exchange to stuff it where the sun doesn't shine... and the more it looked like they uses a program or followed someone's instructions in an ebooks the more aggressive the response.

I rarely if ever receive any such requests from sites that are in any way topically in common.

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