When going about asking a site for a link on their page, how do you ask?
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I go for transparency everytime and tell them I represent or work on behalf of the client.
Best to be upfront and not get rubbled and sour a potential relationship.
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Outspoken Media did a killer post about using personas. It's largely geared towards blog commenting, but it could definitely be applied to lots of different situations.
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Asking for back links, kinda seems a lot like begging to me.
And not many people like to give money to beggers.
But having said that; the best way to go about it would obviously be to start within the circles of people you actually know.
Don't just go and approach random website owners; they'll think you're shady. (I know I do!) -> instant delete!
Build up a relationship with site owners and over time, then ask. But not before you've posted a link to their site first.
Scratch their back -> before asking if they will scratch yours.
ps: I gave EGOL a thumbs up! And those who said he should have been given one, I gave you all thumbs up too. Share the love!
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But not before you've posted a link to their site first.
But then it's merely a reciprocal link, and 9 times out of 10 will be less in value. I'd rather get the link through another hook, though I agree something must be in it for them too.
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Ha ha... that is really a good one. Thanks!
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Add value to your content and you won't need to beg for site owners to get links to your website. People would link to you on their own.
You can also tweet and post your links on Facebook; or add "real/valuable" blog comments with a link to your site.
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Even though I personally agree with Egol, it doesn't mean that Trevor will like the answer. Egol is correct, however I feel Trevor's question is still not answered the way he would like. His problem is not getting any responses back and perhaps he's been doing the exact instructions as Egol has generously suggested but still getting nowhere.
There are many ways to get people to interact with you.
Here are list of favourable ways I use to get a site to respond.
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Use their Contact Us form or Support channel. Create a ticket.
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Offer a small monthly fee of $5.00/mth. Most times, they simply respond and make a clean exchange. the initial response is what you're looking for. Don't wait 24 hours. Act immdiately!
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If the site has a great reputation and authority, make a post which includes a follow in the upper part of your article (above the fold). Next contact the owner and ask if your post link (anchor is okay). Perhaps send a support ticket.
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Offer a free gift in exchange for the linkback.
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Using RSS feeds is extremely powerful these days in creating easy one way do follow linkbacks to your site.
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Social bookmarking sites like LinkedIn and StumbleUpon work extremely well with Yahoo Pipes.
The above has worked well for me and I'm sure it will for you. Especially #3, 4 & 5. You can also purchase great backlink sites instructional PDF's that contain *.org & *.edu domains. Complete step-by-step how to place your link in a very professional manner.
I hope this helped.
Lonnie Amirault
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the thumbs up and thumbs down on different sites are swapped around and if you were a late night SEO, maybe you could be too tired to see you hit the wrong one?
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This is exactly right.
The number of garbage link requests to great, useful ones that I would even consider on a news site is about 1000:1.
Most people want a quick fix program to do the work for them.
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We get a few of these each month too, but most of them ask us to link to a garbage site and they are 100% automated.
My name is on the site, so if they just say "Dear Webmaster," they didn't use any effort, and that is a mark against them. Plus, the message uses exactly the same format as the previous 10.
You can use automation, but there has to be something personal.
People don't seem to have learned ANYTHING about "social."
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Tonight I've crafted a backlink strategy, after reading all of this.
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I have client campaigns set up with Ontolo.
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I use eMail Extractor to scrape email addresses from sites generated by Ontolo.
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I use iContact to ask for permission to add them to my mailing list. The email has the following features:
a) a professional email template
b) a picture of myself and my name, position and company
c) a value proposition: an hour worth of free keyword auditing in exchange for a link to my client's site.
d) recognizing their site is well respected
e) the lure of not knowing the client's name and site until they subscribe.
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Hear hear!
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I've found three approaches to be effective:
1. Link to them first, then send an email with a non-spammy subject line that says that you linked to X content for Y reason because you found it valuable to your audience. Include a link to your website in your email signature and people will sometimes reciprocate on their own.
2. Use this tool (http://validator.w3.org/checklink) to find any broken links on a page. Make a short list, send an email with the subject line as "broken links on X page". Give them your list and suggest at the bottom that they might find your topical resource helpful. People will be grateful that you're improving their site and they'll have to edit the page to fix the broken links, so it's a low opportunity cost for them to add your page on there.
3. Flattery, as mentioned by others. Email them and point out that you liked X content for Y reason. Include a link to your website in your email signature, or politely point out that you share their interests or views on things.
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It is so very true - I call it false flattery and because it is just so slimy and induces feelings of nausea. One thing I also make sure I do is write the person on the same level that I am on - if they are an editor, I will write with my editor part. If they are an SEO marketer, I will write with my SEO part. It is through similarities that people connect.
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I like this reply, I might not be the most educated, no let me rephrase that I'm definitely not the most educated on this forum but I know you have to work out to get results whenever you are and that includes the Internet.
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I'm in-house marketing for a manufacturing company, so my approach may be a little different than those of you who work at agencies or otherwise on behalf of a client.
I've been using open site explorer (http://www.opensiteexplorer.org which is linked directly from some SEOMoz report pages) to explore who are linking to my biggest competitors. I sort these links by "external only". I then sort that list so the pages with the highest domain authority appear at the top in descending order.
My company and our competitors obviously run in the same circles, so there is some overlap in who links to us. But I've found a number of universities and organizations that maintain "useful links" lists that have included my competitors, but not us.
I've then emailed the webmaster (or whatever contact I've been able to locate for the page in question), introduced myself, mention our website, and then try to make it personal (for example, I've mentioned that our sensor has been used in many of the weather networks linked to on the same page, that we have educational articles that may be of use for visitors, etc.)
My thoughts are that these are specifically pages about links to more resources on the web, so it can't hurt to be asked to be included. I just started with this approach, as there were many .edu and .org links with high DA/PA that I noticed our competitors were on. So we'll see how it works...
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Reaching for it is not bad but spraying someone for a "sincere compliment" would be antisocial.
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Great response. Most people welcome content that supports what they have blogged about. Especially if it is something that they are passionate about. Best thing to do is follow their blog for awhile, make some comments showing that you appreciate what they have to say or how much you like their site.
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say: "I can do this for you, can you do this for me, or would you be interested?"
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