Share your favourite link exchange template email with us!
-
Hey Mozzers,
I've been working on a bunch of different templates lately to approach various companies in our industry for link exchanges. But I'm somewhat stumped on what the best approach would be. I want to convey the message that a link exchange would be beneficial to their ranking in search engines, but I don't want to come off sounding overly spammy.
Do you have a template that you have found worked well for you? Share it with us!
-
I agree with staying away from the link exchange page idea. However, I would think that you could find legitimate links from local sources, especially if you have any existing offline partnerships with them. Do you sponsor any little league teams or do any charity work? Do you offer free storage for women referred from the battered women's shelter (I know of movers that provide free moving for battered moving)? Anything like that you can ask for a link back from the people as a way for them to show their support. Natural links would also come from people involved in real estate, property management, student housing -- anyone that frequently deals with people that move and need a place to store things.
-
Ah, gotcha. In my experiences dealing with SMB clients, some great links for local businesses are from:
- Local directories (these also help build citations for local SEO purposes)
- Guest blogging on industry-related blogs (in your author bio, you can include a link back to your Wisconsin Cheese company - or whatever business it is that you are promoting)
- Sponsoring local events or finding other ways to get your company local press (links from newspaper websites, press release websites, and charity/event websites)
I don't mean to steer you away from link exchange requests as a tactic. It can certainly be useful, and you're right, it can be an easy method for small businesses to obtain links from other local companies or websites. I just get frustrated by the low response rate and oftentimes relatively weak link opportunities that I see with this tactic. Usually local competitors' websites are just like your own before you start working on SEO - weak, unoptimized, and with few backlinks.
I'd rather spend my time to get a guest post published on an authoritative website in my industry. It might not be as relevant of a link as one of my competitors in the area, but I can guarantee that it is going to have a ton of authority and link juice behind it.
-
Thank you for the advice. We do have many other campaigns that are currently running and very successful at link building. In this particular case we are looking to contact other local businesses in our area and offer them a link exchange. They are not websites that blog, nor do we regularly blog, it just doesn't suit a small business profile.
So suffice to say, the only way i have ever been successful getting other local businesses to link to us is with the classic "link exchange" format. Although it seems outdated, it still does work for this particular situation.
-
I don't really do any formal reciprocal link exchanges via e-mail, but I do have a ton of success with the following method:
1.) Write a great blog post or piece of content for your own website. Include in it links to other great blogs or resources about the topic you're writing about.
-
When the post is published, Tweet at the people whose websites you linked to and let them know that you mentioned their amazing, helpful resource in your latest post.
-
This generates a TON of retweets, and once in a while a great link back to my website from the blog/website that I mentioned. It also helps me establish a line of communication with authoritative figures in my industry. In short order, it puts me on their map, making future link requests much easier.
I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I thought you might find it interesting. Just my $0.02!
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Relaunching a site that has had thousands of posts linking to the same 20 articles. How to properly setup internal linking?
I'm in the process of relaunching a music news site (www.prefixmag.com) that once did quite well in search (over a million monthly search visits in its prime). The site got crushed by Panda, etc. and we stopped updating it. I'm starting to do more research but one thing that I noticed was we have modules in the right rail (desktop) that are found on all of our article pages that point to the same posts. (Edit: Added attachment. The links in the right rail under Editor Picks, Features, News, Media, etc. are found on every page of the site). In other words, we have thousands of posts that all link to the same 20 or so articles. Should we not do this if we're not trying to emphasize these posts in Google? Assuming this is the case, what is the proper way to do internal linking? Do we simply setup a sitemap and link to it? I'm hoping to have the thousands of articles we've published over the years have a chance to rank in search again. Also, we have a number of posts that are thin in content should those pages not be submitted in the sitemap? Thanks in advance! 2KmX0
Link Building | | leggo0 -
Is link sharing still worth it?
Hi guys,
Link Building | | ikwilzitzakken.nl
As far as I can see a lot of people still are sharing links from A <-> B, my question is: is it better not to use this? Can it possibly cause a penalty? My compeditors are using it and are ranking better.0 -
How much time does it take for the links to be forwarded to redirected link?
Hi there,
Link Building | | MoeezLodhi
Thank you for taking out some time for this question; I have changed the permalinks last week for a website.. I forgot to redirect old permalinks to the new one.. So I did 301 redirection, it has been 4-5 days since I did that but the links are not forwarded to the new Permalink so far.
How much time should I wait for the links to be forwarded to the new permalinks? Secondly, I am sure I have done the 301 redirect correctly, as when I go to the old url / permalink it directs me to the new permalink. So I am sure 301 is done correctly. Do I need to submit the sitemap again?0 -
Link quality
Hi, Having read dozens of your blogs and found them highly informative, i have to ask a question. I am kicking oout our SEO company and have taken over the SEO myself with some excellent results. Our SEO providers tell me that links from any site (irrelevent of their DA) are good, providing they are comming from a relevant source. We are in the security industry and according to MOZ, we have a DA of 52. If i can get a link to our site from another company in our industry but they have a DA of 10, is this really beneficial for me? Info i have read in Moz blogs suggest it is n ot a good idea. Please help. many thanks Daddy Smurf
Link Building | | DaddySmurf0 -
Resource linking
Is a resource linking page a good way to build backlinks? Do I need to ask permission of the site I am linking? & If do build a resource page do I have to keep in mind keyword density rule, not to stuff too many links on page? I see one of my competitors using a "resource page" and linking to some high athority sites, (which I know they have not asked permission) b/c they are big name site, NFL, NHL, ESPN etc. Any suggestions much appreciated! Thank you!!!
Link Building | | TP_Marketing0 -
Reciprocal Link Exchanges?
I have a spanky new website with absolutely no incoming links at all. Someone suggested a link exchange site (LinkMarket.com). But I thought that doing reciprocal links was being penalized by Google. Does anyone know if link exchange works, and if so, what the best link exchange sites are? Thanks, Dan
Link Building | | DanManCastro0 -
Links from any country?
My site is aimed primarily at the UK, 90% of the traffic is from the UK and most of my links are from other UK based and UK targetted websites. The content is actually fairly international (apart from certain terms like Plasterboard instead of Drywall, etc). My question is: Should I concentrate on gathering links from the UK, or should I widen my search and try to get links from US and European websites? Are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to keeping links "local"?
Link Building | | Jingo010