Requesting Link
-
Hi guys,
A coworker of mine was quoted on behalf of our financial firm in an article for Reuters a few months back. The article itself has taken off and has been posted several times on different websites. I've reached out to a few requesting they back link to our site when mentioning our business, but so far I'm getting a lot of rejection e-mails. The last one I received says they won't hyperlink to a company unless it's for a "specific reason". Anyone have any suggestions on how to better request these links--or communicate the "specific reason" I apparently need to have? I tried explaining in my initial message that it was beneficial for the reader, etc. etc, but all these outlets still seem to be against the idea.
Thanks!
-
Hi Lauren,
This technique can be very effective but it is getting harder to do because as you say, people need a reason to link and often don't like linking out.
My question would be - does your colleague have a page on your website? Something such as a profile page? If they do, then this may be a good way of providing a reason for the link because it's crediting the right person with the quote. Another possibility - have they used a photo of your colleague? Again if they have, then that may be another route.
I know this may be a little too late, but I wanted to mention it for the future - the quicker you can contact someone after an article has been published, the better chance you have of getting the link. You mentioned that the article in Reuters was from a few months ago which makes it tougher for you. So I'd advise trying to react as quickly as possible to things like this using a tool such as Buzzsumo of Fresh Web Explorer to find fresh mentions of people's names.
I hope that helps!
Paddy
-
Hi Lauren,
This seems to be widespread across most news sites. I've reached out to many news sites before with the same request. The only theory I've been able to come up with is that they make money on the ads that plaster most news sites (even the big ones!), so if they link out to another site, they've just lost ad revenue.
*edit
Out of continued curiosity, I decided to see if I could corroborate my theory. While I couldn't do that (but really, they'd never admit it anyway), I did come across this article that points towards 'janky CMSs'.
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
-
About to give up - shall I buy links?
So I have been at this for years! I cannot get Google to improve the rank on my travel site. The site has great relevant content that is constantly updated, it's optimized, has good page speed, active on social media. I have added backlinks where I could. I changed domain name about 4 years ago which probably impacted my rankings at the time. MOZ just did a walk through with me and couldn't really suggest any improvements. I remain with a low domain authority and consistently place under my competitor on Google. Last resort is to buy backlinks through fiverr. Is that a big mistake? https://tamarindobeachinfo.com
Branding | | artsp0 -
Passing "link juice" from old domain to new domain
I am purchasing several websites from the company I work for and starting my own company. 1.The websites have not been updated in several years
Branding | | RoxBrock
2. The websites have poor SEO rankings
3. Though bad inbound links have been removed, there may still be some added by a black-hat SEO company I would like to start a new website and move all the content to that site. My questions are: 1. Will it hurt my new website rankings if I redirect the old site content to my new site and delete the old sites--due to possible bad inbound links, losing rank due to redirects (I have lost rank from redirecting in the past)? 2. If related, isn't it better to put all the content on one website? Thank you.0 -
How to turn a good blog into link bait
Hello, I don't really believe in spending a lot of time link building (and maybe that's a limitation of mine). I believe, at least for the small businesses I've been running, that producing targeted, thorough, very very helpful, useful, unique, authority based, knowledgable, transparent content is what most of the time should go into. I'm sure there are many exceptions in industry and company size. We use a blog and feature it really big and solid on the home page. So we're making a blog that has the qualities above (useful, unique ... transparent). How, while we're doing the writing, can we make the content also be good link bait? We need an awesome link profile. Also, what free easy afterward social or email outreach am I not including to maximize exposure (The only content marketing I do is posting blog posts right now on Facebook and Google+)? What would you do with the first $100 in this context? The first $300? (We're low budget always) Thanks, Bob
Branding | | BobGW0 -
No Domain Link In Press Release, What About Yelp?
Hi Moz, I understand that using a PR for SEO benefit is old-school, black hat, and largely outlawed by Google. We are simply trying to get our name pushed further into the local market, i.e., using a press release for it's natural intention. Our company offers free quotes through our site and the scheduling of jobs with new clients is largely done online. I think it seems silly NOT to have a link to our URL in the press release, but rather than poke Google, we're fine omitting it. However, would linking our Yelp near the end be a big deal? Yelp no-follows their URLs back to the company site so there isn't a risk with pumping up a support link through PR and we can provide SOME clickable link to our information. Thoughts?
Branding | | kirmeliux0 -
External 'Source' link in PPC Ad copy
Afternoon Mozzers, Noticed something today on Google.co.uk that we have never seen / noticed before on PPC adverts. This exampe is a Google UK search for Wonga payday. Within the Ad copy there is a link to a BBC news article about the company. Has anyone else seen these on any PPC Ads? I am assuming this is not an intentional feature from Wonga to link to an external site from within their own PPC advert? i assume they would not get charged for these clicks. If anyone has any further info or insights on this feature it would be appreciated. PqsOoUy.png
Branding | | Sarbs0 -
Commentluv enabled blogs for inbound links?
Question 1: What is the general consensus on gaining links through blog comments on blogs with CommentLuv enabled? Backstory: I was studying our competitor's links and tripped upon something I haven't seen before. There were a number of blog comments created in 2011 by an individual who was probably an SEO hired at least partially for the purpose of making blog comments to gain inbound links for the competitor. I haven't dug deeply enough to find if there are any more recent than 2011. The interesting part was the name/link of the company for this individual which was not the company's actual name but a URL crafted from a main keyword. It obviously has a redirect to the actual competitor's website which is where the link took me AND a link to this individual's "most recent blog post". This blog post on the company site was written by someone else entirely. Question 2: Clearly some manipulation to build links- would these links be considered unnatural? Question 3: Would it be smart for me to find blogs with CommentLuv to gain links to my blog?
Branding | | gfiedel0 -
Guest Posts/Blogs/Articles Link Building
Is it me or are the usual places you used to go for to find quality blogs to guest post to seem to be full of low quality spammy blogs. And doing a search brings up loads of poor quality sites/blogs too. I was thinking of creating a high quality content site for link bait. Any suggestions on "refreshing" a tired link strategy. Where do you find your guest blog/posts?
Branding | | JohnW-UK0 -
Links from paid submissions to FWA, awwwards etc.
I'm thinkink about submitting my company website and some of our clients websites to contest sites like FWA and Awwwards. They offer paid submissions and they claim that for 50€, more or less, my site will be manualy submited to 50 web galleries. What do you think?
Branding | | Jbla0