Getting links - the actual final approach to do so
-
Hi All,
So once you use OSE Tool to point you in the right direction of sites that might be able to give you links, what are the best practices for then reaching out to the website? I get that you need to give value in your request for a link and offer something of value – but what else to think about??
Ie Call them, email them, email who? Follow up with phone call??? Do you just use the standard contact form on their website? Presumably you need to track all this, just do it in a spreadsheet?
What do you say in the email? Do you offer them a link (if you can?)
I guess it’s a thing that sounds easy enough – go get a link – but I would imagine that people who have done this enough with some success can maybe share some of the things that particularly worked or did not work…
At the moment it just seems a daunting / time consuming task - even thinking of getting an intern to help do all this – pros and cons to that as well???
Thanks for your time!
-
Read Paddys blog about this - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-build-links-without-fancy-tools
I commented with an example of the email I send http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-build-links-without-fancy-tools#jtc138789
I just keep it as simple and honest as possible
-
The task can be time consuming and many companies will get an intern or such like to do what I call the "donkey work" once the target sites have been identified.
For scalability email is usually better than phoning however some people may prefer the personal touch. Recent link building I have been involved with was contacting suppliers to the company I was working for and asking them to include a link to the site as the more visible the site and the more sales then the better it was for the supplier.
Another link building exercise for a different company involved contacting all business clients and asking them to host the link on pages they had set up to help their staff as the companyI was working on behalf provided client benefits that the company were offering to their staff.
With both these examples it was easy to explain in a sentence or two the benefits of the link building rather than just a speculative "please link to us" request. If you can work out what the relationship between the two sites or companies is then it may be easier to request and receive links.
I would track all this in a spreadsheet so you know who has responded positively or negatively and you can chase up those that say they will add a link if they haven't done so and also you can make sure you don't pester people who have already refused.
Hope this helps.
-
You need to identify what your angle will be are you after a guest post or a paid link or a banner etc
Then you need to separate your sites into high and low value targets - The low value targets just shoot over a generic pitch or offer with a subject and heading for that site. Email or use form on site -Start by saying you like their blog etc
For the high value ones call if you can. Create a blog post for them to post as a guest post and send it over to them to use with some info about you etc. Or start commenting on the blog to gain a relationship then contact and ask for a way to work together.
-
I guess one thing that certainly helps is to take your time: Linkbuilding is all about creating relationships and so don't use a bulk mail tool to approach the people you want to give you a link. Remember that there's always people behind a website and try to be as polite as you would be in the offline world, if you were asking somebody for a favor.
It often helps to take your time and to do some research on WHO is operating this website. Personalize your e-mail and if you make them an offer, offer them something that you think fits their needs 100%. Don't offer them something that has nothing to do with their topics or target audience.
Yes linkbuilding is time consuming. But very rewarding in the same way. Think about your link partners as partners and not as websites giving you something. Establish a meaningful connection and get those links in no time
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
-
Getting some links, when will I see results?
Hey Guys, I started getting some links to my website. When do you think I will see an increase in rankings? Thanks!
Link Building | | RafeTLouis0 -
Why Links from Top Level Domains doesn't Pass Link Equity?
Hello, I have a doubt about Equity-Passing links report of OpensiteExplorer.org According to Sam Weber http://moz.com/community/users/432678 links which pass value from one page to another including followed 301 and Meta refresh links are under Equity-Passing links. I am surprising after looking at the links report generated by opensiteexplorer.org. Most of the article and directory links which have low DA and PA are under Equity-Passing links. Whereas websites like EzineArticle or Articlebase which have good DA and PA are not found in either Equity-passing links or under only nofollow category. Please suggest me if the report of Opensiteexplorer is not good enough or the links from the site like Ezine Article doesn’t pass the link equity. Thanks.
Link Building | | TopLeagueTechnologies0 -
Linking Etiquette
Hi Moz Community, Long time lurker, first time poster. I work for a real estate firm and have recently done some link analysis. I'm noticing that my company is not getting linked to as frequently as we should be. Several news outlets (including NYT & Bloomberg) have cited our reports, interviews with employees and other original content belonging to my company without linking back to our site (although they do mention us).Some publications are even linking back to our competitors for similar content but not ours. Is it appropriate to reach out and ask for links from these outlets after they've been published? Does anybody have tips on making others aware we want links shared for future articles? Thanks in advance!
Link Building | | rlaughlin0 -
No Follow Links
On my campaign report from SEOmoz I have noticed that all my 3 competitors have 99% followed links versus 1% no-followed links. Should I do the same? How can I check were are the no-follow links on my site? I have found some tool online but it shows me that there are only 2 no-follow links on my website which are both www.cloudflare.com while SEOmoz report shows me that I have 1031...where can i view this links?
Link Building | | VillasDiani0 -
Which Links to Disavow!
We just took over SEO for a new client who is being penalized for a bad link profile. They've asked Google to reconsider multiple times, and Google still claims that the links are bad. Because of this, and because I don't have direct access (logins, etc.) to what the former SEO did, I am considering using the disavow links tool. The most obvious links to disavow are a group of almost 1000 links that come from the same forum. However, when viewing the links on this forum they actually seem natural. People are reviewing the product (ipod cases), both negatively and positively. While this could have been an SEO tactic for link building, I don't want to disavow these links if they're not the problem, even though this domain is the source of almost all the low-quality links. Another site that has more than 200 links is Askives. Do any of you have experience with links from Askives, or removing these links? Thanks again!
Link Building | | newwhy0 -
Too many external links vs linking root domains - good or bad?
Hi guys, After the latest Linkscape update, we noticed that our website have 424,671 external links with 4,395 linking root domains, so roughly 100 links/domain. Does Google consider this to be a negative thing or we do not need to worry about it. Many thanks. David
Link Building | | sssrpm0 -
Brainstorming - Unusual Ideas to get links in the "short term loan" industry
Hello, I would like to hear your strange/unusual/funny ideas for link building campaigns for a website targeted in the short term lending industry. It doesn't matter how easy/complicated it is to apply them, but the more realistic the better. Please don't post anything that was covered in detail somewhere else or something that does not have at least a small/tiny level of realism. An example: Extract the funniest/smart quotations related to money. Create an article where you explain that "even if you are in the short term loan industry" you care about your customers and you want them to educate them so in the future they can avoid getting in a situation when they have very few alternatives.
Link Building | | zoicaremus0 -
I cannot get any links indexed to this website http://atglimo.com.
I have written nofollow, follow links, issued a press release, and submitted to the Universal Business Listing. None of these links are showing in the Yahoo index. I did a nofollow bookmark with delicious and it disappeared the next day. The people that built the website will not grant FTP access and modded the HTACCESS file incorrectly to point to a WWW. version of the site. I had them remove the index.html duplicate content problem. What is going on? Why are no links showing in the index for this site?
Link Building | | eddie404ATL0