What is link exchange? : |
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| 1).Link Exchange ("Reciprocal Link Exchange") is the practice of exchanging links with other websites. The simplest way of doing it is to email another website owner and ask to do a link exchange. You place their link on your site, usually on a links page and the other site in return will place a link back to you. |
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| Reciprocal Links |
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| Links between two Websites based on an agreement between the two owners. |
| Tips on Seeking Reciprocal Links |
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Target your inquiries. They must somehow be related to your business. They must approach
the same audience. They should provide complementary products and services to yours. Ideally,
they should be larger sites your competitors are not already on. Find them in search engines
using your own key words. |
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Make an impact. You will be contacting sites which have more traffic than your site. Your
message has to be different than a simple, common, ordinary request to trade links. Be creative. |
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Spell out the benefits. The key to getting a site to say ‘yes’ to a reciprocal link is to describe the
benefits to the other site to do so. Show why it would be advantageous for them to link to you.
You also want to focus on the benefits of your products and services. Offer something your
competitors don’t or can’t. Explain how the visitors to your site fit the profile of visitors to their
site. |
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Make an offer. Explain to the other site that you would be willing to post on your site a big
‘write up’ or ‘review’ of their site with your ‘personal recommendation’ to visit their site. |
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Ask for a banner. Have a banner in various sizes designed for you. Banner links are more
effective than simple text links. Be sure to include the words ‘Click Here’ in your banner. Give
them a link to the image file on your site. That way you can change the banner and keep it
updated on all sites at once. Accept a text link if that is your only alternative. |
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Be persistent. It may take a number of contacts over time to get your link onto a site. Once you
are there, it is unlikely that you will be removed for quite some time (if you provide a quality
product or service, and excellent customer care). |
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Perceive the value. While pursuing reciprocal links may seem like a time-consuming task, think
about the potential value. One link could bring you thousands of dollars in new business each
year. |
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Personalize your request. Send each e-mail or letter individually. Refer to the site by the
correct URL and to the person by name. Find the site owner’s name at www.netsol.com in their
‘whois’ section. You can also use special software to strip out the contact information from a
website and other software to generate ‘personalized’ bulk mail. If you do send the same
message to several individuals, put their e-mail addresses in the ‘bcc:’ section so they do not see
each other’s e-mail addresses – it will appear that you sent the message only to them. |
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Follow up. For those sites who do not respond to your request, send them a follow up e-mail.
Remind them of your request and make note that you did not hear back from them. Explain that
you were disappointed because you felt the visitors to each other’s sites were similar and a
‘perfect opportunity’ for increasing traffic at each other’s sites. Mention that you look forward
to receiving a reply, even if they are not interested. If they are not interested, ask if they have
any suggestions for other sites to exchange reciprocal links with. |
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| Message Template for Seeking Reciprocal Links |
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| To: Potential Reciprocal Link Company |
| Subject: Inquiry for Potential Reciprocal Link |
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| Hello, |
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I am inquiring about your [subject or content] website ([URL]). I am interested in having my
site linked from yours with a small description of what my site is about. |
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There are several benefits for you in exchanging links with me. [List benefits here – this is the
most important part of the letter.] Our [site or company] is unique because [reasons]. |
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I have a [company, product, or service] called [name of company, product, or service]. We/It
provides/offers [several benefit statements, competitive advantage, uniqueness]. You can find
my site at [www.mysiteurl.com]. Your visitors would definitely find this information to be a
valuable resource on your site. |
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You and I are attracting the same type of visitors. The visitors to our site are [describe their
visitors’ demographics and psychographics]. This would be a perfect opportunity for both of us
to exchange links to increase traffic at both sites. As we promote our site, it will lead to more
traffic for you! |
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How many visitors does your site [or specific page] get per month or per week? Do you have a
banner or logo I could use on my site to link to you? Or would you prefer a text link? Do you
have an article or information about your [company, product, or service] that I could publish on
my site? |
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I am looking for a long-term marketing relationship with several complementary companies. I
have limited space available on my site and am looking to reach an agreement with partner
companies before [date about one month away – to give some sense of urgency]. |
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Please reply or call me at [000-000-0000 x000] to let me know that you can provide a link to my
site at [www.mysiteurl.com/page.htm]. I look forward to hearing form you and to sending lots
of visitors to your site! |
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| Sincerely, |
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| Getting a link from a site without linking back to that same website. One way links are very valuable. |
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| One-way links are links to your site from sites which do not receive a link from your site. |
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| One-way links are wonderful things to have because they increase your link popularity – the number of pages linking to your site. Search engines such as Google place huge importance on link popularity when ranking your site. |
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| You can also receive direct traffic to your site from people who click on the links. |
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| All links to your site are good, but where possible always aim for topic-related links. |
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| 1).Create a useful, interesting web site and other sites will naturally link to it. The vast majority of the thousands of links to THIS site were not requested. |
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| 2).Submit your site to major directories, such as Yahoo! and DMOZ.org, in the appropriate category. |
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| 3).Write articles and submit them to newsletters which are then archived online. |
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| 4).Hunt for sites that complement yours and ask them to publish your articles. |
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| 5).Submit brief hints to newsletters for the same reason. |
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| 6).Submit articles to article directories |
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| 7).Publish articles on your site and invite other sites to publish them on their sites, with a link to you. |
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| 8).Write testimonials for products you love. Companies often post testimonials on their site with a link to the submitting site. Joe Vitale has taken this tactic to extraordinary lengths. For examples, trying doing a search on Google for "joe vitale +testimonial". |
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| 9)Participate helpfully in forums which allow a text link to your site in a signature. Start with the friendly, helpful AssociatePrograms.com |
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| 10).Consider buying text link ads on other sites, for example from Linkadage or Text Link Ads. However, be aware that Matt Cutts of Google has made it clear in his blog that Google looks unfavorably on sites that buy text links. You could arrange link purchases directly with other sites and avoid making them look like bought links. Even better, think of innovative ways of getting an article with a link to you in it on another site. |
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| 11).Buy ads in newsletters on your topic which are archived online. |
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| 12).Locate industry-specific directories and submit your site to them. For example, if your site is on a health topic, look for health-related directories. |
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| 13).Give away free ebooks and white papers that contain links to your site. |
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| 14).Create simple web-based free software. Tell other sites, newsletters and forums about it and ask for a link to it. |
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| 15).Create downloadable software which contains links to your site. |
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| 16).Get listed in business directories. |
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| 17).Create a blog and get it listed in blog directories. |
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| 18).Write regular news releases and submit them to topic-related web sites and Internet news wires such as PRWeb and Business Wire. |
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