About a month ago I wrote three blogs on link building as a search engine optimization (SEO) tactic. Those posts resulted in numerous emails and comments. One came from James, a young man that is starting his own online business. James is anxious to begin link building and asked me a great question: “How should I approach people about linking to my site?”
I should have seen that one coming James. Here’s my recommendation: Ask them.
I’d start by finding sites you are willing to link to and then create a link on your site. Then add sites that you think your site compliments, adds value to. In total you’ll probably want 50-100 targets. Finally, send emails requesting a link. It's best to send the emails to an individual and not to a “Contact Us” email address.
That’s a lot of emailing so I recommend that you create a template and avoid all that unnecessary re-writing and typing. Writing your link requests in a friendly and personalized style will increase your chances of success.
Here is an example of a link request for a fictitious company:
Subject: Social media resources on your website
Good morning, [insert name],
I found the resources on your site helpful and well organized, especially the articles and whitepapers on social media. My company, Get2NoMeZ.com is dedicated to helping others master social media. As far as I can tell we do not compete with one another.
Since November 2007 we’ve posted a new blog three times a week. It’s a big commitment on our part but, like you, we’re serious about helping others and understand that being found on the web takes hard work and constant effort, which is why I’m emailing you.
The purpose of this email is to ask you if would post a link to our site on your site’s Resource Section - www.socialmediamatters/resources.htm?
You can link to us by downloading our logo and code from www. Get2NoMeZ.com/linktous.htm or just create your own link.
We have already added a link to your site (www. Get2NoMeZ.com/resources.htm) on our website and trust you are already getting additional traffic.
I can check your site in a couple weeks to see if you’ve granted my request but an email response would really be appreciated.
Keep up the good work and thanks in advance for your time and consideration.
Regards,
Steve Hartkopf
800-659-3638 (Linda or Ben)
Feel free to borrow this template. Obviously it will have to be modified if you’re writing to a site you don’t want to link to from your site.
If you decide to write your own email request template you’ll want to remember to include the following:
- An interesting and/or meaningful subject line
- Mention the benefits their site users or they will receive, but don’t oversell
- Provide the specific address of the page you’d like a link placed
- If you have it, your linking code or the URL of your ‘Link-to-us page’
- Your contact information.
It’s a good idea to write a few variations of your request template to (1) see what works best and (2) speak in the style and tone of your target audience. Requests to large corporations, for example, need to be formal while requests to small companies can be less formal.
Finally, remember to keep a record of all the link requests you send out, track your results and don’t be a spammer.
Steve
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