Everyone that does SEO knows that one of the one of the most important factors in achieving top rankings is acquiring authoritative, relevant one-way links. Part of the link building process is reaching out to various websites and site owners requesting they link back to you. But how do you do it?
To often do I receive emails like this:
Dear Webmaster,
I am the Webmaster for: www.example.com
I was looking at your web site and think we should link to each other. As you know that link building does a good job to get high PR and ranking, so I would like to offer you a link exchange with my site.
Here are my linking details:
[Insert HTML code here)
Thanks,
Example.com
Surprisingly, I just deleted this as I do with almost every link request email I receive. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you write it properly you can get positive responses back and even links!!! Here are a few tips on how to create the perfect link request email:
1) Short and direct – You only have a few seconds to engage the reader, so get to the point. Don’t oversell your site. Your email won’t sell them on linking to you, your website will.
2) Personalize – Take the time to look through the site to find the website owners name. Addressing them by their name will hold more weight than Dear Webmaster.
3) Subject Line – Don’t be like everyone else and put Link Request in the subject. I get these emails daily and yours will be deleted like the others. Try something like Website Request.
4) What’s the Benefit – Tell them what the benefit is to link to you. Will their readers gain more knowledge about a particular subject if they link to you? Tell them that.
5) Exact URL – Tell them the exact page on their site that you feel is most relevant to link back to you.
6) Contact Information – Provide your name, your email address, phone number, etc. The object of this is to differentiate you from the others. By providing all of your contact information you are showing them you are human too and not just a mass link request email.
In the end, it’s all about being as honest and personable as you can. Think quality over quantity. If you send out 1000 spammy emails you are just wasting your time. Taking the time to relate to the other website owner will get you that link.
