Reciprocal Linking Requests
- Mistakes to Avoid

It begins:

Subject: Link Exchange Offer

Hi There,

We are a SEO Company with a clientel of more than 100 clients of various themes.SEO requires Link Building you know that as well. We are always in search for good quality links for our clients. All pages at this site has got decent Link Page Rank . Your link will be added at one of these pages.

I would highly appreciate if you add my link to your site and confirm me the URL.

Once my links will be verify on your related contains then your link will be up in my sites with in next 24hrs.

I have send some related sites would you like to link exchanges them let me know.

( There then followed a list of link URL's and descriptions of sites on Cars, Mortgages, Drugs and Lawyers.)

Now are you interested?

Waitin for your positive response.

Best Regards,
Manager Linking Building

There are quite a few deadly sins committed in this reciprocal linking request

1. Spelling mistakes - excused because this person's first language was not English.

2. Did not refer to me by my name - It's not "There."

3. No mention of an actual page where they've already placed my link.

4. No mention if they've even visited my web site or mentioned anything about it.

5. Asking for a link before they have placed my link on a page.

6. Asking me about reciprocal linking to sites related to mine but were not.

7. Sending me a link request badly constructed and then asking me if I'm interested.

Receiving reciprocal linking requests like this are regrettably not uncommon and they get and deserve no response.

If you send email reciprocal linking requests, follow these guidelines.

1. Visit the site you are requesting reciprocal linking from and see if it is "Related" to yours and contains "Content" of interest to your site visitors. Also find the name of the site owner or webmaster. Compliment the webmaster on their site if possible, but make it genuine, not just a shallow ploy to gain favor. Be professional, courteous, to the point and don't write like you're buddies, when you've never met.

2. Use the persons name in the subject line and the body of the email.
   By making reference to their content they know you have looked at their web site and it's not an email sent with the exact same content to 1000's of other people.

3. Explain why you think their site is one you'd want a link from. It compliments your site, has content and resources you don't have, would be interesting and helpful to your visitors etc.

4. Include the link URL, Link Title and Description you have used on your site.

5. Include the URL where they can view the link you have placed on your site.

6. Explain something about your site and what it has to offer their site visitors.

7. Politely ask them if they would consider placing a link to your site and give them the URL, Link Title and Link Description you would like them to use.

8. Ask the Webmaster for the location URL of your link on their site.

9. Include your contact details, name, email address, tel number ( if necessary ).

10. Read and follow any site instructions on requesting reciprocal linking, or you're unlikely to get any response. If they have an online link request form use it, don't send them an email reciprocal linking request.

Webmasters are seeking to automate their reciprocal linking as much as possible, because it's time consuming and very tedious work.

However it's often clear from the link requests I receive they're using software to automatically look for high ranking web sites to link to and banging off a standard email, without bothering to visit a single site.

You're not going to get links to quality web sites
Or very few links using that approach

Here's a sample of what a reciprocal linking request email would look like.

Any webmaster or site manager who receives a reciprocal linking email like the one above can immediately tell many crucial things:

You took time to find who runs the site. How else do you know their name?

You reviewed the site. How else could you have known about the content ?

You followed any link-request instructions - I Hope.

You value their time by making it easy to find things they may want to check.

You looked at more than just the main index page.

Yes, this means you cannot entirely automate the process,
So you have to create and send each link request one at a time

Each link request can take 15 to 30 minutes when you consider the research you need to do, the site review and then writing the email, but quality results take quality time.

If you're thinking about creating a links directory then you will find some good advice in the following link as to why you should use an automated reciprocal link manager.

Making Your Website Work for You