How Not To Ask For Backlinks

Back links are one of the keys when it comes to how to promote your website. More back links equals more traffic to your website, and more traffic to your website equals better search engine results which equal even more traffic to your website….so you can never have enough back links.

Getting back links from other sites requires some things on your part other then just throwing them a link and hoping for the best. Here are some of the ways you DON’T market your website to other sites. In the next post I’ll cover the ways you can get other sites to link back to yours.

Spamming

What is spam? According to spam.abuse.net

(http://spam.abuse.net/overview/whatisspam.shtml ) spam is defined as

“Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender very little to send -- most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the sender.”

This means when asking for links from another website you don’t send dozens of emails over and over trying to get their attention or leave “crap” comments such as “Hi nice website please check mine out at www. My site is crap.com”. Also don’t send comments that are blatant advertisements where you don’t even comment on the content of the post or page and just spew junk about your site, this is a great way to piss the site owner off is a very bad SEO practice.

Another way is through deceptive comments where you pretend to be looking for help when all you’re doing is posting a link to your site. These types of comments will probably get deleted, or if the site owner can approve them before there posted there going to get deleted.

Email Etiquette

If the site owner can only be reached by email here are some things YOU DON’T want to do when sending them a message

Be Impersonal

I get that not everyone will post their name on their site depending on the content of their website or blog. But if you want to market your website to them and get them interested one way that will pretty much guarantee it won’t happen is to be impersonal. Stuff like

“To whom it may concern”

“Hi”

“Dear Webmaster”

Are just a couple examples of crappy ways to start your email. Spend more then 10 seconds looking at their site and actually read their content and understand who they are and what their site is about.

Don’t try to force them

This means you don’t send them a message like this

“We just put a link to your website complete with description our site. Please note that if you don’t place a reciprocal link to us on your site the link will be removed automatically”

This is a classic example of trying to force you to link back to them. Put yourself on the receiving end of this, sounds pretty much like harassment and spam doesn’t it? This is bad SEO at its finest, and not the way you want to market your website to get traffic.

Do you even know what their site is about?

If your website is let’s say about rebuilding classic muscle cars, why would someone who has a site about designer hand bags want to link to your site? Sure you can try to link to them but why would their readers want to visit your site. It’s not targeted traffic meaning that even if they do decide to link back to you, those who do visit (probably won’t be many) are going to take one look and leave. Why….because you have nothing to offer them.

Learn Grammar

Sure we all make spelling mistakes, but when you send off an email you want it to be as perfect as possible. You’re trying to market your website after all. And while those in other countries may have a harder time with this, if you speak the same language you have no excuse. Misspelled emails with poor grammar and sentence structure look like spam and junk mail.

Don’t get your panties in a bunch

Let’s say you send an email two days ago and you haven’t heard from them yet. This doesn’t mean you have permission to fire off angry rants or be rude. People have lives outside the internet and frankly your link request is just that a request, it’s not the biggest event in their day, not even the 10th biggest. And while it’s definitely okay to send a follow up email, keep it polite and respectful. After all you want their link, and you want traffic to your website.

Don’t email spam

It’s bad SEO to spam your link to the same site over and over again, so why would you do it to a site owner’s email. One is enough, two if you’re sending a follow up email. A dozen or more is spam and gets treated with all the respect and dignity that all those other shady emails, potential virus’ and other junk mail gets…….it gets deleted. It’s also means they will more then likely block your email so any further emails are treated automatically as junk. Think about it you delete the junk mail you get, so why would you think this is an effective way at trying to market your website?

The site owner isn’t a moron

You know link building is important for getting traffic, so don’t assume the site owner of the website you’re trying to link to doesn’t have some clue of what their doing, especially if they have a higher page rank then you and turn up in the number one spot on Google. Don’t start your email off with how important SEO is, or link building or even a brief explanation of SEO. The idea is to promote your website by getting their interest not making yourself look like an ass.

Use some friggin manners……..please

Just because you’re behind a computer screen is no excuse to not use some manners and be respectful, remember your sending this to a real person. Be respectful and use words like please and thank you, these aren’t hard words to type so use them. And if a site owner emails you back that there not interested in linking to you, send them a thank you email. Why burn bridges if you don’t have to and even though that site might not link to you it might pay off in the end because they might recommend you to others or even suggest things for your site like SEO tips, or things you can download.

In the end it boils down to common sense, research, and a little effort on your part that will get your site those much needed back links