Will the real link request please stand up?
Posted Wednesday, October 12th, 2005. Filed under Internet Marketing Tips, Link Building.
A common conversation: a client asks what to do with all the link requests in their email, and I say delete them, since 99.9% are worthless. If a client insists on reviewing them, here's the checklist I give them.
If your site's topic has no relation to theirs, delete the email. If you'd never get even one click a year from their page, delete it. If the word "links" is anywhere in the URL or title tag, delete it. If you can't find the page where your link would go within 4 clicks from their homepage, delete it. If those links you clicked through had the word "links" in the anchor text, delete it.
Check whether your link would be buried in a huge list of unrelated sites (bad co-citation) — if so, delete it. Check if the page has a Google cache, and if it's older than 2 months, delete it. Consider who else they're getting links from, and whether that neighborhood is related to yours — if not, delete it.
Following this advice, you'll be left with about 1 in 1000 link request emails that are real and will actually help you. They're out there, but they're rare beasts.
October 13th, 2005 at 3:01 am
Hey Jim… Will you trade links with me? My excellent site on cat training is highly relevant to your page and will boost your PageRank - which is how Google determines where to rank sites. You cannot afford to say no!
Also, I sent some inquiring callers your way - hopefully they’re real prospects. Oh, and I should mention that my new beard is looking an awful lot like yours
October 13th, 2005 at 8:49 am
Hey Rand!
Funny, I shaved my beard off almost a month ago! (post about that coming soon). So you’ll be unique!
Thanks for stopping by and sending people our way! I do appreciate it highly.
October 15th, 2005 at 8:15 pm
Excellent article. I was really amazed to see how ignorant so many people are when it comes to link exchange, sometimes even those calling themselves SEOs…
October 15th, 2005 at 8:15 pm
Linking 101 for white hats
Besides my black hat activities, I also run a few white hat sites. Like most white hat sites out there, they often get link exchange requests. The one I got recently made me go “duh…” and write this post to clarify some things for th…
October 15th, 2005 at 8:30 pm
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November 11th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
[...] Will the Real Link Request Please Stand Up - Oct 12 [...]
September 24th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
But what’s the reason of those who sent out this junk mails? I just don’t get it.
October 24th, 2007 at 7:53 am
nice article….
November 6th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
I totally agree with Jim, there’s a lot of scrap out there if you rely on “link exchange”. Few years ago it really worked, but right now it’s just not worth your time. One last time I sent “Link Exchange Requests” for one of my clients, out of around 200 sent e-mail I got 5-6 responses, and even those were not worth a lookout.