To really establish yourself in the virtual marketplace around your industry you need to have both outbound and inbound links. And you need to write individual link requests.
(vii) What links could you publish on your own site?
Publishing links to external sites is an essential part of a linking strategy. You should provide links the will be of real benefit to your users. The logic is that if you provide valuable links, you establish your site as a valuable resource and users will be more likely to bookmark it and return.
However, many sites are wary of providing outbound links - they are afraid they may send people away and they'll either forget to come back or get sucked into something much more interesting.
This worry is understandable but it underestimates the intelligence of visitors. They know there are other resources on the web and will almost certainly be looking for them. If you help them, they're going to spend less time on search engines where they really could get diverted. By providing relevant resources you help to keep them focused and increase rather than decrease the relevance of your site.
Having said that it would be foolish to link directly to competitors so who (and what) should you link to?
You should link to:
- Specific documents
- Online magazines
- Communities
- Specific functions such as currency converters.
Reciprocal links should only be given where there is clear relevance. Avoid links just for links sake.
(viii) Ask for inbound links
By now you should have identified between 50-100 target sites that could potentially link to your own. Now it's them to ask them for a link.
You should also have a clear idea of why the target sites would want to link to your own, and from which page on their site you'd like a link. You need to treat each target site individually - sending out a blanket email will not produce results.
Send them a short linking request that should include:
- A named contact, if you can find them
- The address of the page on their site that you'd like a link
- A summary of the benefits their visitors will gain
- Some simple linking code
- A request to get in touch.
The exact email will differ depending on the nature of the target site but here's an example:
You need to keep a record of the requests that you send out. Be sure to thank any sites that provide a link and respond promptly to any queries.
(ix) Monitor results
Monitoring results is an important part of any strategy and linking strategy is no different. As a baseline you should measure:
- Any increase in our link popularity
- Your performance benchmarked against your competition
- Percentage of your target sites who decide to link to you
- Any new sites that link to you without being asked
- Impact of new links on your site traffic - by measuring referring sites.
Keep an eye on results day-to-day and conduct a formal review on a monthly basis. Modify and develop your strategy as required.
Your Progress
At the end of this stage, you should have completed worksheets 7, 8 and 9. You will have a good idea of how to craft a link request and send it. Worksheet 10 will help you monitor results.
All worksheets are available here
