“It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.” ~ Tom Brokaw ~

Reciprocal link strategy

Whilst generally the more links to your site the better, it is better to only reciprocate links with sites that are similar or complementary to your own. Search engines will reward sites that link to sites of the same topic, and your visitors will appreciate it more. In time they will think of your site as an authority on that topic.

The Internet is built on links, so participate. Getting the mix right of quality and volume of links is important, and so is the way they link to your website. Don’t just get a lot of links from any sites; be selective. Focus on obtaining links from good websites that are considered an authority on the topics you want to be found for.

Selecting potential link partners
So how do you find potential link partner websites of good quality? The best first step is to visit the major search engines and search for your target keywords and key-phrases. Then visit the pages provided in the top results and approach the Webmaster or owner with an offer of an exchange of links (refer to the Email Approach section later).

Some of these competitors will not want to trade links for fear of losing a share of their traffic to your site but you should be able to find plenty of complementary, non-competitive sites that are willing to partner. Having links on these sites will positively affect your rankings because the search engines have already deemed these as quality sites for the topic, evidenced by their high rank.

Use other keyword searches on the engines to find complementary sites. For example, if your key-phrase is ‘Buy Macromedia Dreamweaver, Melbourne Australia’ you could search for ‘HTML web tips training Melbourne Australia’ to find complementary sites to approach.

Another good way of finding potential link partners is to approach websites that link to the top-ranked sites and to your competitors. If you search Google for ‘link:www.yourcompetitorsname.com’ you will be presented with a list of the pages that link to their home page, in descending rank order. This is a great source of potential link partners.

Link structure
Before contacting potential link partners, you should show good faith by adding a link to their site on your own links page first. If you already have their site linked, they will be more likely to answer and respond to your request. You may need to use categories to classify your links as they grow in size, to make it user-friendlier for your visitors. Ensure all links to other sites open into new windows so your visitors don’t lose their place on your website and can easily keep using your site after surfing your links.

As far as Search Engine Optimisation is concerned, a text link is always better than a banner link as it has a much greater chance of improving your rankings. For reasons of relevancy, more search engines now take the actual linked wording into account when ranking your website. So when you exchange links with other sites, ask them to have your keywords or key-phrases in the text links, rather than swapping banner ads (that also take longer to download for viewing).

Advise your potential link partners how you want your link text worded. Give them examples, or even some ‘cut and paste’ HTML code. If the search engines see other sites linking to your site with your key-phrases, it’s more likely that your site will achieve a higher rank for that search term. The more links you get with these keywords and key-phrases on quality sites, the higher your rankings will be for them.

Your approach email
Once you have selected your potential link partners and your own link page includes a link to their site, you are ready to approach them with an email. There are many factors that can vary the response rate, including personalisation, inclusion of a phone number, and the offer of an incentive.

Whilst a mass mailing to all potential partners at once may appear to be a timesaving device, you’ll quickly find it is viewed as spam, and will attract a poor response rate. For best results, always take the time to customise your short, succinct, standard approach template to convince your link partner that you have really visited their site. Make comment on a particular aspect of their site.

Think carefully about the subject of your email to avoid using language that will look like advertising spam. Use a subject like ‘Partnership request between our software sites.’ Don’t include any content in your email about any other subject – keep it focused. Try and find the name of the contact person on the link partner’s website and use it to begin your email approach with a semi-formal ‘Dear John.’

Your link partner will know you are genuine and have nothing to hide if you include your phone number in the email (how many phone numbers have you seen in spam emails?). Ensure you include the direct URL to the page on your site containing their link, to save them having to look hard for it. You can often build good relationships with your link partners that will open up other business opportunities and ways of working together.

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