Reciprocal Linking Strategies

Reciprocal Linking Strategies For Free Traffic Generation

Reciprocal links are arranged when two web sites agree to link to each other.

Reciprocal links are also known as "link swaps", "link exchanges" and "link partners".

A common misspelling is "reciprical links".

Reciprocal links help you in two ways:

1. They increase your web site traffic, from people who click on the links.

2. Reciprocal links also play a major role in boosting your rankings in search engines.

Warning: Late in 2005, Google's Matt Cutts made it clear that it's possible to "overdo" reciprocal links. Getting good, solid, reciprocal links should be part of your links strategy, not your total marketing strategy.

When ranking sites, the major search engines take into account the number and quality of the sites that link to you.

Persuading good quality, relevant sites to link to you can be tedious, time-consuming and frustrating. Here are some tips to increase your chances of success.

One way to find link partners is to do searches in major search engines such as Google and Yahoo! to find sites which complement yours but are not direct competitors.

Many sites also link to direct competitors, figuring that the benefits outweigh any disadvantages.

Examine their links pages

A refinement of this strategy is to visit your competitors' sites and complementary sites and examine their links pages or resources pages.

The sites you'll find there are potential reciprocal links partners. They should be linking to you.

Now visit THEIR links pages and examine them, and so on down the chain.

You should end up with a long list of good sites with which to exchange links.

How to set up reciprocal links

• Find GOOD QUALITY, complementary sites.
• Place a link to them on your site.
• Only AFTER you've placed a link to them, email the owner of the site a short, friendly note. Address him or her by name. (If the name isn't on the site, you may be able to find it at www.whois.sc )
• Genuinely praise something on the site. If you can't find something worth praising, delete the site from your list.
• Tell the web site owner you've linked to their site, giving them the URL of the page where you've place your link.
• Ask for a link back to your site, suggesting a page where the link would be appropriate.
• Three weeks later, if there's been no reply, send a brief, polite reminder. It's easy for emails to be lost or overlooked.
• Use the phone and/or snail mail. A link from a good site is a very valuable thing. If you can't get noticed by email, consider trying a phone call or posting a letter. They're more expensive but also more likely to attract the answer you want.
• Keep an alphabetical record of sites you've linked to and requested links from. You need to know who you've contacted and who you haven't.

Want links from pages with high PageRank?

To boost their PageRank, some webmasters concentrate on getting links only from sites that have high PageRank. (If we all did this, no new site would ever get reciprocal links.)

If you want to try this approach, PRsearch is a useful free search tool to use. It gives you Google search results PLUS PageRank.

You type in a key phrase and can quickly see the PageRank of pages optimized for that phrase.

You can also click on the number beside the words "inbound links" and you may find more sites with high PageRank.

Really serious ways of getting links

You can arrange newsletter article exchanges with other newsletter publishers in your niche, preferably with newsletters which are archived online.

Some webmasters also arrange "article swaps". You write an article to be published on their website and they write an article for your site. This gives you an in-context link, which is much more effective than a mere link on a links page.

Reciprocal links websites

You can search in Google for link exchange websites which publish directories of website owners who actively exchange links with each other. As a general rule, the easier and more automated link exchanging is, the more risky it is that you'll be doing something which the search engines don't like. You don't, for example, want to get involved in link farms which link to totally unrelated websites.

Reciprocal linking tools

"If you're serious about getting more traffic and higher search engine rankings, you'll need to develop a linking strategy for your website," says highly respected Internet marketer Ralph Wilson. To facilitate getting reciprocal links, consider the software described in Ralph's Reciprocal Linking Tools report. His 22-page report explains the functions of various types of reciprocal link management software, divides them into three types, and provides reviews and recommendations on best-of-breed software. It includes brief reviews on Zeus, Arelis, LinksManager, Links4Trade, Hot Links SQL, Linking101 Link Management Script, LinkManager Lite and Pro, Duncan Carver's Link Management Assistant, and PowerLinks. Four of these packages win the "Web Marketing Today Editor's Choice Award" for excellence at a reasonable price.

You can rely on Ralph for carefully researched information you can trust.

Reciprocal Linking Tools costs only $8.95, or slightly more in printed format. It's a small fee for peace of mind.

Three ways to save time

1. You can hire companies which specialize in finding reciprocal links partners for you. This will probably cost about $6 per link. Prices vary in different industries. Dirk Johnson's LinkStrategy is one company which provides this service.


2. Use the free SiteSell Value Exchange . It's a very simple, fast, efficient way of exchanging links with relevant sites.

The Value Exchange is very useful but isn't likely to find you all the reciprocal links partners you need. In some industries, it may find you only a small number of link partners. In others, it may find you several hundred links partners. It's definitely worth joining - especially so because it's free!

Join the free SiteSell Value Exchange - FREE


3. Arelis software takes a lot of tedium out of finding reciprocal links partners. For example, it has a great "Find Competitor Links" feature that allows you to quickly find all web sites that link to your competitors.

Web sites that link to your competitors are sites that should link to you. Arelis quickly locates these sites and helps you to contact them and ask them to link to your site.

If they're already linking to similar sites, there's a good chance they'll be willing to link to you.

You can also search for reciprocal links partners by keyword or keyword phrase.

Arelis makes link management very simple and saves you a lot of time. It also builds your link pages for you. You can customize the template to match your site's style and no one will ever know you're using a link management program.

Warning about SBI and Arelis

Here's a warning from a Site Build It user who also uses Arelis.

"If you upload pages created by Arelis (or any other pages for that matter) to SBI, the links to external sites are replaced by redirected links, presumably for tracking.

"What that does however is that it prevents you from passing any PageRank to your link partners. Putting aside the debate whether PageRank is important or not, many webmasters clearly believe it is important and simply refuse reciprocating with sites that don't link to them is straight HTML. Certainly that has been my experience.

"...the only way around this is to create all reciprocal links in SBI by hand and forget about uploading pages from Arelis or any other reciprocal management software."

SBI users can still use Arelis for a very powerful purpose - to find potential link partners - and can add the links to their sites manually.

Arelis checks your links

Arelis also checks to see that your reciprocal links partners are still linking to you - another really useful time-saver.

There's a free trial version. Highly recommended.

Download the free Arelis trial

Automate Link Exchange I haven't tried this link management software, but it's getting some very favorable reviews. It could be worth checking out: Automate Link Exchange

The Power of Reciprocal Linking.

An exchange of links, also known as reciprocal linking, is simply swapping links with another site. In return for another site posting your link, you post their link on yours. You can trade different types of links, including banners, text links, buttons, etc.

One of the best ways to get traffic while waiting to be listed by search engines is through link exchanges with other quality sites. This will also help you to get better search engine rankings.

You can easily go after your target market by trading links with sites that relate to your offer. How do you find sites willing to trade links? You can go directly to sites that interest you and see if they offer reciprocal linking. Review the site and contact the site owner or administrator by email and asking.

You can also conduct a search using "directory of link exchanges", "reciprocal linking", "banner exchanges" etc., to find sites that might be willing to trade links themselves, or provide a list of other willing sites.

Many of your requests for a link will probably meet with a negative or no response. The reason why is simple. It's back to the WIIFM (What's In It For Me) principle, the most basic of motivators in the human psyche. If you approach a well established site to link to you, there has to be a good reason for them to do so.

I have received a number of emails simply stating "link to me - (http://www.somewebsite.com)". That kind of promotional strategy gets you nowhere.

Here are a few hints and tips for site owners as to how you can persuade an established site to link to yours.

1. Most Important! Be Polite.

When you send your email for a linking request, make sure that the tone of it is extremely courteous and not demanding.

If English is your second language, run your request note by someone who is familiar with the complexities of the language. The way you word your note is the most important factor as to whether another web master will even bother with taking the time to take a look at your site.

2. Grammar and Spelling

Your request note is your official representation. If you don't take the time to spell correctly, other web masters may believe that your site will be of the same quality, and discard your request immediately.

3. Ensure your site is complete.

No one will link to a half finished site.

4. Respect that many web masters are busy people

Don't expect an answer straight away and harass the site owner with countless follow up emails. Leave it for at least two weeks before your second contact and ensure that the second note is equally as polite as the first.

5. Read the site

Ensure you take a good look over the site you wish to link to you. Be familiar with it's content and mention some of the content in your request for linkage. Identify the common theme between the sites. If the site has a "Submit your URL" page, use it. Be sure to read the guidelines for submission carefully.

6. Appeal to the web masters WIIFM (What's In It For Me) motivator.

Experienced site owners can pick a new web master or site a mile off, so don't misrepresent your site or it's traffic levels if you propose a reciprocal (swap) links agreement. Point the web master to a section of your site where you provide content or tools that are original and would be of use to their site's visitors.

If you have a banner rotator, you could offer the site owner a few thousand impressions as a sweetener for him in linking to you. Very few web masters will give you a link if they receive nothing in return, especially if they are earning money or gaining traffic from the links they already have in place. Even just making an offer of an exchange of services, no matter how small, will motivate the web master to at least consider a link.

The link request note.

There are a number of examples of link request emails on the Internet, but my advice is that if you are going to use them, make sure you modify them each time they are sent to different sites so they at least appear original. I receive a certain template note regularly and disregard it, as it appears to me that the person sending it has not reviewed my site properly and really doesn't take the process seriously. If another web master points towards a certain article or section of my site, it motivates me to review what the web master has to offer my site visitors.

Bearing that in mind, here's a sample note that you can base your requests on:

=====================

Greetings [Name],

I visited your web site, [Web Site Name Here] and found some great information regarding [Insert Subject Here]. I thought you might be interested to know that we have a web site dedicated to [Your Site Details]. This kind of information would be a great addition to your resource center and I'm sure your visitors would gain from it. [If you have linked to the other site already, mention it here and give the URL of the link]

We were hoping that you might consider linking to us and invite you to review our site at your convenience. [Depending on situation, insert further offer of reciprocal linking, banner impressions or exchange of services here]

If you determine that a link to our site is appropriate, please add it at your discretion, or might we suggest the following link and description:

[Your site name and URL] - [Your site description - keep it brief, focused and not too much hype]

If you'd like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact us at [Your contact details].

Thanks!

[Full official signature lines here]

======================

This example is brief, to the point and courteous. It respects the other site owners time and intelligence. Remember to modify each note slightly to avoid the "template" stigma.

Be prepared for rejection.

Don't get too upset if you are officially denied a link, even if the response is rude, as they sometimes can be. If you do receive a nasty email back, be happy in the fact that you went about the request in the right way, and perhaps that web master was having a really bad day as we all do at times. Leave it for a few months, then try again, outlining some of the improvements you have made in your site that are relevant.

The promotion strategies you put into action from the outset define your standing in the online community and in the time ahead, so don't blow it. Be careful in using the hype marketing techniques offered by some, they may have worked for them, but they may not work for you.

Market leap Link Popularity Analysis Tool

Link Popularity is simply a way to measure the total number of links that a search engine has found for your website. Link Popularity is getting more important all the time. With so many websites optimized to any keyword or phrase the number of websites containing links to your website is another factor search engines use in determining your ranking. In short the more popular you are the higher your placement.

There are several tools and sites that you can use to determine your link popularity. One such site is (http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/)

Power Linking

There are several very good resources available on linking. I believe that "Power Linking", by Jack Humphrey, is the best. He offers an excellent five day power linking course, which you can get free by sending an email to powerlink@listwarrior.com

Reciprocal Link Building That Works

by Shawn Pringle

We all know the value of getting links to our site. Links bring you traffic from related sites and boost your search engine rank, which brings you, umm, more traffic. So, basically, links = traffic.

However, gone are the days of simply asking for a link (in exchange for a link from your site) and actually getting one. These days, bland reciprocal link requests such as these almost never yield any benefit because they are simply ignored. Think about this old-school approach from the email recipient's point of view to understand why your link requests are ignored.

Webmasters of quality sites, the ones you want to get links from, are constantly dealing with link requests. 9 times out of 10 the webmaster simply sees Link Exchange and deletes the email. I know I do. I have more important things to do than to entertain requests that are most likely for sites that are not even relevant to mine.

And like most webmasters, I don't give the link requester the chance to even prove if it is relevant (meaning, I don't read the email). I've seen so many of these emails that they seem to hit the Deleted Items folder as fast as the Viagra spam emails.

So, this is the first hurdle, getting your email read. If your subject line resembles a link request at all, busy webmasters will see it as such and simply delete it. You have to put yourselves in their shoes. What would get you to read the email?

Well, how about starting off by telling them what YOU can do for THEM, instead of the other way around. This simple tactic works much better. Which one would you open:

A) Subject: Exchange links with xyz.com

B) Subject: Love your site! As my way of saying thanks

In the body of the email you can introduce yourself and your site, and explain what you are trying to accomplish with your site.

Now, the following method varies slightly depending on what type of site you have that you are trying to get links for. Most sites fall into 2 categories: content sites and e-commerce sites. Is your site offering valuable content to your visitors (such as information on the best local golf courses), or is your site selling something (software or an ebook or something)? Your site will be one of these types.

If it's a content site then the process of acquiring links is much easier, because you simply have to convince the potential link partner that your site would be of value to them and their visitors. You could use an email such as:

Hi there,

I just saw your site at _______ and think it's a great resource for our new _____ site. Our _____ site is unique because ______(here is where you would stress the value of your site)_________. Check it out at _________. Since our ____ site is like nothing else on the net, and we are quickly becoming the favorite resource for ____.

I am going to add your link to my site in a prominent location (with few outbounds on your link page) and was wondering if you would do the same.

The traffic we can send each other will be highly targeted and both of our visitors would appreciate and benefit from this link swap.

Again my site is at _________. Check it out!

Let me know if you would like me to add your link to the site.

Thanks!

____ (name)

This type of email works well, and should net you a bunch of links if your content site truly is of value to the email recipient and his/her visitors.

Now, if your site falls under the second category, an e-commerce site, you need to put a little more work into your requests using the following approach. The body of the email would go on to explain that, as your way of saying thanks for a great site, you would like to offer them a complimentary copy of your ebookor a copy of your softwareor provide a service to them (copywriting, ebook design, graphic design)whateverin exchange for a link from their site. If they link to your site, you will provide them with something in return, other than simply a link back from your site.

And it doesn't have to be your main product either. You can put together a valuable little bonus for link partners, or you can acquire master resell rights to something that you think would be of interest to them and offer them this. The key is to be creative. If you think about it just a little bit, I'm sure you can come up with something to give away in exchange for some highly valuable links.

I have used this tactic successfully several times and it always works beautifully. People love this because there's actually something in it for them, unlike the dozen other boring reciprocal link requests they simply deleted. Trust me, it works.

But the key is that you have to approach the right sites RELEVANT SITES. I can't stress this enough. You cannot simply use this tactic as a blanket approach and send out as many emails as you can. If you do that, there goes the personalization and credibility you are hoping comes across in your email. You have to find only relevant sites that are truly valuable to you as a link partner.

And if your goal is simply to get top search engine rankings and not just the desire to have a ton of links pointing to your site, you don't have to send out hundreds of these requests - if they are properly targeted. This is especially true if you are in a relatively untapped niche market, because only a handful of the right links will get you top search engine rankings. After you get these links you will get listed at the top of MSN in a couple days, Yahoo in a couple weeks, and Google in a couple months. They all index and rank pages differently, but they share a common trait in that they all place an extremely high value on relevant backlinks. More so than any other SEO tactic out there, in fact.

So, how do you find relevant sites? Well, ideally these sites would not only be relevant but also would have a decent Page Rank as well as few outbound links on the page you would like to be linked from. As a rule of thumb, the higher the Page Rank and the fewer the outbound links the better. The PR Prowler program does exactly this. It allows you to enter in the keywords that relate to your site and specify a minimum Page Rank for your potential link partners, then it returns a list of highly valuable and, more importantly, relevant link partners for you and shows you the value of each one as a link partner. It can also email these sites from within the program (and customize each email), so you just have to craft your message and click Send.

Bottom line: You have to be smart when you approach sites these days. With all the spam laws and email regulations in place, not to mention the resource drain on all those involved, you must only contact relevant sites to get links back to you. And by doing this in a creative fashion whereby the email recipient actually gets something of value in return for a simple link on their site you increase your chances of landing these valuable links tenfold. Not only does this boost your link popularity and search engine rank, but these relevant links are great traffic generators in and of themselves. It's a double-whammy, and an internet marketing tactic you should not take lightly.

Put some work into your link requests, and it will pay off in the end.

Link Popularity - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

A clear understanding of link popularity and how to get it could do wonders for your search engine ranking. Learn what the search engines are looking for and the best strategies to build your link popularity as well as what to avoid.
Link Popularity - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

So, you have a website full of great content, optimized for the search engines, but still not ranking well? Maybe it's time to build your link popularity.

Link popularity is a measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site. The theory is that great sites will attract many links while poor sites won't. But, you noticed that word "quality", right? Yep, the search engines will consider the quality of your links, not just how many you have. So, just as you've tweaked your meta tags and keyword density, you need to be sure your links also show the relevancy of your site.

So what are those pesky search engine spiders looking for?

The GOOD (increase link popularity):
1. In coming links from quality sites related to the topic of your site
2. Links from major directories

The BAD (most likely ignored by search engines):
1. In coming links from FFA pages, or other low quality sites
2. In coming links from sites with topics unrelated to your site's topic

The UGLY (likely to damage your link popularity):
1. Links from sites that are nothing but a link or banner "farm"
2. Links to your site that are buried in a long list of links on unrelated sites

By the way, the engines look at the links OUT of your site, too. As much as possible, out-going links should provide your visitor with an additional valuable source of information related to your website's topic.

Do your best to avoid the temptation to add your website URL to any site that will have you, or to exchange a link with anyone who asks. And, be very careful about using software to build a "link page". If these sites are low quality and/or irrelevant to the topic of your website, exchanging links with them can actually damage your link popularity.

So, what's the best way to get good links?

Your number one strategy is to fill your site with great content. No one wants to link to a site with poor content. And you're more likely to get links without even having to ask! Second, get listed in the major directories. Third, seek out quality sites with topics related to yours and request that they link to you site, or (more likely) if they will exchange a link with you.

The search for links can be tedious, but it's definitely worth the time and effort. Fortunately for all of us, there's a new free service that will drastically cut that time and effort. For more information visit (http://www.jtwebsites.com/linkpopularity.html#link)

Even if you're not interested in increasing your search engine ranking, being listed on other relevant sites is still a good idea. These types of links will sometimes bring you a lot of traffic all on their own!

How To Increase traffic and get a better rank on Google

You may republish this article, but you must keep the resource box and copyright at the end.

You have a business you want to promote. You're looking for more traffic to your web site. But, how do you get that traffic and how do you get it for nothing?

Here's a technique I use to increase web site traffic and get a better rank on Google. But, you need your own web site first. This won't work for your otherwise.

Having said that, even if you don't own a web site you should follow some of the steps here. The reason will become very clear nearer the end of this email.

What you are doing is researching for sites with a Google page rank of at least 4 and upwards that are relevant to the content of your site. Then link with them and have them link back to you.

To do this set up another page on your site for the purpose of including good quality links from other relevant sites.

Here's how to do it...

1. Download Alexa Toolbar and install it on your computer. Get it here: (http://download.alexa.com/index.cgi?p=Dest_W_b_40_T1)

2. Download Goole Toolbar and install it on your computer. Get it here: (http://toolbar.google.com/)

3. Create a "Spreadsheet" using "Excel" and create a colum for each of the following...

URL, Contact Email, Owner's Name, Alexa Link Popularity, Google Rank, Contact 1, Contact 2, Contact 3, Link Accepted.

4. Go to Google Search Engine and key in a relevant keyword to your niche site.

5. When the results come up, go to each site (including the Google Ads that may come along with it)

6. Upon arriving at each site the first thing to check for is the Alexa Traffic Rank that shows up on your Alexa Toolbar. Aim for a traffic rank of 100,000 or less. Anything more than 100,000 leave the site and look for another one.

7. Next, look for the Google Page Rank. Aim for a PR (Page Rank) of "4" or more. Less than this leave the site and look for another one.

8. If you are happy with the Page Rank on Google and the Traffic Rank on Alexa, then place all relevant details on the spreadsheet you've created. Then move onto the next site.

9. Do this until you are satisfied with the number of possible contacts. You probably should aim to get 5 - 10 sites a day. Keep this up until you have reached the desired number of links you want on your page.

10. Set up a page on your own site and call it something like "Partner Links".

11. Now you need to put a link to their site from your niche mini site. Grab a bit of text from their site and place it in your "Partner Links" page. Then turn that text into a link to their site.

12. Email each web site owner letting the know who you are and that you placed a link to their site from your site. Then request that they link back to you. If they don't then just take their link down.

13. When you contact the web site owner, just place the date of contact on you spreadsheet under the colum "Contact 1". Any other contacts should be placed on the other "Contact" colums.

14. Whether a link has been accepted or not, just place a "Y" (for YES) or a "N" (for NO) in the colum entitled "Link Accepted".

That's it. I have done this for my site and am starting to see an better rank on Alexa and beginning to increase my PR rank on Google.

The thing with this method of getting a better rank on Google is that it's very time consuming and requires persistence on a daily basis. But it will work. Also, don't expect a positive response from every web site owner. Most likely you'll get more rejections than acceptances. Just carry on regardless.

The other thing is that you should ensure that you look for a Traffic Ranking of 100,000 or less on Alexa. This means that you are looking for high traffic web sites. This means a better chance of people clicking on your site. It only makes sense.

Also, you don't need millions of links from just any site to gain a better rank in Google. You need good quality links and this is a good method to do this. That's why I suggest looking for sites that have a Google PR rank of "4" or higher.

Remember I said that even if you don't have a web site you should follow some of the steps here? Well here's why...

The sites that have accepted your links are your future "Potential JV Partners". They're your number one contact names for Joint Ventures. They're the first people you contact with your offers for their customers and subscribers.

As you've done the research, don't just let all that work just sit there once you've created your link exchanges. You've just started a relationship with those people and you should make use of that opportunity. Even contact those who have not accepted a link to your site. Treat them as secondary contacts for Joint Venture purposes.

Just get crackin' on this immediately.