Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Invariably the e-mailer will offer placing our link on a buried page, along with many other haphazard links (even if "on theme", a page of 100 links is hardly useful for surfers, and very diluted in terms of PR).
I can't say I've seen any benefit from link exhange myself. Understandably, no one wants to give away an ounce of their traffic, or PR.
Does anyone receive creative link exchange requests?
Does anyone receive useful link requests?
tired of automated spam
Seriously, I'm weary of complaints about the quality of their link exchange requests. Part of that is based on fact, but the other part is based purely on a knee-jerk response to something that may not exist.
Of course, our own link requests are never spam (even when were sending out 20,000 requests). It's always the other guy.
Well guess what, we are the other guy, too. ;)
Reasons You Will Delete a Link Exchange Request Hands Down...
What makes you promptly delete an email?
[webmasterworld.com...]
They're also deleted if they arrive in sets.
What I'd prefer is to exchange unique documents. But who's interested? We've found the whole thing to be too impersonal and of negligible benefit.
It's how my ones are sometimes phrased as well.
"By the way, if ever you need any information on Widgetland/widgetting / translation into widget-speak, let me know. I'd be happy to try and help you out."
And I mean it. And so do they.
==============================
It's the most boring task to click on the link location page and found that it is PR0; not only one time but several dozens a day.
The first tempatation is to delete, but I think it is wiser not delete unless they are duplicates. My practice is to put them in "sandbox" as raw data for future re-engineering purposes. After one or two PR updates, I examine their PR, weed out the non-performing link pages, extract and utilize the good ones. By that time, I already have their data such as their link text, description, persons to contact and the right e-mail addresses. I may not request back for the ones that they intended earlier, but for the new ones that I am working on the link campaign.
The thing that gets me is why 'Other' webmaster exchange links with them and so they send more spam in the hope they wil get more links!
o well... life goes on!
If this is about establishing relevance with a topic, Brett's 'linking out' idea seems more genuine, not to mention faster... but it could serve to harden up existing rankings.
Brett's 'linking out' idea seems more genuine, not to mention fasterDo you have the link to this? I cant remember reading it?
Outbound Links:
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future)
Just want to make sure this is clear to everybody:
Linking out to authority sites doesn't take the place of inbound links. All things taken together add up to more. Like taking vitamins: Getting jacked up on vitamin E doesn't mean you'll need less vitamin D.
I've noticed a real difference in attitude between people who find the site themselves, compared to those who just find it with a spider. Those who use spiders and send out typical link request boilerplate often get snotty when I point out the instructions on my link exchange page. The people who find it themselves know how well it ranks for a search they're interested in, so they generally make a good effort to follow my instructions and keep me happy. I rarely end up trading links with the spider crowd; I always trade links with the intelligent individual requests.
Getting jacked up on vitamin E doesn't mean you'll need less vitamin D.
Martinibuster, that's a great analogy! :-)
Business people don't appear to have such difficulties.
LOL
Understandably, no one wants to give away an ounce of their traffic, or PR.
Hey, I'll trade you the green widget buyers from my blue widgets site, in exchange for the blue widget buyers from your green widgets site. Deal?
useful link requests?
Lately, the best ones have been extremely concise, with more emphasis on establishing credibility before getting into detailed link instructions.
I solicit links from sites that would want to be found in Google on page one for those terms, which, btw, are closely related to the overall theme of my site. I get an 80% response rate saying "Yes, thank you very much." The other 20% never respond, probably deleting the email without reading past the subject line.
If you want something of benefit, offer something of equal or greater value. From me they get targeted free traffic with PR just being the icing on the cake.
For that reason, we don't accept links from direct competitors, (policy stated on our links pages), but we do accept links from related sites that are not direct competitors.
We now have tons of reciprocal links, but I'm not sure they're of any value. Several times I've searched the internet for what "I" would consider good links partners and haven't found anyone.
A few of our earliest links partners are giving us about 10 to 30 clickthroughs a month. Should I consider these worthwhile links? Are the clickthroughs just other sites looking for links partners or are they people who want to look at our products?
I think linking is easier for non-commercial sites. Am I wrong?
Does anyone receive useful link requests?
You only need to glance at the responses from webmasters to a declined request for a link to the Open Directory project to realise just how useless so many link requests are.
The requests come like spam from a howitzer with absolutely zero comprehension of how the link, if granted, adds value to the site providing the link.
If other website operators get 1% of the grief the ODP does, then requesting a link should be made a criminal offense.....After all it is a form of UCE in that it is:
What I'm reading here is depressing. Most of the link requests we get--if these places were stores in a mall, I wouldn't stop to look in the windows. If everyone is getting this kind of link request, why are the search engines still using them as part of the measurement of a site's value?
I guess it is because they still value links granted -- which is quite different to links requested, which a search engine would never see.
The SEs attempt to discount links granted for the benefit of the websites from links granted for the benefit of the searcher.
How well they distinguish the two indicates how successful they are as search engines.
Most of the link requests we get--if these places were stores in a mall, I wouldn't stop to look in the windows.
LOL.... do I know that feeling!
I look at every site that asks for a link from me. Geeze, it can be down right depressing!
OK, I get very few link requests, which is fine with me. I don't know why, or much care at this point. Maybe they think my site is crap :) Even so, I decline a lot of the ones I do get.
Pop-up, pop-unders, home page links to a bunch of sites in completely unrelated categories, pages that take 2 minutes to load, duplicate sites, blah, blah, blah.... the list goes on.
I don't care how others choose to run their websites.
I do care who I link to.
In practice I'm still linking out at about the same rate as before, just talking about it less through email. It's mostly redundant.
I think I understand about search engines and links now. Actually, I've never asked anyone for a link, but knowing all this, I'd be rather hesitant.
I think the problem is the link software that send out 1000000's of unwanted requests!
If you couldnt automate the process then people would do it by hand and then they would have to read the website they email, even if it is still just a copy n paste Email at least it will be on topic...
