Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Here are a few of mine....
We would appreciate if you could adhere to certain guidelines before we become link partners:(Uhm, no)
Let me tell you something about search engine optimization...(I know something about it; that's why my site is higher ranked than yours, and you're asking me for a link)
If you want to exhange links with us, click this, go here, and fill out this to make a request(Are you kidding--aren't you making a request from me?)
Amy email that goes on more than 2 paragraphs.
Sound familiar? I don't know about the rest of you, but I've only got so much time in the day (and I don't want to waste it reading letters from strangers), so my advice is to keep it short and sweet if you want a link. Oh, and atleast pretend you've gone to the front page of my site by mentioning the topic somewhere in the email...
One of our test sites, for which I have e-mailed 1336 sites, is showing 1260 backlinks as of today, including sites that I have not mailed, and who presumably have picked the site up from those that I have.
A lot of work since the last update, but worth it.
May all your search terms be No.1
How long did it take you to get 1336 links?
Use any kind of link gathering software?
My email looks very professional (of course), but after people earlier in the thread mentioned linkbuilders, linkmasters and other companies, I'm wondering if it's worth doing.
The email is as follows...
**START**
I am contacting you about cross linking. I am interested in widgets.co.uk because it looks like it's relevant to a site for which I am seeking links.
This Page Rank 7 site belongs to a company, which is currently one of the world's largest home and business electronic manufacturers. This corporate site is very rich in content and empowers visitors to make more informed decisions about purchasing home theater components. The site also has a links page with Page Rank 6.
I'll keep the web address confidential and will send it to you only if you give me permission to do so. Just let me know if it's OK, and I'll send you the web address for your review. If you approve of the site, then the intention is to exchange links.
**END**
My site is PR6 in the UK selling Tshirts and general gifts (including a few electronic gadgets and the like), his doesn't seem to be completely dissimilar to mine (electronics-wise anyway) but a higher pagerank, and presumably not in the UK.
So the questions...
Should I do it?
Is it likely to benefit me? As the other site is unlikely to be in the UK (and I only sell to the UK) is it worth doing so just to increase PR?
I haven't replied yet so I don't know who the other site is, but it sounds like Sony or Toshiba or similar... do these big companies use linkbuilding, or are they already too well known for that?
And on a related tangent, my site sells stuff... how do I go about asking for links from other related sites if they're all my competitors too? And again, is it worth doing?
Sorry for all the questions but this is a completely new subject to me.
Check Alexa.com to see what type of traffic it says they get, if the site really gets lots of visitors it should show on Alexa.com, if it says they get 20 visitors a day they likely get somewhere between 50 to a 100 visitors a day, but it also depends on what market they are in. Some use spam and isn't a good idea to mess with them.
do these big companies use linkbuilding, or are they already too well known for that?
As the other site is unlikely to be in the UK (and I only sell to the UK) is it worth doing so just to increase PR?It's not wroth just PR. It could be a company/site that sales both to the UK and to the US, so you may get some UK visitors from it.
And on a related tangent, my site sells stuff... how do I go about asking for links from other related sites if they're all my competitors too? And again, is it worth doing?You should not trade links with a direct competitors because it's likely they will take sales away from you, try to find related sites that are not direct competitors.
I've emailed him, and also asked for the exact URL for the page he's intending on adding me to.
Are they going to put you with a list of 100s of another sites?
How do you know if the links page is just getting going? There might only be 10 other links when I look at it, but a month down the line there may be hundreds... I'm assuming that I can't sever the link, only they can.
Another question, should I allow incoming links to my homepage only, or to a specific landing page somewhere else or something else entirely (like a relevant product)?
Dave
lexis200, The above starting lines sound very familiar to me! Not sure if the same link building company, but I got a lot of spam e-mails like the above ones from the same company but from different people.
I had never exchanged link once as I'm too concern that my sites and e-mail addresses will be on their list for recycling. If you agree with one, there is also a further risk that they might put your website as a list of their reference to attract new customers. Too much exposure on such resources could become unhealthy in the future...Nobody know.
The requests that irk me are ones that offer of the worst content for free and just ask for a link, or that offer to trade links with me from sites that look like they were built in 1994, have 1000 other nonrelated sites and arent even in G/Y results.
I also get quite a few Link Builder emails, Ill listen to those but so far none have been at all related to my sites.
Nope all done by hand
So what will you do if you wanted to make sure all these sites still link back to you? Or if they are still on topic? Check link:site.com? Check your log files?
So what will you do if you wanted to make sure all these sites still link back to you?Who cares? Presumably the links you added to them are there to help your visitors. Does it help your visitors any less if they don't link back.
As the other site is unlikely to be in the UK (and I only sell to the UK) is it worth doing so just to increase PR?It should NEVER be done only to increase PR. Trade links for traffic, and be happy that PR comes with it and you'll be much better in the long run. Add links to sites you like (on or off topic) without hope of reciprocation and you'll be much better off in the long run.
Well, I did reply, and got a very interesting email back which I've copied verbatim below...
<SNIP>
So Powdork, in view of your comment
Do you think they are really going to give you an html link from an actual, non-framed, pr 6 page given their obvious interest in gaining and preserving PR.
do you have any other thoughts or reasons why I shouldn't link?
As far as I can see, the links are real html links, there's around 85 links on page 1 (PR6) and 9 on page 2 (PR0 but looks like a recently aded page). I could ask to be put on page 1 and see what he says.
I can't actually see any harm in adding the link now I know who it is... anyone know otherwise?
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 10:00 pm (utc) on Aug. 5, 2004]
[edit reason] no email quotes. please see tos. [/edit]
As said before you should not do it for PR, with that in mind and with to many links (It will be like that on the 2nd page too!) on the first links page you won't get much traffic or maybe none at all. But hey it's up to you and if you think it will help your site go for it.
Going to Google directory or dmoz has never yielded results. I have found extremely few sites there within my theme who are actively exchanging links.
Fred
Funny, just got this one today. Its from a site that has oodles and oodles of links (1000+ I assume), and is a canned request, telling me to add a very long paragraph or to go to some page and select from some method.
At least they used my form on my site.
Who cares?
Presumably the links you added to them are there to help your visitors.
Does it help your visitors any less if they don't link back.
And that's why GranPops' spider was created to make sure people keep their word.I'm guessing it catches way more 404 pages than pages that have removed the link.
What does "exchange" mean to you?It means "link worth 1/10th of a one way."
What favor are they doing for THEIR visitors when they don't link back to a resource other than their own site?They probably don't care about their visitors, which is why you shouldn't have exchanged links with them in the first place.
I'm guessing it catches way more 404 pages than pages that have removed the link.
How would you know this by "guessing"? Have you ever used spiders to check links?
It means "link worth 1/10th of a one way."
How did you arrive at this fraction of worth? Did you guess this also? Look up "exchange" in any dictionary and you will not find the meaning you created for the word.
Presumably the links you added to them are there to help your visitors.
They probably don't care about their visitors,
That's exactly my point when I just asked you previously, "What favor are they doing for THEIR visitors when they don't link back to a resource other than their own site?"
which is why you shouldn't have exchanged links with them in the first place.
I wouldn't have exchanged links unless they did so in return, which is what I've been telling ya in the previous posting above.
How did you arrive at this fraction of worth? Did you guess this also? Look up "exchange" in any dictionary and you will not find the meaning you created for the word.You didn't ask for the dictionary term. You asked, and I am quoting you here, "What does "exchange" mean to you?" I told you what it means to me. The fraction represents my opinion and it is not a guess because that was my exact opinion at that time.
That's exactly my point when I just asked you previously, "What favor are they doing for THEIR visitors when they don't link back to a resource other than their own site?"From your post
So my question is "Why would the visitors care if these so called 'resources' have been removed since they were never there for the visitors?" This is exactly why Google doesn't give them nearly as much weight as they have in the past and also why my opinion is that exchanged links are worth much less than one way links. In fact, my belief is that, in many cases, a one way outbound link is worth more than a reciprocal link. What you believe is up to you.
They are really on my site to help my link partners because they had returned the favor.
And no, I have never used a spider to check if people are linking back to me. Since I build links for traffic, I only need check my referrers report.
I recently got a link request from a site that was promoting a unique and specific travel activity in a given area. "ZOUNDS," sez I!
I looked over their site without paying any attention to the PR of their links page ... then I built a page for my section on that area ... that told all my readers about that unique opportunity ... and I planted a link to that site smack in the middle of the content.
That site was so happy they added another link to my site on their home page ...
... you folks still sure you want to automatically delete all link requests?;>)
So my question is "Why would the visitors care if these so called 'resources' have been removed since they were never there for the visitors?"
Hey, I wasn't talking about visitors and what they care about. You brought up visitors. I only reversed your question with "...THEIR visitors..." to present another point-of-view.
What I care about is whether or not GranPops had an easy way to find out if his link partners are still linking back to him... I didn't ask him about his visitors. In the link "exchange world" which you have excluded yourself from, we expect the partner to keep our link on his page.
This is exactly why Google doesn't give them nearly as much weight as they have in the past and also why my opinion is that exchanged links are worth much less than one way links. In fact, my belief is that, in many cases, a one way outbound link is worth more than a reciprocal link.
Your "opinion" or "belief", but who's arguing against this?
What you believe is up to you.
When someone says they will place a link back to my site, I "believe" they should do it when I already had done it for them... and keep it there if our sites are still on topic.That's fine. My point is that the links you put on your site should help your visitors and that is completely independent of whether they link back to you or not. I am part of the link exchange world. i mentioned I feel that reciprocal links are worth 1/10th the value of one way links. However, they are more than ten times as easy to get, so yes, I use them. But only when I feel they will help my visitors. If they are marginally useful they go on the additional resources page. If they are of greater relevance and usefulness I find a way to work them into the content. I find, as old_expat mentioned, that this will often payoff in a big way traffic wise.
I don't understand how this could ever get a link exchange. Soon as I see this I know it's automated and likely spamming. If you can't take the time to look at my site I don't have the time to see your site.
I know many of us webmasters work hard (100s of hours of work!) on our sites and ensure it's just right, but still these people that take no time to look at my hard work on my site and think I will exchange links with them.
Do they really think I will just throw it all away just to make them happy? You better think again.
We are doing our monthly Link Audit right now and I noticed our records show we linked to your website on June 17/04 and there is still no reciprocal link on your site at www.mydomain.com back to us...........If we don't hear otherwise from your webmaster by the end of next week, we will assume you do not want to have a reciprocal link to us and your link will be removed from our Links directory in an effort to preserve our PageRank....
As we now have 1000's of links on many sites, and from all around the world, we can make a few comments on those that we have spent the last week deleting.
520 deleted.
1. 353 have removed the link that was previously there, and indexed by G.
2. 167 used clever coding to make the link invalid. We checked that G had indexed the page on which our link appeared, over several months, and found that neither G nor our spider recognised the link.
Nationalities of these SOB’s, as % of total SOB’s
1.88% USA
2.93% USA
One of the sites had dropped from a PR4 to a PR2 for no apparent reason. Because this is a test site it did not matter but it merited further investigation.
we have spent the last week deleting
I see the word "we" so does that mean orginally you had a helper or helpers look for these links?
Why didn't you make an attempt to contact these SOBs and tell them you can't find your link on their site anymore before deleting the links back to them?
