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Marketing > Search Engine Marketing
"Non Reciprocal Linking"
By Sean Burns
As I'm sure you know, it's quite easy to exchange links with other sites and it's a great way to get lots of extra traffic to your site. One of the problems with reciprocal linking is that often you get your link stuck on a links page with dozens of other sites. Also, it's not always practical for you to link back to every site that you want to link to you.
In addition to this, the search engines all like you to have links to your site. But, as I explain in Rankings Revealed, not all links are beneficial and the best links are ones that are on pages with very few other links. Therefore, as a part of your marketing strategy, it's very important that you attempt to get links that the search engines see as a "recommendation", not just a link from a page with many others.
The first step is very simple. Just ask! Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to offer to exchange links with other sites. Many sites have links to places that don't link back. They do this because it's useful for their visitors. So, if you clearly state the benefits of linking to your site in an e-mail, many sites will be happy to link to you. The worst that can happen is that they'll say no or ask for a reciprocal link. No harm done there.
An additional tip is to make it as easy as possible to get them to link to you. Suggest a relevant page in your e-mail and provide them with the HTML code to link to you. All they have to do is copy and paste and they are done.
Another way to do it is to "bribe" other sites. If you have a newsletter, you can offer free ads in return for a link. You could run a linking competition - the prize being a free ad or a link on your site. This is a reciprocal link but only to one site each week or month. Be creative. Think of why you link to sites that don't link back (which I'm sure you do). Then, give those reasons to other sites to get them to link to you.
Again, don't be afraid to just ask. You'll be surprised how many links you can get.
The next step is to find relevant directories. There are thousands of directories on the internet that cover every possible topic. Unfortunately, from a search engine point of view, many links in these directories are of little value. This is because most directories use a script of some kind to link to you. As the link runs through the script to count clicks, the search engines don't count them. But, links are not just about search engines so make sure you are linked in all of the relevant directories that you can find.
If you find directories that don't actually use a script or that build their directory by pulling the links straight from a database then these are extra good links. You get traffic from the directory and the search engines like them.
Another thing that most people don't realise about these directories is that it's possible to actually include HTML in the description that you provide. If you look through the directories that I have at WebmastersReference.com you'll see that I have allowed some of the sites to link to themselves straight from the description. The search engines most definitely do follow these links.
Obviously, some directories won't let you do this but some will (I do). If you are unsure if a site allows it, I'd strongly recommend that you ask them first.
One of the best ways to do it is to link from the description to something specific on your site. The directories may not let you do it if the link goes to the same place as your main link that you submit. But, if you link from your description to a specific article or section of your site, it may be allowed.
For example, I could submit a link to a webmasters resources directory. I'd add my home page - http://www.webmastersreference.com. In the description, I may also be allowed to add something like "Home of Search Engine Rankings Revealed." It's important to note that you would probably need to include the full "a href" HTML for the link to actually appear as a link in the directory.
Once again, it doesn't hurt to ask. Send an e-mail to the owner of the directory and state a good reason for why you'd like to include a link in your description. As I said, the worst that can happen is that they'll say no.
Step number three. Write to site owners and say something nice about their site or their product. In other words, provide a testimonial. If they like it, there is a very good chance that they'll use it on their site because it makes them look good to their visitors. You can see an example of this with the two quotes I provided above about my eBook. I was flattered that Rebekah and Jeff were happy with my eBook so I quoted them on my site. Of course, it's etiquette to provide a link back and actually gives the quote more value because the site's visitors can see it comes from a real person with a real site.
You can see this kind of thing happening all the time on the internet so don't hesitate to send a site owner an e-mail telling them how great they are. These links can be excellent because they will often be put on pages with very few others.
Step four follows a similar way of thinking. Write reviews on your site for other sites, products or services. Then, e- mail the site that you have reviewed and tell them about it. This essentially creates a reciprocal link but you won't be stuck on a links page. There is every chance that they'll link to you from a very relevant page. Of course, they'll want to link straight to the review so make sure that when a visitor arrives on your page via the link, you are able to push them towards what it is that you want to sell them.
I wrote a review on WebmastersReference.com for the stats script that I use. I actually didn't tell the creators of the script that I had done it but they obviously found out when they saw that I had sent them traffic. Before I knew it there was a link to the review I had written from their sales page. It's nice and prominent so I get traffic from it and the search engines like it. This can actually be an extra bonus because I now rank quite highly on the search engines when people look for that particular product. I'm not using an affiliate link to send traffic back but I could.
You could write reviews for literally dozens of products and services that match your target market and get just as many links pointing to your site.
The last step I'll tell you about is actually the simplest in terms of getting a link to your site. One of the most popular traffic generation techniques online is to write articles for other people to use in their newsletters or on their site. This does tend to create lots of traffic and has an added bonus because it helps you to show that you are an expert on your topic.
In the context that we are looking at here, there are additional features of this technique. The main one being that when your article appears in an ezine or on another site, your "bio" box is included. Of course, this includes a link back to your site. As many people archive their newsletters on their site, this can provide extra links.
Now, there is another part of this that can prove very beneficial. There are many article directories online to which you can submit your articles. Lots of them just link to the article on your site which is not always overly helpful from a search engine perspective because of the reasons that I outlined with directories above. However, these are still useful because it allows people to find your article and there is every chance that they could use it in their ezine or on their site.
The best article directories to use are the ones that actually place the article on their site. This benefits you in the same way that an article in an ezine does. Your bio box has a link to you which the search engines will usually pick up. If you don't have any articles that relate to your topic, write some and submit them to these directories. If you already have some articles on your site, make sure that you submit them wherever possible.
I was planning to list some article directories in this article but I've just done a search on Google and there are hundreds that cover all kinds of topics. So, just use this link to search for "article directory" on Google -
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=article+directory
Also do a search using the relevant keywords for your site. For example, "soccer article directory".
I hope that the above information has given you some ideas for getting extra links to your site. I'm sure that there are many other ways that you can come up with but maybe I've helped you to think that you don't just need to exchange links to get more traffic to your site.
© Sean Burns. All rights reserved.
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