How to set up Reciprocal Links:
The first thing you need to do is find
GOOD QUALITY, complementary (websites like yours) sites.
Place a link (using HTML) to them on your site.
Only AFTER you've placed a link to them, email the owner of the site a short, personal, friendly note. Always try to address them (him or her) by name. Contact Russell our
Webmaster for our web site.
Genuinely praise something on their site. (If you can't find something worth praising, delete the site from your list.) This means you have to look around their website.
Note: Making a chain-letter style email and sending it out to a ton of web sites may sound like a good idea, but this is the worst possible thing to do. Most good Webmasters will have hundred’s of emails requesting links each week. Make yours
Stand Out and be truthful.
Tell the web site owner you've linked to their site, giving them the URL of the page where you've place your link. Make sure your links page is easy to navigate. Ask for a link back to your site, suggesting a page where the link would be appropriate. (Remember that if you ask for a direct link off of their best page [
PageRank of 3 and over] that they may just want to place you on their link pages.
Do Not Be Offended and accept the link.)
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 a response by email then consider trying a phone call or writing 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 whom you've contacted and whom you haven't.
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.
The Thomas Ranch
