Three Ways to Effectively Ask for Links

David Sonn
David Sonn President

Three Link Building Techniques to Earn the Links You Ask ForWant to know the key to effective link building? Relationships. Being successful at gathering links pointed toward your website (which improves your SEO and gets you more traffic) is all about building relationships. And you can’t start out a relationship by asking for a favor. Asking a stranger for a link to your website is like asking someone walking by to help you carry your groceries into your house. It is off-putting and just plain rude. As with any relationship, you must have consideration, build trust, and most importantly, give value. Here are three quick tips on how to achieve just that.

1. Consider Your Audience
Think about who you are asking. Consider that the structure of a company could change your message and how you ask for links. For example, you may be asking a small blog owned by a single person. Or, perhaps it is a large company website that has an entire marketing department and a generic customer service email. This will completely change the approach.
If there is a specific person, think about ways you can learn more about him or her. Start with the articles she’s posted on her site. Look to his LinkedIn or Twitter to find insight into his interests and motives. The more relevant a link “pitch” is for a reader, the more likely it is to be passed along or responded to. Building a relationship that goes beyond a hopeful link request requires connection. As studies show, we like people who are similar to us. Find common ground to jump-start important link-building relationships.

2. Build Trust
In order to form a relationship with a blog owner or webmaster, there must be a level of trust. Trust is built through genuine communication. Some of the most effective sales people in the world are not those with a cliché one liner or a flashy sales pitch; they are the ones who use transparency to build trust. When asking for links, be upfront about your intentions and reiterate how they can gain more traffic and better engagement with your content. Also, be honest and direct about what you want in exchange. Link building is simply offering some great content for a mutually beneficial exchange. When you approach link building like this, you can gain credibility as well as a link. This Moz post lists excellent examples of genuine, conversational outreach emails.

3. Give Value
Give your new outreach relationships as much value as possible. Interesting and juicy content, helpful tools, fun quizzes, captivating videos, and mesmerizing infographics will encourage links. It will also strengthen your outreach efforts because it gives an incentive to link to your site.
Developing links to your content is an important way to grow your website and your brand. Building and maintaining relationships will undoubtedly gain you more quality links. Creating and sharing exceptional content will have all your link friends coming back for more, sharing more, and ultimately gaining even more links.

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