Making Link Exchange Campaigns Work
There used to be a time when two ways reciprocal link building was the name of the game. But soon Google started recognizing and reducing the value of such links which reduced the popularity of
reciprocal linking big time. Then came three ways or triangular linking which gained even more popularity than
reciprocal linking owning to the major advantages it offered in terms of link value. But then everyone started doing it along with the black hat spammers. People started developing spammy pages just to use it for a three way link exchange. Soon webmasters started getting flooded with spammy link requests most sent out through email software programs. No wonder people got fed up and today link exchange requests are frowned upon. A very few percentage of webmasters even bother opening a link request email. Others simply trash it or label it as spam.
So chances are that if you are doing a three way or reciprocal link campaign your success rate would be less than 1%. And if your mail reaches the wrong people you just might end up getting your IP blacklisted for spamming. So what's the solution? Here are a few tips worth considering:
1.) Approach the right people: Not every website on the internet would be interested in a link exchange. So before sending your email, check if the site has a resource page. Presence of a resource page is indicative that the site does take part in link exchanges.
2.) Do a Manual Campaign: It shows when a person has sent the mail manually and when a bot has sent the mail. People don't like to read or respond to bots. So always make sure that you do a 100% manual campaign. This will also allow you to approach the right people and not send mails to someone who is likely to report your IP.
3.) Use a customized subject line: Okay, I am not going to tell you exactly what subject line to use. What I am going to tell you is what not to use. Do not use lines that scream spam. Stuff like 'link exchange request' or 'three way link exchange' etc. are plain overused and hence will never work. Think of something unique and creative. One simple tip to keep in mind is the use the name of the concerned website in the subject line. This alone will ensure that your mails get opened more often.
4.) Use customized content: It's not feasible to write each and every mail from the scratch. So you can absolutely use a template. But just make sure that you customize at-least a couple of lines in the mail. Something as simple as 'I like the blue color of your website' or 'I loved reading this article of yours' can tell the recipient that you have indeed visited his website. This is important as people don't like to respond to mails sent by bots. So show that you are a real human being.
5.) Send mails at the right time: Do not send mails on weekends or on Mondays. Any time during Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays should work fine. This is the time when people are free so chances that your mail will be read and responded to will be high. Friday is a day when people are in a weekend mood and hence might not respond or even open the email.
6.) Follow the Can-Spam guidelines: Read and understand the Can-Spam guidelines. One important rule is to disclose your complete business address. So do that without fail in the signature of your email. Also ensure that you do not fake email headers or use proxy servers to send emails
So these were just some tips to help you carry out a successful link exchange campaign. Hope these were useful. Thank you for reading and good luck with your SEO marketing campaign.
