Obtaining Quality Inbound Links

Congratulations! You’ve done all of your research and taken the time to create the type of content that will eventually attract links all on its own.

But how?

After creating citation worthy content, do just a little more research to identify which sites might have an interest in listing your resource and provide you with the type of links favored by search engines that stand the test of time.

Editorial additions on authoritative and quality sites only get better with age and will trump self service links in the long run. As an added benefit, you’re no longer chasing more cheap links to replace those that were deleted or have been pushed down into the muck at the bottom of the pond by each successive blog comment or forum post.

So now you have to jump start a link campaign and get it rolling. If your great resource remains unknown, you can’t expect expect anyone to link to it. Once you do have a few high quality links in place, other links generally follow.

But it’s up to you to dangle the hook to get it all started.

Once you’ve identified the sites where you’d like to see your link, you need to find out who to contact. Many sites such as those for universities, organizations or governments will list a person who maintains the selected resource and their contact information.

It’s not uncommon to also find the date when the resource was last updated. If it’s been a number of years since anyone has taken the initiative to update the resource, you might want to place it on the bottom of your list and revisit it once you’ve exhausted all of the active pages.

It’s also possible that there is a contact form on the site where you can send an inquiry, but I still like to follow up with the person listed or the site admin as it may just be an associate who is responsible for taking care of the general inquiries.

I’ve found that personalized email messages work the best, and I’ll compose a separate message for each site I’m requesting a link from. Address it to the person who maintains the resource and inquire if suggestions are accepted.

Use a cordial greeting and introduce yourself.

Ask if they would consider your suggestion for possible inclusion under the particular heading on the page most relevant to your content, and be sure to offer your thanks for their consideration of your suggestion and their time.

Don’t be surprised if you actually get a reply.

Here’s a few excerpts from some of the  responses received from a recent round of email messages I sent:

“Thanks, I’ve added the link, which looks very useful.”

“Thank you very much for your suggestions. I’ve added…”

“Thanks for the suggestions.  I will definitely consider these sites the next time I update the pages.”

“Thank you for your suggestion. I will include it in a upcoming updating round.“

“Thanks for visiting our site. We’ve added the following link…”