by DrTandem^®
Please feel free to copy and use this information as you deem appropriate, if you give credit to this author and site.

Rich Text Format

Reciprocal Linking

In the body of your e-mail, state who you are, what your site is about. It's usually a good idea to already have placed a link to their site on yours. Mention this and the URL of where it can be found. It's a show of good faith. You can always remove it, if they decline or fail to respond. Some will send you a rude reply as if they have somehow been violated by you posting a link to their site without asking first. They are just ignorant of the benefits of reciprocal linking. If they didn't want anyone to find them, why do they have a website? A simple, polite reply works best for the ignorant. One sentence will suffice, "I'm sorry, the link to your site has been removed." One day , while they wonder why they have no traffic, they will discover what fools they were.

Oh, most importantly, send such requests individually. Do not send the same e-mail to more than one prospect at a time. Again, it is time consuming. However, the personal touch works best with such e-mails. It helps greatly, if you mention something unique about their site that you liked. This shows that it is not simply a spam e-mail.

Don't forget to routinely check the links you have posted to be sure that they are still working and pointing to the proper content. Also, be sure to visit their sites to be sure your links still exist. There are other ways of getting sites to link to yours besides reciprocal links. We'll explore those in future articles.

DrTandem® is Dan Prinzing, a freelance webmaster specializing in affordable custom websites for small businesses. He is located in the coastal community of Encinitas, north of San Diego.