Generate Traffic by Building Links that Endorse you

Links are the Internet’s form of ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing. When someone links to your website they are, in a sense, endorsing your website. Building a big network of links that link back to your website can be an extremely powerful way of generating large amounts of traffic. Listed below is the strategy we follow for building a large network of links:

1. Research Possible Websites
   
   The first thing you need to do is research the possible linking websites. Think about your target customer and where they are likely to visit. Try to find places that are a hive of activity (lots of traffic!). Use the search engines to locate different websites and don’t forget the New Zealand search engines:
   
   
   • www.nzpages.co.nz
   
   
   • www.searchnz.co.nz
   
   
   • www.nzsearch.co.nz
   
   
   • www.nzs.co.nz
   
   Also, use a tool like Alexa (www.alexa.com) to analyse each website and to check out how much traffic each of them is getting.
   
   
2. Prepare a List
   
   Based on your research; prepare a short-list of websites that you would like to approach. Don’t be afraid to approach people for a link. Be courageous! You have nothing to lose. Make sure the websites that you list are complimentary and not competitive.
   
   
3. Prepare your Email
   
   Use an email template that has been prepared specifically for approaching websites for a link. We have provided an example email template for this purpose on the following page.
   
   Make sure your email focuses on ‘what’s in it for them’ (Remember, WIIFM)! They need to see what the upside is. Why should they go to the effort? Your website should offer something for their customers.
   
   
4. Follow-up
   
   Make sure you follow-up, because persistence does pay. Follow-up at weekly intervals and be prepared to follow-up many times if necessary.

Link Request Template

Hi [Target's Name],

My name is [Insert Name] from [Insert Business Name]. I was recently browsing the Web and came across your website ([Insert Website URL here]). [Say something positive about their website here].

We have a website that [insert what your website does here].

I was hoping that you might consider linking to us and would like to invite you to review our website for the same purpose here [insert website address].

I believe that linking to each other’s website would have a number of mutual benefits:

- we can help increase each other’s website traffic

- we can help increase each other’s search engines rank (search engines currently put a lot of emphasis on links between websites).

If you believe that a link to our website would be appropriate, then please add it at your discretion- perhaps I could suggest the following link and description:

[Your site name and URL] - [Your site description]

Please let me know if you would like to proceed and I will set up a link on our website too.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this. If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me.

With regards

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[Insert email signature here]