Internet Marketing / SEO
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How Do I Convince Webmasters To Link To My Site?

Description: The more good quality links you can get coming back to your site the better, but persuading other webmasters to do just that isn't as easy as it might sound.

This can be tricky, but the key word to remember here is value. Reciprocal links are far easier to achieve - you link to their site if they will link to yours - but one way links from other sites are far more powerful in the long run.

Getting plenty of one way links takes time and effort but it does pay off, and it doesn't always boil down to having to ask a webmaster to include your link and offering them nothing in return. It's quite possible to generate one way links and do the webmaster a favor as well - you just have to do a spot of lateral thinking to achieve it.

Here's an example to illustrate the point. What do all webmasters need? What are they constantly on the look out for that makes their day when they find it?

The short answer is unique content.

Do some research and create a list of websites that concentrate on the same subject as your own site. Remember that links are worth more when they are relevant.

Get in touch with each webmaster and offer them a unique article, not published anywhere else, which they are free to publish on their own site provided they place a link at the bottom of it that leads back to your website. You may not get a reply from everyone, but most webmasters will jump at the chance of some free and unique content, because it will help their own positioning in the search engines. It's a win win situation. Make sure you mention that the article can be keyworded to attract even more traffic.

Many websites also have a page or section containing links to other recommended sites. There is always the possibility of having your link added here, but this will usually involve having to email the webmaster so make doubly sure you get all the details spot on.

Finally there is the question of value. Sometimes you don't have to ask for links - all you have to do is build a site that establishes itself as one of the best ones on the subject. If your own PageRank increases and is better than that of many other competing sites they will naturally want to link to yours to help improve their own PageRank.

Ultimately it's a question of combining more than one technique to get a good number of one way links leading back to your site over time. This isn't a strategy to be rushed - devoting some time to it will help ensure you get good results in the end.