Link Request

Gone are the days of the generic link request form letter. E-mails addressed "To Whom It May Concern" are usually deleted automatically by website owners

Link requests are now a request for a kind of partnership. That doesn't necessarily mean reciprocal linking, but it does mean that site owners want to know that you have a genuine interest in their sites, not just in the "link juice" they can pass on to you.

Try to get familiar with the sites you want a link from. If you are targeting a blog, read it. Make some non-link-related comments. If you become part of the blog's community, you'll find the site owner much more receptive to a follow-up link request. You may also find that other commenters on that site have their own sites - and they may be willing to link to you.

If you find that you have no choice but to send a cold e-mail, try your best to find the e-mail address of a person to send it to. Not just a webmaster@ or info@ e-mail address. And when you write to that person, make it personal. Talk to them about why you like their site and why you think a link to you would be a fit for their readers/customers. Spouting off stats about your PageRank and traffic could be a turnoff for the site owner. If those things are really important to him, he knows how to do his own research (and will).

Link building may be a slow and tedious process - but it's an absolutely necessary part of a successful SEO initiative. Knowing how to get started will make it much easier for you to build the links you need. And once you start acquiring some really solid quality links, you will no doubt begin to see improvement in your search engine rankings, your website traffic, and even your sales.