Link Building

jimmybeige

Hi,
I'm looking to start link building with some other websites from my website. I was hoping to perhaps email any webmaster that I see for websites that would be relevant for exchanging links.

I recently read however that sending unsolicited emails to others could be seen as spam and my website could be penalised. Is this true or where's the line between spam and friendly enquiry? What is the best way to approach this?

Thanks

PaulPinnacle

jimmybeige wrote: »

I'm looking to start link building with some other websites from my website.

Be sure to approach this with care, google will penalise sites in breach of their webmaster guidelines if there is 'excessive reciprocal linking'.

(The inclusion of 'excessive' is always a matter for debate. It was originally added to remove the concerns of webmasters who [as a singular example] gain a link from a media source, link back to the article/page to promote the good PR and then worry that they were breaching the original guideline which lacked the 'excessive' term)

jimmybeige wrote: »

I recently read however that sending unsolicited emails to others could be seen as spam and my website could be penalised. Is this true or where's the line between spam and friendly enquiry? What is the best way to approach this?

I'm not sure what you mean by 'penalised'? Unless you're blatantly sending out copious numbers of mails, which gets your mails blocked on the spam filter side of things, it won't have any impact on your SERP.

Your real 'risk' is in how the mail is viewed by the recipient. If they feel you're spamming them, or you are spamming them, you're actively hurting the reputation of your site in the mind of a related party. So obviously needs to be avoided to ensure your reputation isn't damaged.

Sending out unsolicited mails is very much a subjective matter. If you feel you're making a genuine mail, which is tailored to the recipient and not a 'blanket mail', it should be ok. If you have any doubts that it might be 'spammy' in appearance, it's a fairly safe bet that the recipient certainly will.

It's worth baring in mind that many webmasters aren't interested in link exchanges and only wish to link to pages that they genuinely feel are of benefit to their readers (something I personally do and agree with). They're more concerned with the quality of their site for the visitors than trying to 'game' some backlinks (normally of low quality in any case). If the content and quality on the site is good enough, earning 'natural' (and high quality) backlinks normally comes in time. If you are approaching others about reciprocal links, I'd certainly suggest clearly explaining how your site would be of interest/benefit/relevance to the visitors of the other site rather than a "you do me and I'll do you".

mneylon

jimmybeige wrote: »

Hi,
I'm looking to start link building with some other websites from my website. I was hoping to perhaps email any webmaster that I see for websites that would be relevant for exchanging links.

I recently read however that sending unsolicited emails to others could be seen as spam and my website could be penalised. Is this true or where's the line between spam and friendly enquiry? What is the best way to approach this?

Thanks

Be careful how you do this

A lot of people seem to use very spammy software that "identifies" "link partners" and then spams them on your behalf

You'd be better off working on your content and submitting it to some of the manually edited link directories etc.,

You can of course ask for people to swap links with you, but as already mentioned, why would they?

jimmybeige

Thank for the replies, very helpful.

Blacknight wrote: »

You can of course ask for people to swap links with you, but as already mentioned, why would they?

My website is going to be a list of hobbies/sports/activities. I was hoping if I listed them that they would then possibly post a link on their site to mine. Just thought it might boost my traffic a bit.