In the era of web 2.0 email is not the only medium to get in contact with a person. People join social media networks, become friends and grand each other the right to be get reached "from inside", from people you are supposed to trust more than a random visitor who drops you an email message. It’s like having hundreds of people in your IM list and reaching them whenever you want.
Having these new (well, not new already) opportunities, can we say that contacting a person via email is old-fashioned and ineffective? In other words, can we say that link requests are dead and social media community is your only method to build links and a link builder should be a social media user ? This WebmasterWorld discussion shows that many people think so.
Establish a profile, garner a following and you have all the resources you need for getting links.
Really, this might make sense as being in the same community gives the feeling of closeness. You have more opportunities to get attention and thus attract links.
At the same time this makes the job of a link builder much more limited: You can’t be a social media guru in every niche. For example, I am well known for being an SEO in social media and really getting "SEO related links" to my blog is not a problem for me but I hardly get links to other-niche sites of mine or my clients using my social media network.
Building a network for every network I have to deal with would be impossible. So to me link requesting (meaning contacting website owners via email) is still vital and I still believe it can be a highly effective way to build links if you do it right. What about you? Do you still use traditional link building requests ?
great point of view, the only thing you have to watch is when you start to blur your clients social media accounts and yours, or you start to cross promote between client accounts.
there are times when i get a great follower in one account, and have to wait or change my language when i contact them on behalf of a client
while these can be beneficial, i do believe most good campaigns dont show who is “agency” running the campaign and it looks natural like it’s being run by the client…
I agree, link requests are dead and have been for sometime. However, I am quite surprised at the number of requests I still get … perhaps this has more to do with the vertical than the era we now find ourselves in.
Lastly, I think what we have all realized is that Business Development is a much better way of thinking about link exchanges. If you really can’t come up with a legitimate business reason to speak with another site owner/operator it is probably a waste of time. Simply asking someone for a link … boring and even dangerous for your SEO strategy.
Agreed, and its even harder for smaller sites that are just getting of the ground.
They really have been dead for some years. My k-9 spam detector has now learned that they should automatically go in the spam pile. Life is too short. :)
I think email works best when preceded by some level of social media activity– Twitter follow, blog comments, forum participation, Linkedin friending, etc.
If done correctly, you communicate that you’re a real person who has taken the time to learn about the site (and person) that you want to link from.
Yes, Ann I’m still following the old rule of sending link exchange request atleast to 100 webmasters but i only get one or two replies. What is the use when you waste your four to five hours for sending link exchange request and you didn’t get as that much reply you want so it is or it will be dead soon.
But i have seen that most of the webmasters are looking for pagerank if they saw that our page rank is high then they reply us back but if it is low then they didn’t reply.
I think Page Rank plays a great role in link exchange request.
I think that it depends upon your niche and your target market…until everyone becomes entrenched in the use of social media, using email for link requests may be the best way to reach some site owners.
Emphasizing requesting links the “right way” is key in your point. I think it does have a lot to do with your niche and languages are important too. I work with non-English sites, therefore link requests are necessary since directories and article sites are hard to come across in other languages. Social Media is out there in a universal language however, so the whole SM precedent is also fundamental depending on the culture and market of the person you are requesting a link from. I think it definitely goes on a case by case basis, but overall, I think it’s too soon to disregard link requests as a whole.
Insightful post, thanks!
I think Page Rank plays a great role in link exchange request.
it very nice Ann……….