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Sample Link Building Campaign Letter

  • April 8, 2006
  • by Gradiva Couzin

So you want to start a link building campaign? You need a good link request letter, one that’s friendly and professional, and that won’t be offensive or annoying to site owners or webmasters.

Inbound links to your website are one of the most important factors in search engine ranking algorithms today.  In our book Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day, we tell the story of how one of our link requests got into the hands of a vengeful blogger, and how his attempt to humiliate us fell flat because we wrote a “bulletproof” link letter.

Here’s a sample link building letter that you can adapt to your own needs:

Dear Ms. Alphabeth, [always use the person’s real name if you have it],

I’ve greatly enjoyed looking through your pet plankton website, especially the “Plankton of the Month” photos.  I have a website on a related subject and I think it might be of interest to your readers.  It’s “Care and Feeding of Pet Plankton” on ZappyCo.com.  This page provides a detailed plankton care plan, including homemade algae snacks, tank maintenance, and even a section on how to set up a trust fund for your plankton. The page is located at http://www.zappyco.com/planktonics [use the exact URL that you want the site to link to].

I thought a good place on your site to link from would be on your “links” page, here: http://www.planktonlove.com/links [use the exact URL that you hope the site will link from].

Here is a description that you can use if you like:

ZappyCo’s Plankton Care and Feeding Tips
Recipes, tank cleaning instructions, and tips for keeping plankton pets happy.

I hope you find this link appropriate and useful.  We at ZappyCo would certainly appreciate a link from your site.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Sincerely,
Harlan Zappy
Web Marketing Manager, ZappyCo
[Use your full name, title, and if possible, use an email address from the site requesting the link.]

What’s good about this letter? For starters:

  • It doesn’t employ hard-selling techniques.
  • It’s personal and specific. It doesn’t require any guessing or composing should the recipient want to provide a link.
  • It doesn’t promise a link exchange.  If the link is appropriate and your site has high-quality content, you shouldn’t need a link exchange.

In Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day we give additional pointers on writing a bulletproof link letter and making your site more “linkable.” We also walk you through the steps of starting and maintaining a long-term successful link building campaign.  Follow these pointers and you’ll be sure to bring in those red-hot inbound links that your website needs and deserves!

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30 COMMENTS
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  • DataJoe on SEO: Link Building, Part 3 | DataJoe LLC
    August 12, 2010 at 9:32 am

    […] at yourseoplan.com. They are so awesome, they’ve even put together a really great example of a link cover letter. Try taking this template and writing some of your own! Share and […]

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  • DataJoe on SEO: Link Building, Final Thoughts | DataJoe LLC
    August 26, 2010 at 7:46 am

    […] you to get out that list of prospective sites to link to your site and send off some of those link letters you’ve […]

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    March 1, 2011 at 2:39 am

    Hi, Thanks for this link exchange request. I was searching for this for long time and my friend gave me this link. It looks Great. Thanks Again

  • Brandon Hornsby
    April 7, 2011 at 10:03 am

    Thanks so much for this insightful article and the example link request letter. We’ve used it as a template in our current linking campaign and we’re getting great positive responses. Keep up the great work and I wish you continued success!

  • Trudy Pellicaan
    May 1, 2011 at 5:54 pm

    Thanks for this example. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. Turns out I was on the right track. Thanks again!

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    June 28, 2011 at 12:12 pm

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    July 6, 2011 at 7:15 am

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    I found it really useful and informative. I lived in China so I have the translated version back in my home. Just begin the link building work myself and I must say as a newbie I found it really hard and don’t know where to start. Your book give me a big picture for it, thank you very much. But I think some more detail information and method sharing will make this book more wonderful. Do you mind if I write to you and ask some questions in my mind after complete reading your book?

  • Amr Boghdady
    July 8, 2011 at 3:00 am

    That was extremely helpful!
    Webmasters seem to always neglect my ‘link request’ emails, so I’ll definitely be borrowing a few expressions off your letter and try again!
    Thanks for sharing

  • Arun
    August 11, 2011 at 10:46 pm

    Hi Gravity! Thanks for the sample link building letter I am novice to link building strategies I came to read your article while i was trying to figure our how a link request letter should be, your sample link building letter really attracts me and i am going to use your method of requesting… hope it will work well 🙂 Keep up your work of offering free stuff!

  • Link Building vs. Link Attraction | Business News – Tech News – Entertainment – Mobile – Social Media
    October 6, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    […] respond to the issues they address in their content, you can offer up your page as a solution. A link request (I just linked to a 5 year old post) that is targeted and customized will answer the question, […]

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Comments are closed.

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Gravity Search Marketing was formed in 2006 as a partnership between Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin. Gravity’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, global entertainment brands, niche B2Bs, large and small retailers, and non-profits.
As SEO industry veterans, Couzin and Grappone co-wrote Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (Wiley, 2006, 2008, 2011) and Five Stars: Putting Online Reviews to Work for Your Business (Wiley, 2014), and enjoy sharing their expertise in speaking engagements and press interviews. 
Gravity's small, talented team has expertise in analytics, paid search, social media and technical SEO. Gravity team members are located throughout California, in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

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