SEOenthusiast

External links that work
Getting other sites to link to yours is almost a clich? - but no-one does it right. External linking is the most difficult part of an SEO engagement. Reciprocals are all but dead - directory links are of some small value, but one way, on theme links from trusted sites are gold dust to an SEO campaign. If your SEO is still spending your money getting reciprocal links, run from them! They're not keeping up with the times. As of the jagger update of November 05 this is now next to useless. The trouble is that there is really no easy way to get good links from good sites. That's why the SE's are on to a winner. They very well know that if a related-in-theme site (A) gives a link to site (B) in a particular way (i.e. no rel 'nofollow', no javascript, etc.), that site A think site B is a good site and worth the trouble to break out code to link to them.
Simple, known by everyone, but deadly effective. The mind numbing work of asking webmasters for links is.... is two things.... vastly underpaid for achievers and greatly under-appreciated by clients and linker's bosses. Linking is still the essence of good site search engine optimisation - but no-one actually wants to do it - they want to outsource it to people who work cheaply in India but who don't have the integrity and heart to do the job properly. There is no short cut, there is no easy way - which is why the search engines continue to provide - by and large - appropriate results for search phrases.
How to go about getting links? Here's our trade secret. Find good sites in your subject area or adjacent to it with some Google respect. Find out who the technical contact and/or webmaster is if they aren't the same person. Study the site and find something good about it. Write an email to the contact(s) mentioning that their site was enjoyable in the area you picked out. Would they be able to lend the support of their established and respected site to your site, which would surely benefit from it greatly. Do not suggest a reciprocal link. Do, however, politely provide html code including your chosen anchor text. If they email back asking for a reciprocal link - it may be worth one more try to get a one way link. Write back saying that reciprocal links are no longer worthwhile. Since you made the initial approach, would they be terribly kind enough to place the link, for which you would be exceptionally grateful. If they write back with a second request for a reciprocal link - forget them and move on.
This is what we do to obtain quality links from related sites - and as you can see, it is time consuming and demoralising. But you know what? It works. We've tried outsourcing it, we've tried automating it. Nope! Nobody sticks at it, nobody does it with the quality we can give it. So who does the linking in our company? The directors! They know the value and they do it with the knowledge that it's increasing their wealth. Despite the claims of vendors that obviously have a sales agenda, there is no shortcut. You don't believe us do you? If the tool you buy helps you organise the campaign, that's the only use for it. Use a spreadsheet instead. Junk the third party tool, you'll only end up offending the recipients of it's emails and get nothing from it.
Further Reading: What are Backlinks? | Getting Backlinks - a Forum

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