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"Link Building Bad-Guys - If it Sounds Too Good to Be True"
I got a form submission to my site this week requesting a link exchange. I smiled as I read it, because it is the classic case of someone trying to take advantage of a site with a good page rank (PR). Let me tell you what goodies it contained.
Bad Address
"Sam" seems to think it is unimportant for me to have generic information about his business such as a last name, mailing address, and phone number. There is a reason I made these fields required in my form. I don't need to know their birthdate, social security number, and the first name of their second cousin, but I do want to know a little bit about them before entering into this sort of arrangement. Dude, buy me a drink!
The Compliment...Or Is It?
I'm glad he found my site "interesting" and thinks it looks "professional." (I do, too!) Too bad he doesn't specify more directly what my website is about. His compliment sounds a little too generic, which leads me to believe he doesn't know--or care-- what I'm selling. I bet he says that to all his webmasters.
The "Too Good To Be True" Offer
His business has an "add only" policy on PR5 or 6 sites? C'mon! Why on earth would anyone want to do me the favor of pointing good PR sites to mine? What could he possibly get out of that if there wasn't at least some sort of reciprocal exchange? Does that line really work on anyone?
The "Reputable" Sites
He actually almost had me on this one. I clicked through to these sites and saw these are reputable firms. CalHealth.org is the California Hospital Association, and they do have a section on their links page for Health Related sites. All of these sites are top notch hospitals and educational institutions. AisHealth.com is a site for healthcare business managers. Their links page is also top notch, listing universities and government agencies. He said he thought my site looked interesting and professional, but I'm not so naive as to think I rank with the .govs or .edus. No, you didn't see me in a Beauty Pageant once.
Syntax That Looks (Dare I Say It?) Foreign, But The Name Does Not
I encourage you to use anyone presenting you with valid, reputable, and related links to your site no matter where in the world these come from. As I peruse this email, though, I see random capital letters, the pronoun "i" not capitalized, and the use of the word "shall." These are not mistakes someone very familiar with the English language makes in a business proposal. Why lie to me with a very American-sounding name? What else are you hiding? It could be this person is named "Sam," but given all the other things combined in the email, I am suspicious. You lie like a rug.
Respecting Yourself In The Morning
This email was sent to me in hopes my head did not contain gray matter. I would put his site on my links page and simply trust that he would place mine on the amazing pages he gave me. It's a long time and many spiderings before I realize I've been duped, and good ol' Sam has had the benefit of a good PR site voting for his all that time.
This is an easy fix. Have a guidelines page for what you want in reciprocal links. Put the link for your guidelines page at the top of your "Links" page with a simple, "Click here to submit a link." State on the guidelines page on the top, in the middle, and on the bottom that you won't consider any requests unless they contain a link that shows you where your site is already placed. This will save you time, because you'll know right away if someone respected your hard work enough to try to do what you wanted. Any link request from then on that doesn't contain this information can be deleted.
Then--put this on your calendar in red ink--check your backlinks weekly. I just now Googled "check backlinks" and the search returned many sites where you can do this for free.
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