This article will discuss in detail “How To Ask Bloggers For Backlinks?” including a case study with results. Backlinks are extremely important for elevating your blog’s SEO status and there are several methods for obtaining them.
One of the most common and traditional methods is simply asking anyone you know that has a blog or contacting bloggers in your niche and asking them for a link. We will be taking this method for a test drive in this article and posting the results when they come in. The backlinks I will be attempting to procure will be for ShepherdsBone.com. Stay tuned for the results!
In a previous article “How To Build Backlinks To Your Blog – 14 Techniques and Strategies,” I discussed 14 different ways to find quality backlinks for your blog or website and “How To Ask Bloggers For Backlinks” was one of them. I will now be putting each of those methods into practice and listing all of the results in 14 separate case studies.
Who will be the winner? Stay tuned to find out! Let’s get into it and start building some links!
Step: 1 Ask Friends or Family for a link:
This is the most obvious and easiest step when learning “How To Ask Bloggers For Backlinks.” This is assuming you know some people in the industry that have blogs or websites. Obviously you don’t need a template or anything to email friends and family so just reach out to them by email or social media and let them know about your new blog and that you are trying to get some backlinks.
Action: Posted on Facebook asking friends or family for a link if they have a blog or website.
Current Result: 0 Backlinks
Step: 2 How to find bloggers in your niche and ask for backlinks:
The hardest part about this step is finding bloggers in your niche who have a link or resource page and that are willing to link back to you.
Quick Note: Before you start reaching out for backlinks, make sure that you have somewhat established your blog with a decent amount of content. Most bloggers aren’t going to want to link to a blog with only a few articles. I would recommend having at least 10-20 high quality preferably long form articles before trying to get any backlinks. The quality of your content is the most important thing!
How to find bloggers in your niche with backlinks pages?
Tip: Don’t go directly to the top bloggers in your niche. Start off with the smaller bloggers who will have more to gain by linking to another smaller blog. Also if you can, get involved and contribute to the blog you are trying to get a backlink from beforehand. They may be more willing to give you that link if they recognize your name from useful contributions in the comments.
There is a method to the madness that will save you a lot of time and find you the best blogs to email for possible backlinks.
Method: Search Engine Query
This is a great way to find blogs or websites in your niche that have a links or resources page. Most bloggers aren’t going to want to link to you from their main page but if they have a specific page for links and resources, you will have a much better chance at scoring a backlink. You can do this by using a specific search query in your favorite search engine such as Google. The Search Engine Journal has a great in depth article on this.
An example would be: “keyword” site:.com intitle:”links”
Here is an explanation of each of the three fields:
“keyword”
As you can see, I replaced “keyword” with “german shepherd.” You can input the main keyword you are looking for in between the parenthesis.
site:
This will be the domain extension you are targeting. I would recommend at least trying the top three: .com, .net and .org. Some webmasters prefer .org because it has a tendency to find more membership type websites with more resources listed.
intitle:
This will be the word that is in the actual title of the webpage. You can see in the example above that the result has the word links at the end of the pages html extension. I recommend using some different words to find relevant results. Some good examples are: additionalresources, linkexchange, resources.
Go ahead and run some searches to find some good quality link pages in your niche. Now it is time to contact the owners and ask for a link exchange but first I would recommend doing a couple of things.
Check the Google PR (Page Rank):
It is a good idea to check the Google Page Rank of the blog or website you are targeting for your backlink. The higher the PR, the stronger the backlink and the more authority it will give your blog. I recommend going after sites that have a PR of 6 or higher for maximum benefit but a Page Rank or 4 or 5 will be good as well.
Link to their blog from your own link or resource page:
I would also recommend linking to the blog you are trying to get a link from on your own links page before contacting the owner. You will have a better chance of scoring that backlink if they see that you are already linking to their blog. You can then remove their link later if they never link back to you.
Contact the owner of the blog:
To contact the owner of the blog or website, I recommend a good email template. You will definitely want it to sound personal but also you will want the ability to copy and paste since you will be emailing several people. To accomplish this, the template can include some sections that are interchangeable.
Email Example:
Hello [Name],
I was reading some articles today about [Your Topic] and happened to notice your [Resource Page Title]. It is nice.
I noticed that your resource page has a section about [Your Topic]. I just published a new complete guide on the same topic and I think it would make a great addition to your page.
Thank you and have a wonderful day!
Regards,
[Your First Name]
This is just one example. It can be personalized to fit your specific needs before sending. You will want to replace the customizable fields with your information. Just make sure you compliment the owner on his blog before sending. People love compliments and it may just be the deciding factor when it comes to their decision.
Since I am aiming for a general link on a links and resources page, I opted for this template. This is after I added their links to my page.
Hello!
My name is Todd Yeakle. My daughter London and I have a German Shepherd Blog at ShepherdsBone.com.
I like your website and want to see if you would be interested in a link exchange?
I already added you to our German Shepherd Links and Resources Page.
Please let me know!
Thanks!
Todd Yeakle
Wait for the results:
Now that the hard work is done and you have sent out a number of emails to potential candidates for link trades, simply sit back and wait. Hopefully you will score some good quality backlinks for your blog or website.
Action: I sent this email to eight different German Shepherd websites with resource pages.
Current Result: 0 Backlinks
How To Ask Bloggers For Backlinks In Closing:
I totally believe that you should experiment with several methods when it comes to gaining backlinks for your blog or website and I am testing this method for this case study. However, my main focus for gaining backlinks will be writing authority content that others will practically have to link to. My advice to you would be to do the same.
When you focus on creating fresh new content that others will want and need, the backlinks will come automatically. Find out what questions the people in your blogging community are looking to have answered. Do the research and present the answers in a new and exciting way.
Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think!
Do you have experience with the method of “How To Ask Bloggers For Backlinks?” Tell me about it and let me know your strategy! I am always trying to learn and grow when it comes to blogging.