What Big Brother can teach you about sending a successful link request

You’re probably thinking – what on earth does Big Brother have to do with SEO, let alone link requests?

Well, contestants serious about winning the Big Brother competition will have to strategically ‘play the game’ and this often translates to housemates forming alliances with each other. I’d like to compare how Big Brother contestants successfully form alliances with each other to how one can send an emailed link request that will achieve positive results.

In the show, contestants live together and compete against each other to be the last remaining contestant and therefore win the prize money. The entire show is broadcast on television, 24/7, and audience members are given the chance to become a part of the contestants’ lives for the duration of the show. At regular intervals, the housemates will choose contestants to be put up for elimination and the audience will decide who will be evicted. Big Brother is the omniscient and mysterious voice connecting the housemates to the outside world, i.e. the audience. Big Brother instructs the housemates on rules they must follow and gives them certain commands or tasks. The name, Big Brother, is adapted from a fictional character in George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and is based on the concept of people being under constant surveillance.

To get to the topic at hand, it’s common knowledge that websites with many links directing to them will get more attention from readers which will result in increased traffic. And when these links come from websites with authoritative status, traffic will be even higher.

Julie Joyce, owner of link development firm, Link Fish Media, writes, in an article titled Breathe New Life Into Your Emailed Link, that a lot of the industries they work with have content that is not “overly conducive to generating its own links, or performing well with social media”. Yes, if you have quality content, the links should come, but this often takes time and not many people will wait patiently for the links to come in naturally. So how can you go about getting links? There’s a simple answer here – ask for them.

For the sake of this article’s topic, I will narrow the online community down to three groups – search engines, webmasters and readers, where Big Brother signifies the search engines, the contestants the webmasters and the audience the readers.

Stage one: Avoiding spam and standing out from amongst the spam/Finding trustworthy housemates

Requesting links isn’t as simple as it may sound, just as forming a friendship or alliance isn’t either. First, contestants will suss each other out and find out who they should make an alliance with. It would be a bad decision for a housemate to form an alliance with someone they can’t trust. Hanging out with, and being influenced by, a distrustful person could result in a housemate’s downfall. They could even end up being evicted, whether by the other contestants or even by Big Brother. Big Brother has the authority to evict anyone who disobeys the show’s rules. Contestants mustn’t forget that “Big Brother is watching”.

Any guesses as to how this relates to link requests? Yes, these untrustworthy housemates are the creators of spam. The main problem with emailed link requests is that it can often be mistaken for spam. According to www.spamlaws.com, previous studies have found that spam has led to a decreased trust in Internet communication and a loss of confidence in communication through email.

When choosing websites you want to link to, look for quality websites that will strengthen your website and avoid linking to suspicious places as this could do your site harm. Link exchange programs are not a good idea. Linking to link farms could even lead to your site being banned from search engines. Incoming links from websites within your niche are the most valuable kind, especially if their anchor text contains your keywords.

However, most people will have the insight to avoid dodgy websites. Generally, it’s people on the other end of the spectrum – people receiving link requests – that need to sift through the spam to get to what’s genuine. There are usually tell-tale signs that indicate when an email is spam.

In his article Will the real link request please stand up? Jim Boykin, CEO of We Build Pages, lists reasons to delete a link request. If your topic and their topic is unrelated, if you’re not going to get traffic from their page, if the word “link” or any variation thereof is used in the URL or title tag of the page, are just some of the signs that he believes should prompt you to ignore link requests.

Spam makes the whole process of link requesting a difficult task. Before even thinking about whether someone will be receptive to linking to your site, they will need to open your email, and before opening your email, it will need to stand out from amongst the spam.

When someone receives an email, the first thing they’ll look at will be the sender and the subject line. This places a lot of importance on creating a subject line that receivers won’t confuse with spam.

Be sure to check the website to see if there are any guidelines telling you how to go about requesting a link. Your subject line is one of the most important aspects of your email and will often determine whether the receiver will open the email or not. Joyce mentions certain subject lines that are problematic, e.g. “cool site”, “questions about your site”, “hi” or “hello”, “attention webmaster”, “inquiry”, “opportunity” and common words that will trigger spam filters. Some companies have spam filters that include the word “link”, so using this word might automatically direct your email straight to trash.

Stage Two – Getting the receiver to consider linking to you/Successfully approaching your potential alliance

For Big Brother contestants, finding genuine housemates that they will benefit from forming an alliance with is half the battle. Their next step will be getting their targeted housemate/s to want to form an alliance with them.

In the same way, some people’s inboxes will be flooded with link request emails on a daily basis. So you will need some sort of game plan to attract the receiver’s attention.

In order to look closely at what a conversation aimed at forming an alliance might look like, let’s break this stage down into a few tactics a Big Brother housemate may employ:

Like any friendship, the housemate will need to show some interest in a person’s life and get to know more about them before feeling comfortable around that person.

1. What you can take from this – If you want your link request to be successful, you’re going to have to do a bit of research into the websites where you want your link to appear.

Have you ever noticed in competitions like Big Brother and Survivor that when contestants approach each other about forming alliances they nearly always begin their conversation with a good old boost to the ego?

2. What you can take from this – A little flattery goes a long way. Positive feedback about their website will tell the receiver that you’ve checked out their work and it will also appeal to their ego. You could even interact with them on their website, e.g. comment on their blog, subscribe to their feed etc.

Once a housemate puts their ‘target’ more at ease, they will usually explain why they should form an alliance with them and how they will benefit from it.

3. What you can take from this – As you compose your email, think about what will grab the receiver’s attention. Let them know what’s in it for them and how linking to you will provide a valuable resource for their readers. Keep it short and sweet with some information about your site, how you are different to others and why you are linkworthy.

As shows like Big Brother are all about game plans, housemates will usually be careful not to give too much away until they build up trust in their alliance. They probably won’t get too close in the very beginning or give away their strategy immediately

4. What you can take from this – Adopt a similar thought process in your emailed link request. Avoid going into too much detail as, besides from potentially boring the receiver, you might not want to give them too much information until you know how receptive they are to giving you a link.

Let’s talk details

Some other things to remember in your emailed link request:

• Use the right tone – don’t be too formal but don’t be over friendly either. Be polite, professional, clear and to the point.
• Use the webmaster’s name to make the email more personal. Include the website’s URL as well. This will further prove that you’re legitimate and will clear up any confusion should they have more than one website. When you introduce yourself and explain the purpose of your email, include your site title and URL.
• Make it easy for the receiver to place your link by selecting the page and section where you want your link to appear and by giving them the exact URL from the site you want them to link to. If you have already linked to their site, assure the receiver that you have and give them the URL so they can see it. Otherwise, be open to the idea that they may ask you to link to them as well.
• Include your contact details. This will add to your credibility. Including your phone number will make it seem even more legitimate.

Comparing SEO to Big Brother, it seems that we have some things to learn from the strategic game playing tactics that are practiced in these types of competitions. Who would have thought you could learn something educational from a reality television program?

About Margot

Margot Knight has written 8 post in this blog.

Margot is the newest member of the WebGrowth team. She is passionate about copywriting and has an inspired desire to grow her knowledge of online marketing.

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