Link to a blog : Will they link back?

There are a lot of reasons why we link to other blogs in our posts. Most of the time we link to a blog or blog post because it is relevant to the post we are writing however sometimes we will link to more popular blogs just so that they will sit up and take notice of our own blog.

Although I don’t encourage anyone to only link to blogs which link back to you, you should be aware of how likely a blog is to link back to you when you link to a post, particularly if there are similar blog posts from other blogs which you could link to instead. For example, if you are writing about a new mp3 player and it has been reviewed at 4 other blogs but you only want to link to one of them in your post, which review would you link to? If we assume that the 4 reviews are of equal quality then the answer is simple, you should link to the review on the blog which is most likely to link back to you.

Will they link back?

One of the first things you should look into is whether the blog allows pingbacks on their blog posts. There are many blogs who do not list pingbacks to posts so you should check some other posts on the blog to see if a link to them will generate a pingback.

Of course, aside from pingbacks, the main thing you want to know is whether the blog is likely to link back to you in their future posts. Pingbacks can be a good source of traffic however it’s obviously better to have your blog linked in the heart of a post instead of a pingback as they can are usually lost amongst the posts comments.

Here are some important points to consider…

• Bloggers are more than likely to link back if your blog is in the same niche as theirs (ie. same topic).
• You increase the chances of getting linked in the blog if you link to them in one of your posts and you actively comment on their site. A lot of the time larger blogs do not link back to you because they don’t want to, it’s because they didn’t know you or your blog existed. Increase your chances of being linked by taking part in their blog discussions.
• You are less likely to get a link back from multi author blogs. This is usually true when the site owner is not an author. This is because a lot of large multi author blogs have no input from the actual owner ie. the person who is doing marketing, checking pingbacks etc does not actually write on the site. On the other side of the coin, with a site such as this, the blog authors may not link back to you in their upcoming posts simply because they didn’t know you linked to them (again, because the owner is checking pingbacks etc, not the authors).
• If you refer to a blog in one of your posts, you can increase the chance of them linking back to you by sending them a quick email and asking if they would like to read your post and give their opinion in the comments.
• Put bluntly, some blogs are stingy with links and don’t link out that often so don’t get too annoyed if you don’t see many links back to you.
• Blogs with a similar level of traffic and subscribers are more likely to link back to you than the dominant blogs in your niche. Newer blogs and blogs with less traffic and subscribers as you are even more likely to link to you.

Overview

I urge you all to link to relevant articles in your posts however it is worthwhile remembering which blogs are likely to link back. Organic linking is an important part of getting traffic to your site, both for making a name for yourself and improving your presence in the search engines therefore you should do your best to encourage links to your blog.

What is your favourite technique for encouraging links back to your blog?

Written by Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes Club
Posted on October 10th, 2007 and filed under Blogging
Do not forget to subscribe to our RSS feed for updates

9