Earn Your Links: Key Mistakes to Avoid in Link Outreach Emails

I get several requests from people making outbound link requests that are just as generic as cold-call emails from companies pitching their sales services.

Here’s another example of bad, unpersonalized naked link outreach.

He followed up in 3 days:

I will always ignore messages that start with “I hope this finds you well.”

Why?

Because I know they don’t actually care.

Same goes for “Dear sir”, “I saw we are in the same groups on LinkedIn”, and “I really like your content”.

These are lazy outreach messages.

But even if they use Larry Kim’s customers.ai tool or ChatGPT to hyper-personalize outreach…

You still have to actually care.

So don’t reach out for the benefit of yourself, reach out for the benefit of others.

Intention always shows through.

Here’s a continuation of the thread, showing how people continue to spam without providing any value. 

Here’s another example of link outreach from someone who wanted us to link to their homepage.

I responded by explaining how we could help with a link that would have a better SEO advantage. I also suggested how they could return the favor by linking to one of our videos for plumbers wanting to audit their SEO.

Can you identify what’s wrong with the following response?

The email shows that it was written quickly by someone who was looking for a quick and positive outcome.

When someone is not paying attention when communicating, it’s a red flag. 

The above response demonstrates one-sided communication, lacking any real understanding or engagement.

Yes, the internet lets you talk to lots of people—but don’t forget that these are humans you’re talking to, not bots from whom you’re trying to pry benefits. Build relationships!

Here’s another example of a bad link outreach attempt. Someone proposed sharing our blog post, which mentions their brand, on their Facebook page. In return, they requested that we add a link to their website.

What do you think of their offer? Does it benefit them or us more? Share your thoughts on this type of link outreach in the comments!