Recently SEOmoz (one of the best websites on SEO tips and information in my opinion) started a series of posts labeled “Headsmacking Tip“. As the title suggests the information is all about the “boy that is obvious – if only I had thought about it”

In Rand’s first post of the series he talked about a fantastic way to ask for links. He noticed the following method being used after he bought something online from widgetco.com What widgetco.com did is capitalize on the connection and trust they had just established with a customer and then asked them for a link if they had a blog or a website.

Now not every customer has a blog or the ability to create a link, and only a small percentage of those that have the ability to do this will actually go to the trouble of posting a link to your site because you asked them to. What really counts at the end of the day is every link and if you don’t ask you won’t get.

What widgetco did was ask for a link back to their site by placing a small line asking for the link at the end of their email to the customer when confirming the order. This small line made the suggestion that if you have the ability and feel so inclined please link back to widgetco.com

In the comments section of the SEOmoz post someone else had seen another company take this initiate one step further and they said if a customer did link back to their site, the customer should let the company know and the company would credit the customers account with a certain portion of money.

This is absolutely brilliant as it encourages the new customer to link back by giving them a reward, allowing them to regain spent money. It then goes that step further where it has the money waiting for the customer to access but only by coming back and making a return purchase.

I think that this is a brilliant tactic and over time would definitely pay huge benefits.