What motivates a link? Sometimes it's referencing data/research/news or given because you've produced something interesting and valuable. Sometimes it's because another site has licensed or adopted content/widgets/badges from you. But, in most cases where an editorial link is given, I find that the underlying motivation is because that link provides some benefit to the linking site. This brings us to the fourteenth tip in our headsmacking series and possibly the tactic that will provide you with the lowest hanging link building fruit yet.

Let's start with a look at the sidebar of MindValleyLabs' Blog:

Not too shabby, right? The link comes from their homepage and every blog post they publish and points back to our homepage, sending over plenty of nice link juice as well as some decent traffic (from those interested in learning who SEOmoz is and why we like MindValley so much).

Now let's look at Matt McGee's Speaking Presentations Testimonials page:

Again, this link is great for search engines (there's only a handful of other external links on the page), it's relevant and it provides traffic as well as search engine benefit.

The next step isn't too hard to figure out: Go give testimonials!

I'd wager that most of you have between 2-5 dozen contacts who would love to get something positive written from you about them that they can publish on their site. It's not hard to get started; simply make a list and start sending emails. I've provided a brief template you can use below:

Hey Thomas,

Long time no see! I hope all is well with TomsBlog.com and wanted to reach out to offer my help. I've been really impressed with the work you do - your posts are inspiring and educational time after time. I'd be more than happy to provide a testimonial you could publish on the site if you'd like - just let me know and I'll send something over. It would be my pleasure to share the benefits I've received with the rest of your visitors :-)

Best wishes,
Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder, SEOmoz

Testimonial links have a number of qualities that make them absolute gems in the link acquisition world:

• You can often customize the link location and anchor text (so long as it's relevant and sensible) - just ask when you send over the testimonial (or, better yet, send over the exact HTML code that will embed the right link so all the receiver has to do is copy + paste)
• Testimonials are frequently sitewide, but even when they're not, they tend to reside on popular, important pages (even homepages sometimes - an otherwise impossible place to get a link)
• They're 100% editorially given and meant as a true reflection of the relationship you've built - that's precisely the kind of link the search engines want to count
• They provide strong benefits to both parties in the deal; everyone's a winner
• They're not nearly as awkward or bizarre as a standard link request and the probability for acceptance is very high

Start a list and get cracking - you have nothing to lose but your link poverty :-)

p.s. As with all link building tactics, if you go overboard (abusing this tactic to excess on in a manipulative fashion), the search engines may not take it well. This is a great way to leverage existing relationships and contacts to help bring in links, but if you're plotting how to use this to earn hundreds or thousands of links, you're likely treading on dangerous ground (unless you're a reporter for a major publication, in which case every business you mention is likely to be linking back to your articles about them).