Link Building Strategies >> Link Exchanges
Participating in Link Exchanges
I won't go into too much detail about link exchanges, for two reasons. First, there's not much to it from a technical standpoint. Site 'A' links to Site 'B' in exchange for a link from Site 'B' ... that's about all there is to it.
The second reason I limit my coverage of this topic is that link exchanges have declined in value over the years. If you link to spammy websites, link farms, and other "bad neighborhoods," you can actually hurt your search engine rankings.
So if you do participate in such exchanges, I recommend sticking to one-on-one link exchanges with trusted resources. I strongly recommend you avoid linking to websites you don't know or trust.
With that said, here are some ways to choose websites worthy of a link exchange.
- Choose websites that are related to your topic.
- Don't link to websites with links to online casinos, pharmacy websites, etc. These are trademarks of link farms and other shady websites.
- Find out how the website links to others. Is it a direct link to the website's address (good), or is it some kind of redirect with special characters and coding (worthless).
- Does the website look trustworthy and professional? Or does it look like it was thrown online overnight?
You should also be aware that the higher your website ranks, the more link requests you will get. I have a home buying website that ranks well, and I get about a dozen link-request emails per week. 100% of them go into the trash because they are, (A) from websites unrelated to my own, (B) poorly written, and (C) obviously part of a huge email blast with a weak attempt at personalization and specifics.
Want to see one? I have no problem violating this person's "privacy" by sharing the email, because she has no problem cluttering up my inbox once or twice a week! Spelling errors, bad punctuation and weird grammar have been left intact:
"I have just visited your site and I wonder if we could exchange links with each other? Link exchange with similar websites like us would promote both websites..I believe my website will have a very good pageview soon.I'm sorry for that if you are not interested in this request.You can give us a mail to: sellerkey@gmail.com,so you will not recieve this request again. With your permissiion,I will post your link on my website,and I hope you post a link to my site as well. If you are interested in this, Please do not reply this mail.Would you please contact us to this email for link exchanging affair..."
Hope you find that as humorous as I do! The bottom line is that a website worth linking to would not send an email like this. In other words, the good ones don't come to you ... you have to find them.
Related item: More link-building strategies