Link exchange SEO is a chess game that can greatly improve a Web site’s rankings with critical keywords. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
A direct agreement with another site has the benefit of establishing a high-quality link. Contacting these sites directly can result in a lot of rejections but also a small number of links that are easily maintained and that drive a high volume of quality traffic.
These relationships can be expanded into full partnerships that can include content sharing, banner exchanges and sometimes even advertising agreements. Although partnerships take more work and require more detailed agreements, they also potentially bring significant benefits.
A good link exchange doesn’t just provide direct traffic from the other site. It can dramatically enhance a site’s SEO, such as this example:
The manager of an actual mid-sized news site had great success in getting many other sites to provide links back to his site. In many cases, the anchor text in the link they provided simply had the name of the site.
But the site had “XXX News” in the home page title and again in the meta description. It didn’t even come closer to ranking in the top 10 pages in Google for that keyword phrase. So the site manager went on a campaign with his partners to convince them to change the anchor text in their links from the name of the site to “XXX News.”
The key to making this campaign a success is that the strategically important “XXX News” was of little importance to the partners. So the site had plenty to gain in ranking while the partners had nothing to lose in ranking.
Not surprisingly, the site now ranks a solid #1 for that keyword phrase.
On the flip side, this news site had links back to the partner sites with their preferred keyword phrases that are not critically important to this hub site.
The end result is win-win. The lesson is, the best link exchanges gain rank from important keywords on other sites and lose rank on unimportant ones — and the rule should apply to both partners to be fair and successful. Some sites get high ranking for keywords that aren’t that important. Why not use them for a link exchange?
It is worth pointing out that you don’t want the keyword phrase on the other site to be so unimportant than Google doesn’t give the exchange much credit. But the reality is that a site manager can’t have 1,000 important keywords. Choose the ones that matter the most and give up the ones that don’t.
<h3>Link Exchange Networks</h3>
Networks are a well-known way of promoting Web sites for free, but they come with a cost other than money.
Numerous link exchange networks exist and can be found through search engines. They typically require that you register your site and that you provide a link back to their site.
The basic service often is free. The network makes its money through advertising on its site and especially through upgrades that come with a fee.
Once registered, you can search for another site with which to exchange links. The process might include searching a link directory and submitting a request via the network to the sites that appeal to you.
The other site has the option to accept or reject the exchange. If it accepts the exchange, both sites put up the link and have it verified by the network before the agreement is finalized.
In a similar way, other sites can contact you with requests to exchanges links. Again, you have the right to accept or reject the link.
The key to agreeing to an exchange is finding a site that has related content, quality content and a decent ranking with the search engines. A link from a quality site often can help boost the search rankings of your own site. Likewise, links with low quality sites can result in reducing the search engine rankings of your site.
While linking with a quality site has obvious benefits, there are downsides to a link exchange network. You are likely to receive numerous requests for exchanges from low quality sites for every one that is good. You have to ensure that the site that links to you will maintain the link, and you have to make sure that you maintain your own links back again — i.e., don’t lose them if you rebuild your site.
<h3>A Few Warnings</h3>
What you don’t want to do is get excessive with link exchanges. Search engines discourage and even penalize sites for too many links, manipulative links, linking to spammy sites, etc.
Google’s terms of service mentions quality, relevancy and transparency, which are three key principles to follow. So a few tips to stay out of trouble:
- Link in moderation
- Link only between relevant content
- Link only with quality sites
- Don’t link the same two pages; instead, link to different pages
- Don’t pay for links unless the link has a “nofollow” attribute
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