Don't Waste Linking Opportunities By Misusing Link Exchanges

Only a couple of years ago the 'Link Exchange' was quite new and an excellent place for savvy webmasters to exchange quality links with those who were like-minded. Many Link Exchanges, mostly based on the original few, have sprung up promising an unending stream of reciprocal links with as many sites as you dare dream. There's no problem with this however, they must be used correctly to be of much benefit.

Firstly, it's no great secret that the majority, if not all, who practice reciprocal linking do so in order to improve their PR (Google Page Rank), which in turn, can have a definite effect on one's rankings in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The actual degree of this effect is anyone's guess as Google have always been extremely secretive about anything regarding the algorithms or components, which decide the SE ranking of any given website (or page for that matter).

PR alone will not do it for you, but I have seen too much evidence that it does definitely help your rankings when you have a 'good' PR provided that the links pointing to your site are from related websites (i.e. sites with similar content whose visitors would be interested in your site). An incoming link is seen as a recommendation or 'vote of confidence' from a website, so the higher the PR of the PAGE the link is from (not just the Home or Index page), the more weight the 'recommendation' from that website carries. So, the upshot is, PR is the reason, result and purpose behind webmasters spending so much time, money and resources building reciprocal and/or incoming links.

To make your efforts and costs more efficient, you need to ensure that you use the Link Exchanges correctly. When you don't, you waste so much time (and that of those you request links from) and you also blow your chance for a good, high PR link a little later down the track.

Most webmasters, when they first list with an Exchange, generally have either a low PR or none at all. Many then proceed to request links from as many sites as their membership allows. Sadly, far too many of them request links from websites, which are not related in the slightest way however, that's not why we're here today. I'd be "flogging a dead horse" if I took up that particular issue (again!). Simply, it seems to me there are still millions out there who, for some reason, think a link from a Lung Cancer website will assist their Poker/Gambling site in the SERPs or a link from a Diet website will help their Real Estate site! I can't understand the mentality...

But I digress (as is one of my faults), back to the issue at hand. Obviously, when requesting links from other sites, you need to take account of the PR issue, as it stands at that time. If you have no PR or a PR1, there is not much chance of being 'granted' a reciprocal link from a PR5 site or page. The problem is, if you request such a link while you're still in the 'low PR' bracket, that site will forever be listed as "requested but rejected", you don't get a second chance once your PR improves. So, six months later, when you have a PR4 (through much sensible and hard work), you can't ask again, the chance is gone.

When you are a PR1 or 2, only request links from sites with PR1, PR2 and maybe some PR3 pages. Don't waste you chance by trying to get high PR sites to link to you while you offer no benefit to them. What they are effectively doing by linking to sites that are much lower than themselves, is giving away some of their "PR Power" to you and getting nothing in return (actually a negative effect) from you.

By the same token, having said this, it's wise when you receive requests from sites that have a PR lower than yours that you don't ALWAYS disregard them. Take a look at the website, consider their Alexa traffic ranking, a good amount of traffic is an indication that the site owner is getting hits. Even if it's via Traffic Exchanges, it proves at least that they're serious about BUILDING their website to be a worthwhile resource and this, to me at least, means PR will come and when it does, you will already have your link from them. It's basically a 'term investment'.

Have a look at their Link pages and see if they are linking sensibly or stupidly. If they're using a 'Directory program', my advice is to give them a miss. They can't possibly be only linking with related content if they have a huge list of different website categories, can they? Simply, take into consideration the entire look and feel of the site. It doesn't take long and you'll be surprised how easily and accurately you'll be able to predict which ones will end up with higher PRs in the next Google 'update', from which you will benefit. It's also worth considering that if a website is banned, those sites that link reciprocally can be affected negatively by 'association'. Yes, it's true!

As with everything else, building a website is a long, continual and time-consuming endeavour, which happens slowly (contrary to what some SEO gurus or 'experts' promise). There are no short cuts, in fact, the Search Engines are now very aware of all the so-called 'tricks' and as far as linking is concerned, a large jump in the amount of incoming links over a short period, especially multiple links from higher PR sites could bring your site under suspicion of using 'unnatural' techniques, such as purchasing high PR links etc, which could get you banned but at best, certainly won't help your cause.

Patience is the key to achieving your website goals and if you don't have it, and are tempted to try the 'short-cuts' or go mad trying to collect as many links as possible from all and sundry, you'll end up much further behind, rather than progress with any great speed. It's true that your PR will increase with links from 'unrelated' sites but these unrelated links can only hurt your chances in the SERPs. Google themselves explain this in their info pages.

Always remember what the ORIGINAL purpose for linking was and why it was practiced and why incoming links were, and still are, valued by the Search Engines. A link from a related site is a 'vote of confidence' that they feel their visitors will benefit from your content and hence, evidence that your website is considered to be of value in a specific category. How can a recommendation from a totally unrelated website carry any weight at all? Of course, it can't and where these types of links exist, it smacks of 'linking to boost PR' without any thought given to the value of the website to the visitors (who are the Search Engine's customers).

This is why linking correctly is so important, even though the motivations have been perverted over recent years into a 'free for all' of link requests from unrelated sites, which frankly, are almost as annoying as spam to me.

About the Author
Stephen Brennan is the Executive Editor of The OnlinePlus Group and Author of the popular title The Affiliate Guide Book. The Group includes a versatile array of Internet products and information services including Buy Viagra Online-Plus.

Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Links, Linking, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Able Net Design

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