Find quality sites to exchange links with
Quality is the key here – trading links with any old site won’t provide much value and could get you into trouble with the search engines.
The links should appear in a natural way (ex. in an article, in a product review, etc.), not as part of a “Links” or “Resources” page.
Does link exchange still work?
There has been a lot of talk about this and seems to be an evergreen topic:
In my view and based on what I achieved in January by having commented in blogs and having linked to other websites as I found informative articles that would add to my content, some of them reciprocated. My website ranking by Alexa jumped from 12 millionths in the world to about 250,000. So my conclusion is that both blog commenting and link exchange do work.
But remember only some of link exchange work.
Mine weren’t exchange per se, I really quoted an article that enhanced the knowledge of my readers and they reciprocated.
In my research I found that links do work but you should take the following into consideration:
7 types of link exchange that won’t work
- Do not waste your time with exchanges that promise you 1000s of links immediately.
- Do not exchange links with any site or every site under the sun.
- A link exchange should not be the only way you get your links.
- Do not swap links to unrelated sites.
- Do no swap links with sites which content is rubbish or not up to the standard your site is, or their navigation is terrible etc.
- Their website has a lot of outbound links and yours doesn’t. Your link will be more valuable to them.
- They give a no-follow link.
How to do link exchange correctly
- Find a service or software that lets you manually seek and chose partners.
- Add a few links at a time.
- Be consistent, weekly or monthly.
- You want the number of links to increase over time.
- Keep the number of links exchanged under 10% of the total number of links pointing at your site.
Conclusion
Link exchanges when implemented properly can still be very beneficial to your search engine rankings and can even drive traffic to your site.
Of course, one way links are better. I quoted articles because the websites added value to my readers. Therefore the best way is to work on your content that other bloggers on your niche will want to quote.
Search engines do not want to see the only links to your website are those reciprocated by you.
This is something I haven’t ventured into, but I like that you outline the dos and don’ts and things to look for. Quality is definitely the way to go and it’s important to be informed about all of the options. Thanks!
Thank you that’s my aim to help people that have blogs, but there is so much to look at
This is really helpful information. I’ve never truly understood the business of link exchanges. I’ve always kept a link tab where I placed links to the sites I like/have reciprocated exchanges with. I need to re-think my strategy. Thanks for the tips 🙂
HI Liliana,
Very interesting article and you make some good points.
I run a marketing company in the UK and we provide content marketing for many clients. One of the top tips I give to clients is that top quality informative content is what brings people to your website, blog or social media channels. If you write well and share across the social networks then you will get targeted traffic.
Look forward to talking with you in the PTS Facebook group and best of luck with your progress.
Thanks
Keith
Thank you Keith. I am trying to post quality content.