Link Exchange

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What is link exchange?

Link exchange is the process of exchanging links with other websites.

Should I exchange links with other websites?

That depends on a number of factors. Before you decide on starting a reciprocal link exchange campaign, you must ask yourself these questions:

• Can I find more efficient ways to attract links to your website?
• Do I have the time and resources to commit to a link exchange campaign?
• Do I want to commit to a short-term or long-term link exchange campaign?
• How many links am I looking to exchange?
• How am I going to manage all of those link exchange partners?

What type of websites should I exchange links with?

The best websites to get links from are those with a high PageRank, and/or are of a similar topic to yours, and with few outbound links on the page. However, this is more difficult than it may sound. High PageRank sites typically don't exchange links - they don't need to.

That means websites similar to yours becomes the next most desirable sites to swap links with. Again this causes problems. It doesn't make sense to exchange links with your competition. After all, you don't want to send your visitors to their website, nor do you want to help improve their PageRank, and consequently search engine rankings!

You can still exchange links with sites that are similar to yours, but make sure they're not in direct competition with you. For example, if your website sells oil paintings, don't swap links with other sites that also sell oil paintings. Instead find art museums, water painting sites, art colleges, home decoration sites, etc., to exchange links with.

What type of websites should I avoid exchanging links with?

The main category of websites you should avoid swapping links with are what are commonly referred to in the SEO community as "bad neighborhoods" - sites which have been penalized or banned by the search engines.

There is no official source of "bad neighborhood" sites. But they do often fall into a number of categories, including:

• a PageRank rating of 2 or less -- Use the Google Toolbar to check a site's PageRank rating.
  
  
• the website is not indexed by the search engines -- To check if site has pages indexed in a particular search engine, simply go to the search engine and enter the following query into the search box:
  
  

  site:www.potentiallinkexchangepartner.com

  If no pages are found, then that could be an indication that the site has been penalized or banned by the search engine.
  
  
• the domain is 6 months or older -- Conduct a Whois search to find out the age of a domain. Relatively new sites can be forgiven for not having a PageRank rating or indexed by the search engines. But if a domain is 6 months or older, and it has a low PageRank and isn't indexed in the search engines, then it "could" mean that the site has been penalized or banned for some reason.
  
  Having said all that, it is difficult to conclusively say whether a site has been penalized or banned by the search engines. The pointers above are simply a guide to whether you should exchange links with a site. The bottom line is that if a site looks genuine and you are happy to exchange links with it, then by all means go ahead. Don't take the advice given here as the deciding factor.

How do I find websites to exchange links with?

There are five main methods to finding reciprocal link partners:

1. Proactively surf the Web searching for websites to exchange links with. This is not the most practical or efficient method, so isn't really recommended. But if you really want to try this method, the easiest way to find link exchange partners is to approach all the sites that link to the competition. And you can find out who they are simply by going to a search engine such as Yahoo! Search and Microsoft's Bing Search and entering the following query into the search box:
   
   

   link:www.yourcompetitorswebsite.com

   The search engines will return a list of websites that link to your competitor's site. All you have to do is contact each site and either ask them to link to your site or, if they require a link back, a link exchange. In case you're wondering, you could also try the search in Google. The reason I didn't mention it above is because Google's filtering algorithm seems quite strict and pretty much filters out the majority of links.
   
   
2. Install a link exchange script on your site and wait for potential link exchange partners to submit their link exchange requests. This is the poor, lazy person's method of exchanging links. It's definitely worth trying if you can't afford the time or to outsource the link exchange campaign.
   
   
3. Use a link exchange software program to help you find and manage link exchange partners. This is probably the most popular method of finding link exchange partners as the software does much of the grunt work for you. All you have to do is instruct the software which types of sites you're looking for, decide which of the sites discovered by the software to email a link exchange request to, and add their link if they accept your offer. My favorite link exchange software program is Arelis, which has now been incorporated into the Internet Business Promoter suite of SEO tools.
   
   
4. Use an online link exchange database to find and manage reciprocal link partners. This is similar to the software method, except the number of link exchange partners is limited to sites who have signed up to the same service. Generally I would not recommend link exchange databases.
   
   Also be careful to avoid link exchange services which create link pages that automatically include all the other sites within a category or links to sites unrelated to yours. The chances are you will end up with link pages with the same links as all the other sites using the service. This could get the page removed or even banned by the search engines for link spam.
   
   
5. Outsource the link exchange campaign to a professional link exchange company. This is the rich, lazy person's way to link exchange heaven. Simply find a company you like and purchase the link package that suits your budget. Make sure you tell them exactly the types of websites you want to exchange links with. Also set a deadline.

Can my competitor harm my Google rankings by pointing thousands of links to my site, from a penalized or banned site?

According to Google:

"There's almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index."

Note that Google doesn't rule out the possibility that a competitor could harm your site. As far as I know another website cannot harm your Google rankings simply by pointing links to your site. Imagine the havoc it would cause it was possible for someone to get a site penalized or banned in Google simply by pointing hundreds or thousands of links to it.

How do I know whether link exchange partners are still linking to my website?

If you use a link exchange software program, an online link exchange database, or a link exchange script, they should include a feature that automatically monitors your link partners to ensure your link is still live.

Otherwise I suggest you either purchase one of those tools, or get hold of a link monitoring program, or pray and hope for the best.

What are one way links?

One way links are basically the opposite of reciprocal links. i.e. links that point one way, with no link pointing back to the site from the linked site.

Site Map:

• Text Link Guide - homepage
• Text Links - search engines, link traffic
• Anchor Text - variations, misspellings
• Image Links - image maps, alt text
• PageRank - increase PageRank, rel="nofollow" attribute
• Link Popularity - authority pages, link quality, quantity, relevancy, reputation
• Sitemaps - XML, Google, generators, Yahoo!
• Linkbait
• Link Seeding - link spam
• Link Exchange - bad neighborhoods, link exchange software
• Sponsored Links - PageRank
• Affiliate Links
• Link Brokers - RON, ROS, Text Link Ads
• Natural Linking - artificial linking, link triangles, www or non-www
• Broken Links - link rot, broken link testing