SEO Report: The Skinny on Link Exchanges

Link exchange campaigns have slowly become a forgotten link building strategy. There or so many new link building strategies which serve a better purpose that link exchange campaigns have been largely ignored – plus, link exchanging got a bad name when black hat webmasters developed ways to game the system. However, the real reason webmasters spend their efforts o other types of link building  instead of link exchange campaigns is that the modern link building strategies can produce highly desirable one-way links and permanent links – so there is really no need for exchanging links with third party websites.

However, to ensure your website’s online success, you should never pass up any opportunity that comes your way. Reciprocal link exchanges can be one such opportunity. While a ‘link farm’ can cause you extreme problems and is considered very black hat, a basic reciprocal link exchange will certainly not hurt you. You can use this approach as one of your supporting link building methods even if you don’t prefer to use this as your main stream link building strategy. Every additional link to your website is reinforcement of your site’s value, and these can be very valuable especially when they are from websites with good page rank.

By carefully selecting your linking partner you can provide your website users with reliable resources on the information they are searching online. This will make your website popular and a resourceful website making visitors return to your website for the valuable information your website has to offer.

Important note! You want to be successful with your link exchange campaign, so don’t waste your time sending out random link exchange requests. Review any and all of your potential link partners’ websites thoroughly. Make sure that they are related to your website, services or products in some way. If none of these conditions apply – don’t send a request. Sending random link exchange requests can make you look to other webmasters like a spammer.

Once you carefully review and select the website to link to, send a professional mail requesting a link exchange, and wait patiently. Never resort to sending repeated link exchange requests over and over again to the same webmaster. This can frustrate them and they definitely will not consider exchanging links and will also probably not even consider your services or products if they later need them. You could lose a customer as well as a link.

Carefully go over the spam laws of a particular region to which you are sending your requests.You should refrain from sending  anonymous mails. Spam laws in general require you to send mails with your complete address and a reply email address. Avoid spammy behavior in order to safeguard your reputation. Be aware that most reciprocal link exchange campaigns have a low response rate and don’t be discouraged with the low number of acceptances you may get. By constantly working on it you can gradually build your links considerably over a period of time. One last note – when you do get a link exchange, try to get the webmaster to link to one of your deeper pages and not just concentrate on the home page of your website.