|
|
 |
What is link exchange? What is link trade
or link swap? |
 |
Link Exchange ("Reciprocal Link Exchange") is the practice of exchanging
links with other websites. The simplest way of doing it is to email
another website owner and ask to do a link exchange. You place their
link on your site, usually on a links page and the other site in return
will place a link back to you.
Search engine optimization experts agree that link popularity is now
considered by most search engines to be one of, if not, the most important
factors that determines a site's ranking in the search engines.
Let's say we have two identical sites. One has thousands of targeted
sites linking to it. The other only has a few incoming links. It's
virtually guaranteed that the site with thousands of incoming links
will rank higher than the other site.
|
How to find reciprocal link partners? |
|
We will not talk about website's content here as we already reviewed it and know that website content is even more important than any link exchange. So when we have good website with good content here is how we find reciprocal link partners.
First, you need to work out what type of web sites would link to your
site. You should look for sites that are on the same subject matter,
but not necessarily similar. After you know what sites to look for,
how do you find these sites?.
There are basically two methods:
In the following examples, we'll use "webmaster tools" sites as the
type of sites we're looking for.
1. Find targeted sites in the web directories, such as Yahoo!,
LookSmart, or the Open
Directory Project.
Go to a directory's home page and search with the keywords, "webmaster
tools". Then click on the category the top listings belong to. The
sites listed in these and related categories are the types of sites
you need to contact.
If the category has a resources or directories sub-category, then
try the sites in those categories first. Resources typically offer
links to sites on the same subject.
2. Use the search engines to find sites that link to your competitors'
web sites.
Using the search engines is probably a more efficient method to find
reciprocal link partners, than searching the directories.
Go to your favorite search engine, such as Google,
and search for any of the following keyword phrases:
"webmaster
tools" - Searches for webmaster websites.
"website scripts" -
Searches for scripts directories.
"website tools directory" -
Searches for website tools directories.
"website tools" links.html
- Searches for link pages in website tools's web sites.
"website
tools" resources.html - Searches for the resource page in website
tools's Web site.
Don't forget to include
the quotation marks to narrow your search. Also try replacing the
".html" with other file extensions, such as ".htm," ".shtm," ".shtml,"
".cfm," and ".php."
Now make a list of the sites you find appropriate for your category
and create a links or resources page and add links to the sites on
that page.
After you've done that, link to that page from your home page. If
you have hundreds of links, split the pages into different sub-categories.
When you're done, upload the pages to your server.
Now contact each site by informing them that you have linked to their
site and request a link in return. Don't forget to be polite and inform
them of the benefits of exchanging links. You
may find a simple template of such email here.
The most important tip I can give you with regards to reciprocal linking
is to only exchange links with targeted sites. I highly recommend
that you don't exchange links with sites that bear no relation with
your site. If you link to poor-quality or spam sites, it could affect
your search engine rankings.
Good luck improving your
link popularity!
|
|
