Don't Waste Linking Opportunities By Misusing Link Exchanges by
Stephen Brennan
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 Subscriptions 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.
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