The world of search engine optimization
is filled with websites and services that provide incomplete information
and flat out lies about what their services can do for you and your search
engine rankings.
Link exchanges are a controversial topic
in search engine optimization that produces a lot of discussion in SEO
forums mostly from newbie webmasters wondering whether a particular
exchange has any value to provide their website.
As webmaster's begin to learn about search engine optimization
the importance of acquiring backlinks to their website becomes apparent
fairly quickly.
Building links to a website can become a time consuming
affair and once a link building campaign is started the urge to acquire
backlinks faster and more easily soon follows.
Websites advertising "thousands of backlinks
instantly" or "let us automate your link building tasks"
are plentiful on the internet.
What needs to be understood is that these websites are
set up to attract newbie webmasters who are inexperienced with link building
by feeding on the human instinct to make work that is not fun easier.
They claim that they can make your link building tasks
hassle free or automated which sounds great on the surface but in actuality
there a number of pitfalls and misrepresentations rampant on these websites
that can actually hurt your site's rankings if you are not careful when
using these services to exchange links.
Link Exchange Advantages
- link exchanges are hub sites where other webmasters who are actively
interested in exchanging links can meet and broker an exchange
- link exchanges are categorized allowing you to access a targeted
list of potential link exchange partners from your industry or related
industries
- link exchanges make the process of exchanging links fairly easy
and automatically verifies the existence of your link
on the exchange partners site prior to issuing you an exchange request
Link Exchange Disadvantages
- the use of automated software to acquire links or automated links
pages created for the purposes of inflating your rankings is against
Google's Webmaster Guidelines (if a link exchange
requires you to install code or files on your website, steer clear.
These files and codes leave a footprint which the search engines are
good at picking up on and penalizing you for once this type of exchange
is discovered by them. These types of link exchanges are a form of
link farm)
- Websites in an exchange are generally lower quality websites.
Established websites do not need to perform exchanges to acquire backlinks
and you will not find many authority sites involved (if any)
- Links pages for sites in the exchange are nothing more than search
engine SPAM (uncategorized, stuffed with hundreds of links,
links are not related). Often these pages are only created to provide
a dumping ground for link exchanges. The pages have no user value
and hence no value to you in an exchange.
- Link Exchanges will generally accept any site that
applies which removes their editorial credibility
- You will receive hundreds of exchange requests
from novice webmasters who will trade links with any website instead
of seeking out partnerships with sites that provide complimentary,
relevant information
- Link exchange sites provide misleading information
about the value of their service to your SEO campaigns in order to
lure you into signing up with them.
- Your email inbox will be filled with link exchange request SPAM
from the link exchange site (emailing exchange requests to you can
be disabled on some exchanges)
In the end, are Link Exchanges worth it?
If you are prepared to wade through a lot of junk you
can find golden nuggets hidden in with all of the low quality websites.
It may make sense if you have a newly registered domain
to sign up for one of these services and send out some link exchange
requests of your own to sites you judge to be high quality and
relevant to your site.
After sending out your initial link exchange requests
I would not remain actively involved with the link exchange.
Only use it when your website is brand new in combination
with a directory submission campaign to get those first few free links
to your website. For an established business, steer clear of link exchanges
as they will not be worth your time.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Lawrence |
