What do you look for when you exchange links?

[OneMoreBite]

Originally Posted by rgi625

...is there a optimal number of sites that you should link to?

As many as you possibly can, and then add more. ;-)

I'm wondering if what you were asking was about page optimization, as in, how many links should be on one web page? If that was the intent of your question, this would make a good separate thread because I'm sure others have that question, so you might want to post your query as a new thread to get more replies.

Kathryn

[dougadam]

Originally Posted by info202

1.I look for sites that I feel are relevant to mine.. I link to competitive site

The market is huge, so I wouldn’t worry about the competition.

[dougadam]

Originally Posted by info202

1.I look for sites that I feel are relevant to mine.. I link to competitive sites, as long as they are not in my own geographical area

The market is huge, so I wouldn’t worry about the competition.

[kgun]

http://www.cse.lehigh.edu/~brian/pub...-farm-spam.pdf

[OneMoreBite]

Originally Posted by kgun

http://www.cse.lehigh.edu/~brian/pub...-farm-spam.pdf

Quite extensive paper on identifying link farm pages. Has me scratching my head though. Why go to that trouble? You can tell a link farm page in an instant by paying the url a visit ;-)

I never link to sites that aren't related; what would be the point? If everyone made an effort to create good, useful sites and pointed to other sites in the same vein, we'd have a much better experience online.

Kathryn

[kgun]

1. Perhaps for the methematically inclined.
2. Relevance beyond the subject.
3. A lot of good references.

There is no lack of information on the internet, the problem is to find relevant information of good quality.

[maxer]

1. I would normaly look for relevancy,
2. Good well presented design and content(first impressions count).
3. A PR of 3 or higher.

[mavahntooth]

if their link page has a PR
if it is not difficult to navigate links from homepage 2-3 clicks.
if the page is relevant tou your website.

[shameshame]

I just emphasize on
1) Category
2) No. Of Links On Link Back Page
3) PR of link Back Page

[internet-marketing-cr]

This is a great Forum, I am glad I found this resource, I am new to the forum, have a couple questions:

- Is link exchange extinguishing as a link building strategy? I`ve heard SE detect those links and don`t give them that much value as they used to.

- Is it worth it to spend time doing it?

Thanks,

Internet-Marketing-cr

[mavahntooth]

Originally Posted by internet-marketing-cr

This is a great Forum, I am glad I found this resource, I am new to the forum, have a couple questions:

- Is link exchange extinguishing as a link building strategy? I`ve heard SE detect those links and don`t give them that much value as they used to.

- Is it worth it to spend time doing it?

Thanks,

Internet-Marketing-cr

imo yes! that help you rank well in search engine. it is a big factor. if you are site is popular (base on votes by and refered by other sites) SE will look your website more important than other website. =)

[internet-marketing-cr]

Thank you for your comment on the Link Exchange subject, I really appreciate it.

Internet Marketing Cr.

[chatterfox]

Hi to all. I’m just new here. Anyway, I would just like to share my strategy on exchanging links here. Btw, I'm still a budding marketer, so what I do are literally basics. However, I still find them so useful. I have also been monitoring my site's traffic and I think that link exchanges played the most part of the growing number of visitors in my site. My tactics in choosing a site for link exchange are to know the site’s credibility in terms of the quality links pointing to the sites and I prefer sites that have guidelines for link exchanges. Also, the content is very important in choosing which sites you would want to exchange link with.

[bludlphn21]

Hi,
Im kinda new at all this and i was just wondering is someone could explain to me how to link exchange. I have a stoer and i would like to get some more traffic
thank

[SeoSem]

Originally Posted by janeth

Hi all this is my question when you are going to exchange links with someone what to do look for.

What do you look for when you exchange links?

My answer to this question is simple.

I use this text on some of my sites.

Only true reciprocal linking is allowed. You will not be able to request a
link for one domain, yet offer a link back to us from another domain.

Your site description has to be more than 5-6 words like e.g. "The best Gold
news and resource sites."

We simply don't list such sites. You have to know the first rule of SEO if
you want to be listed here.

NOTE! Your description is the recommendations you put on every site that
point to your site.

It's your ad and if your ad sucks, your prospect will think your site sucks
too and no one with IQ above freezing point will visit your site from such ad.

Matter of fact, it is your "Business Card" which you hand over to everyone
interested to do business with you, and if your card brings nothing to this
person, this person will not do business with you... never...

Who will follow description that says, "I am the Best and Greatest site online"?

This has lower the link exchange requests from bad sites.

Feel free to use it on your sites.

[syaworsky123]

Just starting to build my own site. There is some great info here. Thank.

[maxk]

I know links boost your site, but what is better recipical links from relevant sites or Directory links?

Thanks for your input!

[solarfall]

Great tips here in this topic.

Real nice reading. Getting me up to speed. great.

[webmasterlabor.com]

Originally Posted by janeth

TIPS RE LINK EXCHANGE

Good tips. However, I tend to focus more on the CATEGORY of sites I plan to swap links with. I weed out DIRECT COMPETITORS and just focus on SIMILAR but non-competing sites.

Another good strategy is try to swap links with "objective" sites that are non-profits or resource sites.

[ultranet]

This is a good thing that need to learn from here.
Since I am new here, I like to know more about back links and reciprocal links.

But I think this is not the right forum for this topic I guess, and to look that topic and check. Thanks anyways..

[jbsmith]

Outside of actively seeking links, I've been quite successful in achieving incoming links using a combination of...

1. Article writing and
2. Blog cross-linking

Trick is to control submission of your content to the most relevant publishers increasing liklihood of them being posted (along with keyword rich link) as well as strong relevancy in terms of search engine placement.

Jeff

[davecskul]

I usually do not engage in link trading or exchanges. I distribute quality content around the web to article directories, ezines, blogs, forums, etc,. and let people link to my site naturally. It works for me and no emails or harsh scoldings from web masters and the like.

[jesterx]

i think one of the coolest ways for this to work is to make sure whoever you are linking to has a good PR ranking. Thats one key point amonst many but, in the long run it will bump you up in the search engine playment.

[azoundria]

When exchanging links, I look for:

1) Promising content. I want to see that this website has good ideas and the ability to achieve them. I look for sites that are likely to succeed - with good design and content. The websites I link to reflect on my own website.

2) Links section. Where am I being linked? Am I a number? Being placed on a page buried with 50 other links certainly doesn't give me direct traffic - and wont do much for my SEO either.

3) Related content. I want to link to websites my visitors will be interested in - and be linked from websites with interested visitors. I also want to be classified on search engines as related to those websites.

Those are the big ones.

[edhan]

I wonder if anyone encounters this with link exchange. I had before a long time link with some sites but one day found out that that site has changed owner and become a porn site. Upon knowing that, I remove that link. So I am wondering how can we possibly check on hundreds of exchange links in different sites to avoid such thing happening?

[kauzy]

i look for relevancy, then the PR, and then the link position.

[john678]

What do I look for when I exchange links? Simple answer to this is traffic.

I only exchange links because of the traffic now. I prefer to get traffic. If a site gives you alot of traffic then that means they are likely to be getting alot theirselves. If you get traffic then that's my main concern and by having the link on the site I will always help my rankings anyway, well it should.

[jesterx]

but its not just traffic that is going to make you successful.

You need targeted traffic. If you put your "$2 Goldfish" ad infront of pumpkin farmers do you think you will make sales....no of course not (yes a silly example) but the example I am giving here is that by using resources that are going to give you the best targeted traffic so that ensures you are not waisting your money.

if you put your ad (you know the goldfish one above) on google adwords and only target it to people searching on "fish for sale", "Pet fish" or "goldfish" are you more likely to get potential customers or even better a sale.

this is such a basic theory but you still see people failing in doing this. Go to where you market is and put your ad infront of each one of them.

[LD]

Originally Posted by janeth

1. Your web site needs to be linked to quality web sites in categories related to your subject.
2. Although I do not use page rank to determine whether I will link to a site I do look at page rank if a site has a page rank of zero I want to know why before I link to it. I realize everyone has to start some where but I want to make sure this is the reason.
3. I want to make sure the sites look good and have good content or something that would serve my customers.
4. I know this is not proper but I want a link back. If you do not put a link back I will not link to you.

Sorry, but I just found this post. Besides the above 4 steps, I try to ascertain if a potential linking partners "links" page has a direct link either from their index page, main navigation or from a linked sitemap page. Otherwise the recip link will do very little for your site if their links page is orphaned. Anyone agree or disagree?

[aligonde21]

hi janeth
sorry to inconvienne you.
your company is the one creating my website myspider4life.com - Home
i wanted to know how soon will they be done with the changes.
i've been trying to get an update but it sound like everyone is on vacation.

Also i plan on using ads and google adsense to generate an income. Do you have any streategy as to how to generate unique visitors. Really that was the reason why i created the site. This is the only income im trying to generate.

PS.by the way your success story is an insperation to me. I a big fan

[Heysal]

It's been a long time since I worried about exchanging links as a marketing strategy. Instead of link exchange, I built a directory of links relevant to my specific genre.

I am more concerned with incoming links than exchanges - when someone writes to me for an exchange link that has a relevant site I will stick them in the directory - but if they have a way to really offer relevant material, I offer to put them in my newsletter with a bit about themselves and live links of their choice (whether relevant or not as long as they don't break TOS), that way I get great original content, which carries a good weight with search engines, plus I get a link into my site as well as out. The people I put in the newsletter are happy as hell with the opportunity to be seen.

So all in all, I guess my answer would be that when I search links, I search them on the basis of how many different ways I can use those links to build traffic and value.

If I need links in I just go post to blogs, social sites, etc. and let those links carry the one way only (IN) value.

[radu]

Originally Posted by LD

I try to ascertain if a potential linking partners "links" page has a direct link either from their index page, main navigation or from a linked sitemap page.

I totally agree, I do the same every time I get a link-exchange request. I also avoid getting a link from a page like links50.htm or something like this.

All best,
radu

[athena23]

send a pm beacuse i wanna talk about these interesting theme
hope to hear from you soon
thanks

Originally Posted by janeth

Hi all this is my question when you are going to exchange links with someone what to do look for.

Ninety-five percent of the most popular Search Engines now use link popularity.

WebSeed compliments the use of link popularity, calling it, "... an extraordinary success," and declaring the technique, "... impossible to counterfeit." Link popularity is a highly-successful method for determining the relevancy of Web pages. WebSeed says, "those marketers who don't recognize the accelerating trend of site popularity will be left behind."

There are no shortcuts to the process of building link popularity. You are going to have to work hard to achieve it.

But what do you look at to determine what a good site would be.

This is my list I would like to know what everyone else thinks about it and would like to be corrected where I need to be and add please add to the list.

1. Your web site needs to be linked to quality web sites in categories related to your subject.
2. Although I do not use page rank to determine whether I will link to a site I do look at page rank if a site has a page rank of zero I want to know why before I link to it. I realize everyone has to start some where but I want to make sure this is the reason.
3. I want to make sure the sites look good and have good content or something that would serve my customers.
4. I know this is not proper but I want a link back. If you do not put a link back I will not link to you.

Always try to include your best Keywords in the title rather than just your web site name. Many Search Engines will boost your rankings when it finds sites linking to you that include your Keywords in the linking text.

Marketing and Advertising Agency

[rose77mary77]

I will look the quality of the website, contents, copywrite, cost, basic need, motive, nature of the website which i will buy and make some analysis...................

[carolin.c22]

What quality you mean??

[hbonline]

I don't exchange links. I get requests all the time but I have found that I don't need them, why give free advertising to another site??

Nick

[carolin.c22]

you wil get free advertising as well

[maemae]

For my website they link exchange website that I trade with must be family friendly. All of our content is family friendly and based mainly towards moms,women,wahms,etc. We only trade with high quality resources that would benefit our customers.

[carolin.c22]

should I excahnge links with the same actegory of mywebsite

[LD]

Originally Posted by carolin.c22

should I excahnge links with the same actegory of mywebsite

Absolutely - along with many other criteria, relevance to your business category is certainly important.

[edhan]

I have received several requests to exchange links but the link sites they provide do not seem to be related at all. I guess these requests are sent in a mass from email harvesting and they do not even bother to check the sites whether or not it is kind of related. I do not approve those links request unless those sites are complementary to my sites.

I am always careful when comes to linking but sometimes after accepting the links, down the road, the sites have changed owners, it turns out to be those XXX sites. Until my visitors inform me, then I will check it and realise that it had changed owners. It is a tough time for me to check on links but hopefully there will be a software for links to root out and drop those xxx sites links when it is found.

[isharli]

Along the same lines, how many link pages should a site maintain? What is the optimal number of links on a link page?

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by isharli

Along the same lines, how many link pages should a site maintain? What is the optimal number of links on a link page?

Google has clear guidelines on 100 as the maximum number of links per page, but I think that's far too many. I would generally prefer 30 at the most. I am thinking of the human visitor who will be overwhelmed by more than that ... and keeping links at around 30 also means that something significant in terms of PR can be passed.

Number of links pages? Only as many as you need to provide relevant resources. How many categories are legitimately related to your topic?

[luluvele]

I only have two criteria when looking for sites to exchange links with: Page Rank and Relevancy of Content. It doesn't matter that a site has low traffic or that it's new. Relevancy and link popularity will help me in optimizing my own site with the search engines.

[MattE]

I get about 6 requests for link exchange per day.
98% I reject because they are buried so far away in directories no-one will ever find them, or they have link no follow, or the link page cannot be accessed from anywhere else in the site, or they want to link three ways, with my site on some crappy directory.

Then you need to check them every so often, because even then some remove their link to get a one way link.

[TryUsOut]

I would keep it minimal as possible. I would go for sites that has a good number of targeted visitors and that is well SEOed.

[will22]

I usually have a look at the niche of the websites...

[CLSbrunette]

I usually look for authority sites in my niche; I also check their PR. I learned that it also pays to check the web sites that are linked to these web sites that you are entertaining to link with you.

[Kristten]

Hi
I have more sites on different theme if you are interested for link exchange then you can PM me with details.

[johnson9]

The link exchange process helps you establish innumerable fruitful links with other web sites. Thus, you can win more quality and targeted visitors from your link partners . The Reciprocal link exchange is capable of winning more traffic through your link exchange process. If you want to promote your web site on a limited budget, link exchange is the best option. Link exchange can save a lot of money that you otherwise would have spent on other means of Internet advertising.