Exchanging links with other websites

[caravan]

Hi,

I'm working on the search engine optimisation for a couple of websites and have been actively seeking to exchange links with other websites.

To date I've been seeking out potential link partners by manually searching for my nominated keywords or competitors backlinks and targeting the resulting websites via email. The thing is I'm finding this to be a long and laborious task with very little success or response from those I contact.

I'm wondering if there is something I'm missing. Am I best using some software to help speed up/manage the link exchange process? (I've been looking at Web CEO, has anyone any views on this product or alternative suggestions)

How do others find their success rate when it comes to exchanging links with other sites? Any tips and advise would be much appreciated.

Regards, caravan

[Gert Leroy]

hello caravan,

finding quality link partners is indeed a long and laborious task with little success. As for me, i consider this the most important task of SEO, much more important than individual-page-optimisation.

Before sending your request, make sure you've allready put the site you're requesting to on yours. This goes without saying..

What seems to pay off, is adding a directory or specific list to your webpage, e.g. my site www.visitnatalbrazil.com will soon (or later) display a list of hotels in the city of Natal, and i will write a link-request to all hotels telling them they will be removed when not linking back to mine. They have all interest in being listed, since my site pretends to be a reference for tourism in Natal. Furthermore, people seem to take a link request from a directory or list more serious than from a 'normal' website.

Another remark: some bigger websites will only consider your link valuable when your site has a decent PR. Therefore start making requests to directories and startpages/portals until you have decent linkpopularity. Don't run with the big dogs if you're still a puppy ;)

They (=SEO gurus) say a personal approach is better than a standard email. I agree, but where are you gonna find the time to do this and secondly, me myself being a webmaster, i don't have any problems with standard link requests. As long as i see profit into the exchange, i say yes.

Another thing to consider is hiring an employee to take care of your linkcampaigns. It's a full-time job and let's YOU breathe again and write content.

[DomainDrivers]

Caravan,

You've entered a realm that separates the truly "link dedicated" from those who are just looking for shortcuts and link gimmicks. Most people just bail out of this work and latch onto some easy link trick, until that trick is rendered useless.

You are right, this is hard, detail-oriented work. There are no shortcuts. Sorry.

I laugh when people call reciprocal linking "easy", and they say ridiculous thing like "just find other sites that link to your competitors and ask them for a link".

Obviously, these "experts" talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. If they did, they would not make it sound easy or mindless.

First, unless you hire a real pro to do it for you(as opposed to a link spammer who'll try to link you to everything that moves), then get yourself a good link management tool. This work is ALL about data management. Without a good tool, you are going to be overwhelmed very quickly. For DIY, I suggest using LinksManager. http://www.linksmanager.com.

Recntly, I posted two other posts in here about this subject, so here they are, again...

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic...ivers&start=25

Sure, I have done recip link work for hundreds of sites. I see ridiculous stuff all the time. Most of it is some kind of selfish "ploy" that they have concocted to try to game the engines, and they demand that other people comply. All it does is make the site with the demand appear childish.

Your own criteria were valid ones, but not always necessary.

Remember this...reciprocal linking takes place between TWO HUMAN BEINGS. Each of them has to agree to the exchange or there is no exchange. Bullying and obnoxious behavior is loser behavior. You have to give to get. Be an adult.

While I am obnoxious and intolerant with all the SEO gurus who think they know everything about this subject, but they don't really know much of anything about it because they don't actually do it, I am very, very gracious with my link exchange partners.

The basics, in no particular order:

1) Never link automotive sites to gambling, viagra, health supplement, ink jet or ring tone sites. Link auto sites to auto sites, home-related to home related, health to health, etc. STAY RELEVANT. STAY RELEVANT. STAY RELEVANT.

2) Never, ever use no follow tags on the links or robot exclusions on links directories as a means to "hide" links. That's just immature, and of ZERO value anyhow. All it does is give people a VERY GOOD REASON to ignore your link request. Likewise, never "hide" your links pages. If you are going to reciprocate, be up front.

3) Never give deadlines or threaten to remove links. Be patient. People have more important things to do than make sure a link is placed within 48 hours. Or two weeks.

4) Never demand that they link to all 20 of your sites first. Take links as you get them, appropriately

5) Always link first, then make the request, and tell them where to find their link.

6) Skip the flowery talk about how this will help both of you achieve better rankings, blah blah blah. Be direct and concise with email requests.

7) Skip the talk about your high PR values. Snore.

8) USE SUBMISSION FORMS if they are provided. DO NOT send email requests to sites that provide forms, just because it is easier to blast out email. They'll usually ignore your email request anyhow, or send you to the form.

9) DO NOT solicit sites that do not publicly have a link directory and/or do not offer to exchange.

10) Do not demand PR for PR equivalence. In fact, ignore PR completely. You'll sleep much better, and get a lot more links.

11) Do not use an email verification gateway. If you want your requests by email, then make it a fully public email. Otherwise, you'll lose a lot of links that you could have had, since many people will not "verify" your address by typing a goofy word into a box. I can't imagine why anyone would want requests by email anyhow. If you're going to do this, then put up a submission form, even if it is a simple mailto: form. At least then the requests you do get will be orderly.

12) Categorize the link directory properly. Links page 1, 2, 3, 4 is not proper categorization.

13) Limit your links per page to something reasonable. If you get too many on a page, start a sub-category.

14) Link to and from the SAME DOMAIN. Three-way links are just so much SEO fad-du-jour. Most people with legitimate sites who offer to reciprocate will avoid three way links like the plague, and they see them for what they are. That is, you get a link from a junk site, but they want you to link back to their primary site. It's bogus.

That's a good start of what to do/not do. Overall, remember, there is a real person on the other end of a link request that wants to be treated fairly, as do you.

I hope it helps.

******************

and

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic...=domaindrivers

As someone who does this work all the time, for hundreds of sites, follow these rules:

1) Make sure the site you are soliciting is related to your site.

2) Make sure the site you are soliciting has a link directory and publicly offers to exchange. Link to them first.

3) If they want their link requests to be submitted to a form they provide, then use the form. They'll ignore your email

4) Skip the flowery talk about your page rank and how much you think their site is the bomb. You want a link, and if your site is appropriate, they want your link. Be honest, sincere, and get to the point.

5) Tell them exactly where (what page url) to find their link on your site.

6) Tell them how you have listed their site on your site.

7) Provide a way for them to make changes to their listing.

8) Never threaten to remove their link. Nobody likes threats.

9) Provide the a way to "unsubscribe" from further solicitations.

[NameCritic]

You can try http://www.backlinks.com it looks like something that is going somewhere. We'll see, but this is buying links, not trading links.

Sometimes it's worth buying the link you want and not have to trade.

[superiorlabels]

Link building will eat you alive if you do it yourself, and frankly it is a poor use of your time, you have a business to run and build.

I've hired high school kids at $6 per hour to do this and have them track progress with Arelis. I make them personalize the e-mails and avoid spammy sites.

Usually they get around 10-12 links per week with 40 hours of work. 40 hours @$6 is $240, with taxes it runs around $275 a week. This works out to be about $23 to $27 per link acquired, cheaper than you would pay a commerical link builder. It is super easy to find kids that want a full-time job during the summer.

As to results - it took about a year, but we went to the top of Google and have been there for our primary keyword, "address labels", for the last 3 years.

One last suggestion, buy the "Search Engine Optimization for Dummies" and make them read it before they start.

[SemAdvance]

Originally Posted by caravan

Hi,

I'm working on the search engine optimisation for a couple of websites and have been actively seeking to exchange links with other websites.

To date I've been seeking out potential link partners by manually searching for my nominated keywords or competitors backlinks and targeting the resulting websites via email. The thing is I'm finding this to be a long and laborious task with very little success or response from those I contact.

I'm wondering if there is something I'm missing. Am I best using some software to help speed up/manage the link exchange process? (I've been looking at Web CEO, has anyone any views on this product or alternative suggestions)

How do others find their success rate when it comes to exchanging links with other sites? Any tips and advise would be much appreciated.

Regards, caravan

You're missing the fact everyone is in a link trance. Everybody is out on the web just like you trying to get links.

However,

Matt Cutt the Google Spam Fighting Team Lead has this to say about reciprocal links:

This time, I’m seeing links to mortgages sites, credit card sites, and exercise equipment. I think this is covered by the same guidance as above; if you were getting crawled more before and you’re trading a bunch of reciprocal links, don’t be surprised if the new crawler has different crawl priorities and doesn’t crawl as much.

One way on topic links are the bet. Reciprocals are a waste unless you have a PR2 Website and can exchange with a PR7,8,9 which wont happen. I vote for you...you vote for me 1 + 1 = 0 in search engines eyes usually.

The best way to get links is to get them the way people received links in 1996, 97 ...Naturally

Peace

[kevan]

Hi,
I partly agree with the long answer; but I remember suddenly getting a rush of link exchange emails from what I call the leper companies; who do nothing but add links - and a few days later I was Number one in google. So, I sometimes wonder whether google have their own team checking these things out - probably not, just paranoia.
What is good for links is having quality content, as far as I am concerned. Cold calling is hard work via email. What is worth looking at is the Wikipaedia sites, but check that some 'obnoxious' person has not removed links regularly.
Lastly, I don't think all links are good, some are from the leper sites previously mentioned; and I sometimes get really obnoxious to them until they remove links. I mean really nasty condescending emails until they remove links. if they don't, I have copied all their leper links into my web space; and waited for a response. They always play the game eventually. I hate these people as they serve no useful purpose, so I purposely upset them.
Anyway, back to the question, I don't think links are as important as you suggest. Just make sure you get good quality links, and message boards etc are often a brilliant place for these, as are some of the better blogs. And places like this site are wonderful, because it is what the fun is all about.

I am just in the process of swapping web providers (slowly) and at the end of the day, I will have a few broken links on my site for a while - but who cares. I do this hobby for me, adsense adverts cover the web costs, and if nobody visits the site then it is their loss, methinks.
New site - http://pubsinlondon.net will be number one - one day, until then I just keep adding new fresh content and keep the lepers away.
Kevan

[wallmann]

You might try this free download, it based on sites using you keywords and it's free and very fast:

http://www.Axandra.com/go.to/wallmann/9

[dartman]

The Zeus program works rather well.
http://www.cyber-robotics.com/
The learning curve may take you a while but the program has some good features that make this linking bs and directory building a lot easier.

Odd how Google inspired "linking" has pretty much become a business that in some cases replaces the main business that people come to the web to do.

[buddhu]

The most up-to-date info here so far seem to be what SemAdvance wrote.

It seems that some of you don't read Matt Cutts's SEO/Google blog. Why not? It is a great source of confirmation of what is real and what is junk. Matt doesn't give away huge secrets, but he helps filter out the noise.

Reciprocal linking is not as effective as it was, and in some cases may actually be counterproductive. If you have to swap links (and let's face it, most of us do to an extent) then only do it with relevant sites - and avoid swapping with sites that show indicators of penalties (grey PR bar, no pages reported in indexes).

That's where links can hurt you rep - when you link to irrelevant or bad sites.

Do link out, but do it to trusted, relevant authority sites. And don't worry about that PR-leakage cr*p. A small number of carefully selected, relevant OBLs is likely to do you more good than harm.

Kevan, don't worry too much about who links to you. At the SES conferences the crawlers' reps have said time and time again that they understand that is outside your control. You are unlikely to be penalised for IBLs, but bad ones simply won't help your SEO at all. A possible exception may be a very obvious huge batch of bought links. And, of course, a reciprocal/swapped link with a bad site will reflect badly on you as you will have made the decision to link back to them.

The tiresome truth is that good content and services are amongst the best link-building tools.

If you have to swap, then use several different sites if you have them (preferably on different hosting) to spread the load. But keep it relevant.

Buy good links if you can, but not in bulk (we nearly made that mistake a year or more ago, but posters here showed me the error of that path!).

[crankydave]

Couple of things to note...

First... Like any marketing campaign, putting all your effort into a single aspect is simply not a good idea. Diversify. Make it only part of your efforts.

I have and do remain a believer in proper reciprocal linking. Despite what Matt has said, I've seen NO indication that proper reciprocal links have stopped passing on their ranking value.

As far as "natural" links go... "Build it and they will come" don't work.

You gotta promote, market, and sell it or you die.

Dave

[DomainDrivers]

Sorry, but SemAdvance and buddhu, you guys are mis-reading what Matt Cutts really said. It was inevitable that this would happen, as the anti-reciprocal link crowd is twisting his words. You need to read what ALL of what he said very carefully, and not jump to conclusions.

It is not that reciprocation has been nullfied. They have simply found ways to sort out the egregious offenders who will link to anyone for any reason. That's been happening for a while. It's not new. Elsewhere in his missive, Matt actually defends reciprocation, when done properly.

His statements are upheld by real search results. Reciprocating sites continue to rank extraordinarily well. I could show anyone examples, all day long, for several days. I am aware of hundreds, if not thousands of sites that rely on reciprocation as their primary means of earning links, and they do extraordinarily well. Some have been #1 for their primary search terms for SEVERAL YEARS, through EVERY famous Google update. Take it or leave it. I don't care. It's fact.

Denial is expensive in this business. But do it your way. Just realize that what you are claiming has no basis in fact. Please bring some proof that reciprocation does not work. Whatever you bring, I can bring more that will contradict it, until we are all exhausted.

In 1996 and 1997, a lot of very successful sites were reciprocating actively. I had one of those sites. I was there doing it. Those were the sites that went to the top of Google results when Google was just a curiosity. Facts will set you free.

It always amazes me that people who do not reciprocate, and thus have no idea what it is about or how it plays out, make all kinds of statements about how much they know about it. People who don't reciprocate simply don't know what they are talking about when they discuss the subject. Period. There is no other way to describe it.

superiorlabels, $25 buck per link earned is not the going rate for hiring a pro. If we have relevant link data on hand, our rates start at $7.50 per link for the first 100, and go to $4 per link after that. We're priced about at the market rate. Maybe there are price gougers out there. People who are using rudimentary data management tools (ie. spreadsheets or commercial tools) have to charge outrageous rates, because they are not efficient.

dartman, just to clarify, Google did not "inspire" linking. Google inspired the SEO community to try to use linking to their advantage, and the SEO community initially approached it with a whore mentality, by trying to link to any site for any reason. That was wrong then, and it's wrong now. That's what Matt is saying, if you read him carefully.

Smart site owners were reciprocating successfully long before Google existed. The dot.coms did not. Who is still around? Reciprocation is a practice that pre-dates EVERY search engine. Back then, it was done with relevance as the primary (only) reason to do it. Anyone who sticks with that concept still doing the right thing for their website.

[loomster]

One of the other issues with reciprocal link building is making sure that you periodically clean up your link directories to ensure the sites you are linking to return the favor. I have found that over time you may create reciprocal links (initiated by you or a partner). However, your link partners may remove your site or you may have placed a link expecting a reciprocal link that never materializes. Regular "pruning" of your link pages is required to avoid being treated by seach engines as a link farm. If that happen your SERPS will drop like a stone. I use a free utility called QuidProQuo which can be downloaded at: QuidProQuo Reciprocal Link Checker. Not a bad little utility all told.

[dartman]

Originally Posted by DomainDrivers

dartman, just to clarify, Google did not "inspire" linking. Google inspired the SEO community to try to use linking to their advantage, and the SEO community initially approached it with a whore mentality, by trying to link to any site for any reason. That was wrong then, and it's wrong now. That's what Matt is saying, if you read him carefully.

Ah, "inspire", wrong choice of word. Let's change that to "emphasis".

I agree that 'any link- any site' is probably not what G intended but look at the monster it created and people are willing to pay for quikie links (because G emhasizes links). By monster I refer to link farms, linkbuilding software, sites that will charge you for a link, etc. Would there be any of this without Googles' emphasis on 'links'?

As a site that sells a product just what 'advantage' will I have by exchanging links with a competitor selling the same products and using the same keywords and similar content?

[freetraff]

Sent you a PM with suggestion. In case you have any questions, feel free to PM me back.

[internet-marketing-cr]

The best thing when doing link exchange is to do it with quality, related sites, no matter the PR. The most important thing is quality, not quantity.

[internet-marketing-cr]

For some reason got posted twice, so I edited this one, sorry, don't know how to delete it.

[NameCritic]

First of all I can buy links on relevant websites where their PR is good, they don't have too many OBLs, and where I might actually get clicks not just link building for a lot less than the money one poster suggested paying for people to do reciprical links for.

The bought links are one-way IBLs with the ability to get traffic and PR.

I'll trade links when approached by a webmaster where it makes sense for both websites, or at least makes sense for mine.:) However, I'll take the IBLs that send me traffic over recips any day.

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by crankydave

You gotta promote, market, and sell it or you die.

Dave

Dave, you have been a wealth of information to others and me. But can I beat you up on this comment for a second? Please! :)

Promote and Market. Can you make some concrete suggestions? Others use the same ambiguous comments and us "still-new-at-this-$hit" take way too long to try and figure it out.

Those of us without an MBA or years of dedicated SEO and online selling experience need a little handholding. If the experts here just give one real-life/time suggestion, that will help many.

Or am I in the wrong place at the wrong time. Where the hell is my bartender anyway?

Thanks Dave and sorry you were the blunt of my little tirade. Ok, not a tirade but just some constructive criticisms/suggestions.

Michael

[Adam_S.]

I manage link trading on about 15 sites and have traded 1000s of links. I totally agree with the advice given in this thread, but one thing I must emphasize and highly recommend is using some sort linkchecker. On one of my websites I have traded 1500 links, 500 of the link trades tried to cheat. They have used the following methods to cheat on link trades:

1. Javascript generated links
2. Nofollow on links
3. links pages built in framed pages
4. Link pages that are disallowed through robots.txt
5. Link pages that prevent the SE spider from ever getting to them
6. And finally, some link traders will trade a bunch of links and then delete the whole link directory.

I am currently building a comprehensive link trading and link checking system that handles all of the above and allows for reciprocal, triangle and reciprocal one way trades. I'll let you know when beta is ready. In the mean time, definitly use some sort of link checker.

[greeneagle]

I believe that one of the most important aspects of any IBL or OBL is relevance to that page's content.

Ken

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by nipplecharms1

Dave, you have been a wealth of information to others and me. But can I beat you up on this comment for a second? Please! :)

Promote and Market. Can you make some concrete suggestions? Others use the same ambiguous comments and us "still-new-at-this-$hit" take way too long to try and figure it out.

Those of us without an MBA or years of dedicated SEO and online selling experience need a little handholding. If the experts here just give one real-life/time suggestion, that will help many.

Michael

Sorry Michael. :) I was taking a "poke" at the "Field of Dreams - Build it and they will come" folks.

Building good content that folks want to link to is not good enough if noone knows it's there. Everyone of them had to promote and market it at some point.

Let's take ecommerce sites for example. Customers do not want to wade through several hundred words of content to find or see what it is you're selling, what they want to buy. You're selling products not words.

However, they will inevitably have questions. Think of the most often asked question you get and create a page for it. Word it and title it exactly how they ask that question and they'll most likely find your page. Think like a searcher.

Real life example? Try this, search Google for "how big is a millimeter". This is what some folks want to know, this is they way they ask (search).

Link exchanges... I'll not let Google dictate what sites I like, sites I want to exchange links with. Nothing wrong with. If they don't want to index my entire site because 20%-30% of my links are reciprocal then too bad. The searcher loses. Incidentally, I've seen no indication whatsoever that those links have stopped passing their "ranking juice". DomainDrivers has some excellent info and advice in his posts about reciprocal linking.

Forums/Blogs... In your case, find some jewelry forums/Blogs you like (Pokes you with a stick!) and start posting some tips/advice/information that the membership might find interesting and useful. And I don't mean "one and done". Be regular contributor. Not only are you going to attract interested individuals that are able to click on your siggy link, you're also creating searchable content. Some forums have niche directories and a means to submit articles if you wish. (pokes you with a stick again!) Like Ken points out... relevance.

Dave

[nipplecharms1]

Dear Diamond Dave!

Thanks. I feel the poke too! :)

I will start checking out the blogs. I should have known that because we have posted on dancer forums and they do draw traffic.

You Da Man!

Thanks

Michael

[stretch dog]

Originally Posted by nipplecharms1

Dear Diamond Dave!

Thanks. I feel the poke too! :)

I will start checking out the blogs. I should have known that because we have posted on dancer forums and they do draw traffic.

You Da Man!

Thanks

Michael

Well, there ya go... thats how easy it is you charmer you.

I just gave you a site review complete with links to both your url's (www.nipplecharms.com and www.nipple-charms.com) and your blog!

I also threw in a link to your "glow hand pasties" internal page just because it was appropriate being as i stole an image for the review... lol.

The free links can be found located contextually within the review at http://www.sex-toys-adult-entertainm...ercing_ni.html.

Please go there and take a look and leave a comment if you will. Also, if you see fit, you can provide us with a link back to www.adultsupermart.com... that way we both get quality one-way inbounds that are totally related and there is no reciprocal link exchange by any definition.

Everyone wins... lol... and its that easy!

Your review can also be found within the dedicated "site reviews" category index page at http://www.sex-toys-adult-entertainm...ews/index.html... within the archives of 3 relevant categories... and it will top the main page for a time because i simply do not have the time to post here often... sad but true!

Hope you like the links and good luck with your venture.

stretched and confused....