Are "Links" Pages Worth It

[riverbirch]

Hi,

I got an email from a site wishing to exchange links with a site of mine. I've incorporated them into my sites in the past but don't any more. I had a site few years ago which had around 3000 backlinks, not a great deal but decent, only 25 were from a "useful links" page. Why invite my users to leave my site?

Is there a benefit from them I'm missing?

Any Thoughts?

[dimareli]

You need to choose carefully all websites with wich you exchange links.

Never exchange links with websites with low PR, not related websites or with link farms.

If the website that asked you is related and with a PR of 4 thank i think you can benefit in Google rankings

[DrTandem1]

Why invite my users to leave my site?

Is there a benefit from them I'm missing?

Any Thoughts?

Because your site would become a resource. The reciprocal site would also become a resource and be inviting their visitors to visit your site. If they are using your links because they didn't find what they wanted at your site, then they are going to leave anyway. It's kind of like going to a store and asking the clerk for something. They tell you they don't have it, but to try such-and-such a store.

It helps the visitor and it gives you a heads-up as to what your visitors may be expecting from your site.

[Big Juice]

The Internet was designed for sites/pages to link together and if no one were to link then there wouldn't be an Internet.

If you build a proper directory and faithfully maintian it then you can and will benefit from the linking contained within.

Why would you invite users to leave your site - because your site is so awesome that you know they will be back especially when you helped them find what they were looking for.

AS to PR... who cares as long as the linking page has been indexed and there are not too many links on it. The thing about PR is that it will grow as the page matures and the links contained will also become more valuable as they age.

[pahalik]

You need to choose carefully all websites with wich you exchange links.

Never exchange links with websites with low PR, not related websites or with link farms.

If the website that asked you is related and with a PR of 4 thank i think you can benefit in Google rankings

NOBODY starts with high PR. Not even Google had high PR when they started, or YouTube, etc..

Link what's relevant to your site and forget about what some search engine thinks.

[marci11]

AS to PR... who cares as long as the linking page has been indexed and there are not too many links on it. The thing about PR is that it will grow as the page matures and the links contained will also become more valuable as they age.

Couldn't agree more with this point! Thank you for putting it out there for people to think about! Page Rank shouldn't matter anymore, I mean Google is disregarding their standards for it anyway, so why should it matter to the webmasters?

As to links pages, I firmly believe that as long as you have quality content pages (like a business page for business-related sites), then exchanging links is an awesome tool! It will boost your website, as it appears to SERPs as 'hey this website must be important if this other website is linking to it.' It will help your rankings and SEO if you use the proper anchor text along with the URL you'd like to boost. Use your specific keywords that you'd like them to point to your URL. Obviously a one-way link would be the best you could ask for, but reciprocal links are easier to get from other sites, especially when they have relative content! Make sure there are no cheating tactics going on before you agree to link swap, like check robots.txt file, check for nofollows, noindexes, etc. I know for a fact that link exchanging is still one of the most important aspects in SEO, I've seen all of the sites I manage go up in rankings. The best system I have found to manage links, if you're interested, is Lavalinx.

So, yes I fully support links pages, as long as they have relative content written on the page and you link within relative content pages on other websites.

[riverbirch]

thanks for the feedback

[deepsand]

The Internet was designed for sites/pages to link together and if no one were to link then there wouldn't be an Internet.



You seem to have mistaken the Web for the Internet, when in fact they are 2 quite different things.

The Internet is a data communications network which predates the Web.

The HTTP Protocol, upon which the Web is built, is but one of many Protocols supported by the Internet.

[maemae]

Very Good Points. Always Exchange with quality websites where the traffic coming from the other website could be Beneficial to Both parties with potential customers.

[datetopia]

Make sure the links are relevant to page contents and not added only on the idea of "I link you, you link me or you pay me, I link you". In example a page about important search engines should have links to google, yahoo, live. They will probably not link back but your page will have decent valuable links. Then you can also add your friend's search engine and he can give you a backlink.

[sunbedkid]

My opinion to reciprocal linking has changed multiple times over the years, sometimes I think it is good, then other times I think it is bad. I still wonder what Google thinks, and have often thought that it has penalised some of my sites because I have been trading links. Maybe 3 way links are better, maybe not - who knows.

Overall though, giving links to quality sites related to yours is a good thing, and getting other sites within the same field to link to you is also good. Random links from non related sites are definately bad.

[Orion]

As your question asks it unequivocally no links pages are definitely not worth it...

Having said that:
Having a page which offers links to websites and articles online as resource to your site visitors.. that is very much worth it.

If you have a page of links and they aren't related to the topic (keywords) of your site then it does far more harm than good.. having resources on the site that are on topic especiailly to websites of authority in your industry (subject) are definitely beneficial.

[Peter (IMC)]

Never exchange links with websites with low PR, not related websites or with link farms.
2 out of 3 correct... :)

Ignore PR when you get the chance to get a link from a site. Even if the PR value is low, there is the added (much more important) advantage of having a link with a link text. Link texts rules over PR many many times.

And if you do exchange links, don't do it through link pages. Try to naturally add that link into your site and require the same from your link partner.

[deepsand]

And if you do exchange links, don't do it through link pages. Try to naturally add that link into your site and require the same from your link partner.

But, if the goal is to provide information that supplements your site, is it not more useful to your visitor to be able to find such at a single location, rather than its being spread across the site?

For example, a travel agency that specializes in travel between certain cities may find it helpful to their customers and potential customers, and therefore beneficial to their agency's business, if they also provide information re. the various services, entertainment, attractions, etal. of such cities. As a client, I would certainly hope to find links to all such information easily accessible from a single page.

[bmnobbs]

I've found reciprocals from subject related site, or even direct competitors, are generally worth it in the long run. A new site with no PR, if it has quality content, will soon get one, and sometimes a better PR than yours !
I've found link-farms a big negative, and have heard of webmasters nobbling rivals by submitting their rivals sites to such, especially if it's to a Google 'black-listed' link-farm.
Watch out for the robots txt & rel nofollow cheats mentioned by the earlier poster too.

[riverbirch]

I've found link-farms a big negative, and have heard of webmasters nobbling rivals by submitting their rivals sites to such, especially if it's to a Google 'black-listed' link-farm.
Watch out for the robots txt & rel nofollow cheats mentioned by the earlier poster too.

I thought that because of not having complete control over who links to you those links from shady operations or link farms don't negetively effect your rankings. How could they? Obviously quality links are important and I can see how having a select few out going links to complementary sites it helpful. I had a gardening site which I sold last yeare and felt that having a links page, which is sort of like a business directory for your competitors, offering similar gardening information and items didn't help my buisness. I did link to a few related sites but not in a links page format.

[deepsand]

I thought that because of not having complete control over who links to you those links from shady operations or link farms don't negetively effect your rankings. How could they? Obviously quality links are important and I can see how having a select few out going links to complementary sites it helpful. I had a gardening site which I sold last yeare and felt that having a links page, which is sort of like a business directory for your competitors, offering similar gardening information and items didn't help my buisness. I did link to a few related sites but not in a links page format.

The SEs have become pretty good at identifying link farms, and treat them as the spam that they are. And while it may be that some are unaware that they've bought into a link farm, that ignorance does not and should not stand to shield them from the potential unpleasant consequences.

As they say at Law, "ignorance is no excuse."

[Peter (IMC)]

But, if the goal is to provide information that supplements your site, is it not more useful to your visitor to be able to find such at a single location, rather than its being spread across the site?

For example, a travel agency that specializes in travel between certain cities may find it helpful to their customers and potential customers, and therefore beneficial to their agency's business, if they also provide information re. the various services, entertainment, attractions, etal. of such cities. As a client, I would certainly hope to find links to all such information easily accessible from a single page.

Sure, but then why would you want a link back? If it's really for your visitors, you wouldn't care about that link back in the first place.

[Peter (IMC)]

I thought that because of not having complete control over who links to you those links from shady operations or link farms don't negetively effect your rankings. How could they? Obviously quality links are important and I can see how having a select few out going links to complementary sites it helpful. I had a gardening site which I sold last yeare and felt that having a links page, which is sort of like a business directory for your competitors, offering similar gardening information and items didn't help my buisness. I did link to a few related sites but not in a links page format.

You don't controll who links to you, but for Google it is relatively easy to detect who's responsible for the links. If the maiority of your backlinks come from bad sites, then it's kind of easy to know that you´re responsible for that your self.

All those links won't negatively effect your rankings, but they also won't positively effect your rankings. So your positions will be only helped by the quality links. And if just 5% of all your backlinks are worth counting, then you may not have much reason to have high positions.

In this case it's very common that people come to the very wrong conclusion that they´re penalized for having so many bad backlinks. But they´re not. They´re just a lot less important than they think they are. It's like thinking God will punish you for behaving bad. The only reason to think that is the arrogance of thinking you´re so important that the higher authorities are actually watching you. The lack of good is much more influential than the abundance of bad.

[deepsand]

Sure, but then why would you want a link back? If it's really for your visitors, you wouldn't care about that link back in the first place.

Whether a link is or is not reciprocated is irrelevant to where to best place it.

The determining factor in this regard is whether the link in question amplifies or supplements the site's native content. The former are best placed in close proximity to the text being expanded, either in-line or as a footnote, while the latter are best collected into an addendum given a page of its own.

[deepsand]

Sure, but then why would you want a link back? If it's really for your visitors, you wouldn't care about that link back in the first place.

Such supplemental links may or may not be reciprocal ones; it's not simply a case of all being one or the other.

Supplemental links should be selected solely on the basis of their value to your customer.

And, it may very well be the case that a reciprocated link is of value to the customers of both sites.

[breddg]

Link Back is most important for your website. If you have lots of back link from relevant site then your site's PR, Back Links and ranking is going High in major search engine.

Link Exchanges types:
1. One way links
2. Reciprocal Link Exchanges
3. 3 way link exchanges
so many back link from coming social media, networking, SE, Dir.....

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