Another Look at Link Exchanges

You may remember Adrian's Link Exchange & Reciprocal Linking is officially DEAD post from September. Although I completely agree with the points he made in his post, I want to take a look at how link exchanges can be incorporated into an overall link building strategy.

As Adrian mentioned, gone are the days when you could simply create a links page and exchange with every website under the sun. Although this strategy was effective for SEO in the early days of the internet, it didn't take long for search engines to catch on to this practice and render it ineffective.

As I said above, I believe link exchanges can still be part of an effective link building strategy. However, before you start trading with hundreds of websites, you need to understand that a link obtained via an exchange will never carry as much weight as a one-way link. The reason that one-way links carry the most weight is that search engines view them as the most natural type of link. Because search engines do value natural links, the key to successfully incorporating link exchanges into a link building strategy is to make them appear as natural as possible. If you're wondering how this is done, it's time to read the four tips below:



Don't Ever Exchange Sitewide Links
Although you may be able to gain a couple thousand links by exchanging sitewide links with a larger website, not a single one of those links is going to carry any value. As I've previously emphasized, the key is obtaining links that search engines view as natural, and through the eyes of search engine robots, sitewide links are about the least natural thing possible.

Only Exchange with Relevant Websites
Before you even start evaluating a website, make sure it is relevant to yours. Once again, when search engines see a professional soccer forum linking to a local car dealership, they are not going to view this as a link that was obtained through natural means. However, if the forum linking to the dealership focused on evaluating used cars before purchasing them, this link will seem much more relevant and natural.

Focus on Quality and Not Quantity
Although there may be thousands of websites which are relevant to your own, chances are only a small percentage of these websites are considered quality websites by the search engines. Instead of trying to exchange links with every website, take the time to evaluate relevant websites and find the highest quality ones.

Nothing Says Natural Like Deep Links within Content
Once you've found an acceptable link exchange partner, instead of exchanging links to each other's home pages, a much more natural method is to link within the content of one of your pages to one of their pages and vice-versa. In case that sounds a little confusing, here's a simpler explanation (assuming Site A is yours and Site B is the site you're exchanging links with):

Site A, Page 17 links to Site B, Page 9
Site B, Page 11 links to Site A, Page 26

By following this strategy and actually linking from within relevant content, you can maximize the value that search engines will give your link exchanges.