How to do link exchange?

[Arun Lakhera]

How can I get quality back links from relevant sites? Can someone tell me the best way to pursue them? :confused:

[AussieWebmaster]

You can do a select email campaign with a good letter about the site - so actually stop and check them out.


You can also do whois and try and call some

[Arun Lakhera]

Great information. I am asking too much but I would like to know the best way to get one side back links other than writing articles?:confused:

[Lumhierre]

Acquiring backlinks from quality sites is difficult especially if your site is new and with a low PR. There's no easy way to do it. You really have to work hard. If you're willing to pay, then maybe you can make your way through it... (my 2 cents)

[Arun Lakhera]

I will like to work hard before going for paid option. Can you tell me where to start from?:cool:

[AussieWebmaster]

Make donations to charity.... many give a link.

Get involved in communities that give link backs... many blog comments do this... your name becomes a link.... so know that when signing up

[Arun Lakhera]

Thank you AussieWebmaster you have provided great information.:) Actually I have come to know that google has recently updated their “link schemes” page under the webmasters guidelines and outlawed link exchanges that is why I am focusing more on one-way links.

[Marcia]

Actually, they've not "outlawed" link exchanges, they've just said that they should be done in moderation.

[Arun Lakhera]

Thanks for the information Marcia. I would like to know more about link exchange moderation. Can you please guide me?:)

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Most SEOs seem to agree that link exchanges do not work (well) anymore and that it's better to focus one's efforts on getting one-way links as opposed to doing link exchanges.

Google sort of wants to counts links as 'votes'. Just like in an election. Only that they try to weigh 'votes' by people who know something about the topic (relevant sites in the same field) and 'votes' by people who are important (authoritative sites) more.

If you think about that, actually that makes sense and it makes me question democracy a little: Everybody gets the same type of vote (of the same importance) to vote for a president, even though the large majority of people are very ill-informed and are very prone to manipulation by election campaigns. Plus they really don't know a lot about politics and what's going on in the world or behind the curtains, yet everybody is allowed to vote.

I think everybody who wants to vote should have to take a test, that tests his knowledge of politics so that a decision can be made whose vote should really count and who shouldn't have a say in things (but then again extreme parties with a more loyal following might get an edge ;( ).

Okay, so Ive rambled enough now: The thing is

1) Google sees 'natural' links as votes b/c it helps them determine which sites are better

2)Link exchanges are not legit 'votes'. They don't help Google determine if a site is quality or crap.

3) Google can easily spot if something is a link exchange or a one-way link (if there's a link from site A pointing to site B and a link from site B pointing to site A, it's probably a link exchange (though it's probably a bit more complicated than that)).

---> conclusion: link exchanges aren't helpful in determining what site is good and what site is crap, thus they don't want to count them and your time will be more wisely spent purusing one-way links.

Also, it's not as simple as asking on a forum how to get one-way links. Every beginner asks that question (I did so, too), but the thing is getting great one-way links is pretty much the holy grail of SEO at the moment..there are tons of different techniques, most of which have one thing in common: "create great (unique) content that other people will want to link to" :-). The more you read about it and the more you practice the more ways you'll find to get those one-way links and the better you'll become at it.

[AussieWebmaster]

an equal number of one way and exchanged links does work so long as they are all from relevant sites

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Actually, I also see sites rank almost exclusively on (very obvious) link exchanges for somewhat (not extremely) competitive keywords. Some people I know think this still works, because of the age of those low-quality links (I don't really know what to think of it, though to be honest).

However, if one is starting now, I would think that one's time is more wisely spent focussing on one-way links as opposed to spending too much time on doing link exchanges.

Not only for now, but especially for the future, b/c I wouldn't be surprised if the benefit of link exchanges/low quality links will decrease even further (but then again it might be a good intitial way to push the site to rank now before focussing exclusively on one way links).

How do other people feel about the value of link exchanges? I've always thought that the same time spent pursuing link exchanges, would be more efficiently spent going after 'natural' one-way links.

But if Aussiewebmaster says 50/50 still works fine, that makes me wonder if maybe it's wrong and link exchanges with related sites could still be very valuable to get that initial push to get your site to rank in the first place (which can be a tough task as exposure leads to more exposure and G's algorithm favors old sites so much)...?

[juergen]

Link exchange works pretty well when you do it the right way.
A good assistiance is a free link building service like <snip>.
Please also look at my other Forum Post (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?p=121124&posted=1#post121124) regarding link building.

[submitqueen]

The idea behind including backlinks as part of the page rank algorithm is that if a page is good, people will start linking to it. And the more backlinks a page has, the better. But in practice it is not exactly like this. Or at least you cannot always rely on the fact that your contents is good and people will link to you. Yes, if your content is good and relevant you can get a lot of quality backlinks, including from sites with similar topic as yours (and these are the most valuable kind of backlinks, especially if the anchor text contains your keywords) but what you get without efforts could be less than what you need to successfully promote your site.

[amabaie]

The idea that link exchanges are not valuable is pure poppycock.

First, let us understand what link exchanges are, without thin king about Google or Yahoo. They are two sites agreeing to exchange lin ks in the hopes of creating a bigger pie to share between them. Each website owner will set his own threshold, but we all will decide that some sites are good enough and some are not. In this way, link excha nges are actually a good measure of voting. They won't show which sites are top of the heap, but they do separate the OK sites from the really poor ones (who will only link to one another). So there is no reason Google and Yahoo should discount link exchanges.

However, if all your links are part of a link exchange 2-way or 3-way, that sends a pretty strong signal to the search engines that your site has limitations. Not that it is a bad site, just that it has limitations over competitors who merrit mentions in blogs and get links from authority sites.

My suggestion...look for the sites you want to link to you. Then do what it takes to get the links: create content they would want to link to, offer them an article with a link back to your site, offer a link exchange, offer to pay for a link, etc. If you get the best quality links from relevant sites, and keep SEO factors in mind without fretting too much over them, you will build a natural (deserved) linking profile that shows the search engines that numerous websites have voted for yours.

[amitbhalla]

At best it will tell Google what your site is about but it is not the "vote of confidence" it used to be. When the 'bot sees reciprocal links, it looks like they cancel each other out. Write good content, get your name out there, and the links will follow

[BluEnt]

My suggestion is to get more one-way links via article sub, directory sub, paid link etc, it's boost your site more as compare to link exchange...

[jhennie]

You can do a select email campaign with a good letter about the site - so actually stop and check them out.


You can also do whois and try and call some

Aussiewebmaster is right choose a good email that you can you to email a webmaster to ask they do you want to link exchange to there site in a nice way..but you need to pick a site that relevant to your site.:)

[caily]

having links to related sites is the best way to get your site indexed. I usually look for a page that is already indexed by the search engine therefore, when SE re-index that particular site, they will notice my link and follow it. Then creating an effective letter to convince each webmaster to exchange links with my site.

[dur0000]

One way or another, relevancy is the keyword :)

[Mitchelle Johnson]

For doing link exchange,resourcing is done previously. Try to get one good website, explore all the links in resource page, send mails and do link exchange with them.