Link exchange
(Exchanging links between sites to expand higher position on search engines) is one of the excellent old confirmed off page optimization techniques. Even though it’s not as powerful as it used to be back in the early days of search engine optimization, it’s still a very useful technique to build authority of a website and improve its standing in the search engine rankings. Let’s make out what exact steps make for a successful link exchange campaign.
Link exchange (in addition to any link building technique in that respect) is based on two cornerstones: quality and relevancy. You have to ensure that the websites you exchange links with are trusted and established sources on the web and are in the same niche as your website or are corresponding in some way. That brings us to the first stage of linking campaign.
Keyword Research
To come across relevant websites you need to recognize the keywords these websites can be found by. Take your common list of keywords that you target in your search engine optimization campaign and enlarge it with keywords from neighboring niches. Such as if your website is about guitars, you can also include keywords that describe effect pedals, amps, musical theory, picks, recording gear, etc. Once you’ve come up with a list of keywords you can go on to the second step of link exchange.
Searching For Link Partners
Running a search on Google and other search engines is the most obvious and a very efficient way to search for relevant link partners. Search for the keywords from your list and you’re sure to get tons of appropriate results. Don’t try to concentrate just on the first page of search results. In fact you would be better off starting with the second or third page, because websites that are already at the top are less likely to be concerned in link exchange.
Pick The Best Link Sources
Once you cover a list of relevant websites it’s time for quality control. Even if every relevant link is fine for your rankings, links are not valued in the same way. Search engines tend to put more faith in .gov and .edu sites, consequently textual links from these domains are more valuable. Don’t be obsessed with PR though keeping in mind that it’s just one of the factors in the ranking algorithm. It’s a good thought to check the linking profile of a website, i.e. the websites it links to and those that link to it. Exchange links only with websites that are in a ‘good neighborhood’ and are not related with dubious sites.
Set Up Links To Partners
Coming upon sending out link requests to webmasters of the websites on your list it’s better to make the first step towards your link partnership and link to them from your website. Set up a directory of links to your potential link partners and mention them with the exact page URL, anchor text and description when asking for a link back. To accelerate the making of your links directory you can use SEO software.
Send Out Link Exchange Requests
Link exchange requests are somewhat every webmaster receives daily. Lots of them are robotically generated by link exchange bots, consequently if you want to increase your chances to get a link try to sound as personal and particular as you possibly can. Address each person by the name, mention their website and by all means be respectful.
Manage Your Link Exchange Campaign
Getting a link back to your site is not the last part of the link exchange process. It’s rather a start of a new step. Now you should make sure that the link stays in place with the right anchor text and description. When you have hundreds of links it’s just not possible to monitor them all by hand. The best technique to manage your links is by using particular link exchange software. It’ll save you a lot of time and effort plus it will test your links faster and correctly. Such tools are also very useful on all other stages of link exchange: when searching for partners, evaluating the value of each potential link, sending out link requests and so on.
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Wednesday, 10. June 2009
Thanks for posting, I’ll definitely be subscribing to your blog.
Tuesday, 22. September 2009
Learning the art of backlinking does take a bit of time to learn and implement. Something I must admit am still trying to grasp. When I do find a site similar to mine. In the past, I never thought of asking for a link exchange, awareness makes for a better optimized site.. something to always keep in mind.
good post..