Everyone Wins With Reciprocal Link Exchange
©2004 Sonya Gray
Many Webmasters are realizing the beauty of Search Engine
Optimization (S.E.O) when utilizing a popular technique known as
Reciprocal Link Exchange. When exchanging links with other site
owners, Webmasters are capitalizing on S.E.O’s powerful effects.
The goal of most Webmasters is to generate as much traffic as
possible in order to sell their products or promote their
services. I have found, from personal experience, everyone who
participates in exchanging links wins.
Plus, exchanging links is really easy to do. Here’s how:
Look for sites that have rich content that will be of interest
to your site visitors and look for sites that are relevant to
your site. One of the best search engines to look for
content-rich, relevant links is Google.
For example, let’s say you began a marketing campaign to search
for businesses to link to in Google under the keywords “work
from home”. There are 13,300,000 sites that match the keyword
combination “work from home” and are possible link exchange
partners.
Carefully look for a way to submit your link to their site. Some
sites provide the convenience of an online form that can be
filled out to submit your link to their site.
Or, carefully look for contact info, i.e., an email address and
email the Webmaster with:
Your URL Title of your site Description of your site Category
you want your site listed under (e.g., Business Opportunities)
URL where their link can be found Your email address
If the Webmaster agrees (many won’t, but some will), place a
permanent link to their site somewhere on one of your pages and
they will do the same for you.
Always go back to the site in a week or so where you submitted
your link to insure that your link is listed and active on their
site, i.e., you can click on your link and go to your website.
It does no good if you are placing a link on their site, but
they are not doing the same for you. I have found most
Webmasters are pretty good about exchanging links and most will
contact you via email when your link has been added. Some won’t.
So it is a good idea to follow up and make sure your link is
listed and active.
The goal is to link to as many content-rich, relevant sites as
possible. The higher the search engine ranking of your site, the
more likely Internet surfers, i.e., possible customers will
check out your site, bringing with them repeat traffic and
repeat sales.
When sites trade links, they both benefit by:
*Sharing a percentage of traffic directly.
*Getting noticed more favorably by the search engines.
Some link exchanges can send hundreds of visitors per day to
your site, while others might send one or two a week. The latter
is far more common, but even those are worthwhile as long as
they are from content-rich, relevant sites.
Why?
More and more search engines are considering “link popularity”
as a factor when they decide to rank pages in their search
results.
In other words, if the search engines notice other quality sites
linking to one of your pages, they will “like” that page better,
all else being equal.
The presumption is that a link pointing to your page is like a
vote of confidence in that page. More links equals more
confidence. Even a few links can make a worthwhile difference in
how well a page is ranked.
I have found the benefits are enormous. Consistent use of
Reciprocal Link Exchange as a marketing strategy is highly
recommended for driving more traffic to your website.
If done correctly, everyone wins with Reciprocal Link Exchange.
