3 Link Exchange Methods
Eiledon
Boosting Traffic
Increasing search engine raking
Enhancing content
Taking advantage of Free Advertising on the Internet
It involves a website owner (link partner) placing a link to your
website on his (an inbound link for you) and you placing a link to his
website on yours (an outbound link from your site)
It's a fact: The more inbound links you have, the higher your website
will appear in search engine results pages.
The link may be on a dedicated links page, in the actual content of the
website or as a banner ad / text ad somewhere on the website.
A Dedicated Links Page
On a links page you can have one place for all your outbound links and
one place to refer potential link partners. It can be easily managed
using your Content Management System.
One thing to remember with a links page is not to accumulate too many
link partners - your visitors will be overwhelmed with the
bombardment of choice and possibly avoid having to choose; while a
potential link partner might feel that his link will not be noticed
amongst your other link partners. This is called "Link Farming" and
is something to avoid.
In The Body Of Your Textual Content
When having the link in the body of the actual text content, you are
essentially recommending that the visitor visit that website, even if
the visitor isn't conscious of it. Thus, this type of link exchange
is highly attractive to a potential link partner. Of course, this is
not easy for every kind of business - it might be easier for a
magazine business to offer content to offer linking space, than it
would for an accounting firm.
Some website owners may even pay you to include a link to their website
in the body of your text content, not only because it is such an
effective advertisement, but it also improves their keyword rankings in
search engines (if the words you use in your content that link to the
website owners site are considered keywords).
Good example: About.com publishes articles with links to websites in
their content.
A Banner Exchange or Text Ad Exchange
A banner is a graphic, usually animated, that serves to entice the
visitor to visit your website.
A banner can be above-the-line (visible without having to scroll down)
or below-the-line (you need to scroll down to see the banner).
If you are not willing to pay a website to display your website banner,
you may consider approaching a website to exchange banners with.
A text ad is a verbal advertisement linked to your website and also
serves tp enticing the visitor to visit your website. It is not as
eye-catching as a banner, but from a search engine optimisation
perspective, you can enhance your search engine rankings by linking
using keywords in your link.
An important aspect of reciprocal linking is trust - you trust that
your link partner will reciprocate and that if he does, the link will
be there in the future.
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Choosing A Potential Link Partner
Here are two decisive factors you should consider when selecting link
partners:
1. Competitive or Complementary?
Are you selling the same product or service, or can this potential link
partner add value to the product / service you offer, thereby allowing
you to indirectly increase customer satisfaction?
Of course, you should not link to a website that is totally unrelated
to your content or your product, as this does not help you or your link
partner
If you believe you have a winning product that your competitors can not
beat, you might exchange links with them to prove to your website
visitors that you are the best, by allowing them to compare - this is
obviously a more risky tactic as you may not only be losing customers,
but actually giving them to your competitors.
2. Quality Of The Website
What is you're perceived credibility of the potential link partner?
Are they worthy of being featured on your website?
Can they help you offer more satisfaction to your website visitors?