Just Ask Matt - Answers

Do Link Exchanges Still Work?

QUESTION: (Gerald) I have a number of people asking me to exchange links. I have read that this is good, but can’t find anywhere how to do it. Any suggestions, or is there an article you have that would help me. Appreciate it.

Good question, Gerald, because we really don’t hear as much about link exchanges as we did in the past.  I think the big reason for it is it’s effectiveness (or lack thereof).  Search engine spiders are much smarter than they were 2 or 3 years agos.  And most will recognize a “link exchange” rather easily.

For those who don’t know what a link exchange is, it is when you approach another website (usually with similar content to yours) and ask them to place a nice, keyword-rich anchor text link back to your website.  In exchange, you will do the same for them.  Remember that an important part of SEO is backlinks (i.e., receiving links from other websites pointing back to you).  A few years ago, a lot of this “linking power” was represented by a Page Rank.  Getting high Page Rank websites to point back to you effectively will increase your own page rank.

Personally, I think Page Rank is a bit of a farce these days (at least the public one).  I do think the major search engines (like Google) have there own ranking system based on popularity, but it would not be public.  Still, getting links from “authority sites” with relevance (to your niche) is always key. 

Now getting back to the question…I think link exchanges (or “reciprocal linking”) is really not going to help or hurt you.  Any backlink (in most cases) usually will help you.  But if there is a reciprocal link, the spiders will usually recognize this and probably not give you proper popularity for it. 

Again, like everything SEO, this is speculation, but I know there has been a lot of abuse of link exchanges over the years (like link farms, paid text links, etc.) to draw a lot of attention to it.  I used to do it quite a bit.  I don’t really do it any more (unless I am quite friendly with the website and we exchange primarily for the traffic, not the SEO).  I think your efforts would be better suited to article writing/submission, press releases, even directory submissions. 

You can also consider n-way link exchanges.  For a 3-way link exchange example: Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, and Site C links to Site A.  You can do this rather deeply, too.  But still, the search engine spiders are smart and may start recognizing the linking footprints.  The larger the “n”, the better off you are…but of course, this is a hell of a lot more work and requires some skillful coordination.

Personally, I have become somewhat of an a-hole about link exchange requests.  I don’t get as many as I used to, but when I do I usually ignore them. 

cheers…matt

P.S. If you want to know more about Getting Backlinks, check out SEOExciter.com.  (There are 10 free videos over there that shows you how!)

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Matthew BredelMy name is Matthew Bredel and as of March, 2007, I am a full-time, work-at-home internet marketer. For close to 10 years, I worked for a defense company which was an OK job, but I was so uninspired in life and frankly, I needed some more money. That is when I first discovered internet marketing! Now I admit that I didn't start making thousands in my first couple of months (in fact, I lost my shirt!), but I finally saw the "internet light"...

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Feedburner, which has been bought by Google, is a great way to organize, syndicate, and manage your own RSS feeds. But for some reason, their email default settings are kind of silly! See what I am talking about and watch the video on how to fix this in just a couple of minutes.

If you are using Feedburner (which is now owned by Google) to manage your RSS feeds, you should pay attention!

First, using Feedburner to manage and structure your current RSS feed is just a great way of aggregating and distributing your current RSS feed.  I have been using it for years and I prefer its functionality over my standard Wordpress blog RSS feed.  (I’ll save the details of RSS feeds for another post, but this added layer of RSS syndication and organization is great for maximum exposure!).

But there is one setting that has been driving me nuts these days and it involves how they format their syndication emails.  Let me explain…

First, if you are new to RSS feeds and don’t understand how to use them, no problem!  There is a built-in Feedburner function that allows followers (like you!) to subscribe to blogs (or other content websites) without using an RSS reader.

Simply put your email address in the RSS Subscription Box:

rss1

That is it!  So whenever your favorite blog or website updates its content (or writes a new post), you will receive an email of the new content.  Very cool (and it is built-into Feedburner/Google!).

But there is one little problem (no pun intended!):  For some reason, by default, Feedburner chooses the smallest font known to man to send to your subscribers…

rss_smfont

I know this because I have received over 5 complaints from subscribers about it!  It is really easy to fix, though.  The video (above) shows you how in a couple of quick steps.

rss_regfont

So the moral of the story is simple:

1)  If you have a blog or website that supports an RSS feed, be sure to add it to your Feedburner account.  This is part of Google, so if you already have a Google account, you are already set-up!  Just add your RSS feed to it!  Once you sign up, be sure to fix your default email settings (and don’t forget to add the email subscription box to your website or blog!).

2)  Don’t forget, if you aren’t a subscriber to Inside the Internet Marketing Mind, you can grab the RSS Feed here or sign up for the email subscription (and check out my new font size!):

Subscribe Here:

(Subtle request for your subscription, hey?) :-)

cheers…matt

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