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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Automation can even be done at the blogging level. No, I haven’t automated the writing, but I can automate the posting! This can grow your following by offering consistency while lowering your own workload throughout the week. See how it is done…it is SO EASY!

As you read this new post, you may not be aware that I am probably 30,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean and this was written on 2 weeks ago in a little apartment overlooking the Spit Bridge in Northern Sydney (without an internet connection).

The newer versions of Wordpress now provide you with the ability to schedule your blog posts without the need of plug-ins, an edit of your htaccess file or creation of a new cron job.

I know, you are going huh???  Don’t worry!  You don’t need to know what an htaccess file or a cron job is because this is done for you.

Remember one of the most important aspects of blogging and social networking is consistency! Writing 7 posts in the first week and none for the next 3 weeks will not create you a good following.  Develop an online routine to your posts and stick with it!

Train your readers to your writing patterns, too.

But this can be tough to manage for some of us.  It can be a distraction or like me right now, I may be away from the internet for long periods of time.

The solution is to pre-write your blogs, schedule them according to your writing pattern and AUTOMATE your blog postings.

The video (above) shows you how simple this is to do.

Sure, there is the argument that a blog post can go “stale” and the real-time interaction with your readers may be lacking.  But it is still more important to maintain consistency than to NOT write or write in chunks.

And just because you pre-write and schedule your posts doesn’t mean you lose your interaction.  It may be smart time management.

Try devoting an afternoon to just writing and scheduling a month’s worth of posts.  First, I bet you will do it rather quickly.  Second, you will find yourself getting MORE done throughout the week without your posting distractions.  And finally, I bet your readers won’t even know it!

cheers…matt

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