How do you execute a link exchange?
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 16 Jul 2007, 6:07 PM – 1 Comment
Simple answer: You don’t!
Somewhere (actually, a lot of places) someone (actually Google) said that the best way to get higher up in search engines is to get a lot of links from high-quality websites. So when you are starting out, it may be tempting to go and seek out a lot of links from high-quality websites. The short-cut to the process would be to try and execute a “link exchange” program. In simple terms, a link exchange is an offer of linking to another site if the other site links back to you.
We all know that this model is flawed. The only people who will comply with this request will be people who also need links. The people who deserve to be linked are already getting linked without any of these programs. So you may end up with a lot of incoming links from sites that are also starting out. It’s of no use because you need links from websites that have a higher page rank than yours.
What is the solution then?
The solution is to NEVER venture into a “link exchange” program. Rather than that, use your time to go and build compelling content that is backed by an identity (of yourself) that will lend credibility to that content. Now, this takes time and effort and cannot be done in short-term. This is in fact good because not a lot of people will walk the last mile anyway.
In parallel, go out and build long-term relationships with people that matter to you.
Links will come if people that matter think that “their” readers will derive significant value from your content.
All the best!
Related eBook: Lasting Relationships (20 pages, PDF, Free)
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Anonymous on July 27th, 2007
Hi Rajesh,
Very nice thought and I completely agree with you.I interact with so many bloggers and few months back,their rank is much less in Technorati but when they plan this “Link Exchange Program”,it goes by a very high number(which cannot be thought as well).
As you have pointed out,Lasting relations are very important.For me,every reader(or commenter) of my blog,is my customer and has to be treated royally.If a person is a blogger who does blogging “To change the world”,than s(he) would never bother about “Exchanging Links”.
In short,if you like a Blog A,add that blog in the FeedReader or your BlogRoll without getting worried about the owner of Blog A.Also,this helps to preserve the bookmarks
-Himanshu Sheth