Link Building - Link Exchange Tips

Link exchange is an effective way to get your site up the rankings. An example for those who don't understand what is link exchange, Site A links to Site B and Site B also links to Site A. Using proper anchor text in those links, you can rank better for those keywords. Although recently, Google has devalued reciporal linking, it is still useful for ranking. And since link exchanges are easy (you just need to link to other sites while they link to you), I think you should go for it if it is possible.

If you can, try to go for 3-way link exchanges instead of reciprocal. 3-way link exchanges involves 3 sites and is about exchanging link with one partner while that partner links to another partner. Finally, this partner will link back to you. 3-way link exchanges try to "trick" Google into thinking that this is actually a 1-way link this way. I would certainly recommend it.

Your link partners. What to look out for:

1. Check out their sites. See what is the site about. If the site is relevant to yours , you should consider the site for a link exchange. Why? Because Google now penalizes link exchanges that are not related.
2. Content. Browse through the site and see whether the site has content. Good content is important because it shows that your link partner is making an effort to get his site up the rankings which can benefit you.
3. Number of Visitors. Ask your link partner about number of daily unique visitors his site generates. If the site has a significant number of visitors, you too may be receiving some of them soon.
4. Activity. Browse around their site and see whether the site is active or not and whether their content has been updated constantly. Try to avoid link exchanges with sites that look like they have been dead for sometime.
5. The page where your link will be. Ask your link partner where your link will be. Perferly in the main page where it is most visible and where the highest Page Rank usually is. Try to avoid site-wide links if possible. Especially if your site is smaller (less pages) than your link partners. Too many links will make it look spammy to Google.
7. Static links please. Tell your link partner that the link from his site has to be static and should not have the nofollow tag. The nofollow tag tells Google not to follow the link.
8. Number of links per page. Check whether your link partner has a lot of outgoing links on the page with your link. Too many outgoing links will reduce the effectiveness and dilute whatever ranking they may provide. Tell your link partner to reduce the number of outgoing links.
9. Goto Google and type in "site:domainname.com" and see whether how many of the sites' pages have been indexed by Google. If the site has a lot of pages indexed, it is a good thing. If it has very little or is not indexed at all, then you need to worry.Browse around the indexed pages and see if they have any supplemental pages. If a site has a lot of supplemental pages, it is a sign that something is wrong. If you link to a blacklisted site, you could very well get into trouble with Google.
10. Install Google's Toolbar and check the site's Google Page Rank. Although not always accurate, this Page Rank can give you a rough indication on how well his site is doing and whether he has a good number of backlinks.
11. Go back to Google and do a search "link:domainname.com" and see how many backlinks he has and where are they coming from. More backlinks usually means higher Page Rank too. You can also make use of this opportunity to get more link partners as well.
12. Constantly check your link partners and see whether they have removed your link or whether their site has been blacklisted by Google. For some of the points above, you have to check them even after you have agreed to do link exchanges with them.

Never link to the site which has been blacklisted by Google! Always treat your outgoing links like they are your babies, don't give them out to unreputable sites, it is just not worth it.

One important thing to note about link exchange with relevant sites is that they are actually your "competitors". Which means if your site is of a lower quality than your link partners' sites, you could be driving traffic away from your site to theirs! Well,I am not saying not to do link exchanges, but in order for link exchanges to work and for them to drive traffic to your site,your site must be better than your partners' site. But sadly, webmasters usually do link exchanges to increase their Page Rank. Nothing more.

More articles:
Internal Links - How to make full use of them
Effective Directory Submission
Increasing your Page Rank In Detail
OnPage SEO For Web Directory Owners
Link Exchanges Techniques
Additional Benefits of a High Page Rank (PR)
Secondary Article Writing - Link Baiting
Sneaky Bastard's Way of Getting Backlinks
Tiny Preview and Screenshots for PhpLinkDirectory V3.2.0
Outgoing links - Telling Search Engines what your page is all about
A Complete list of Directory Scripts
How NOT to run a directory - a submitter's point of view
Some tips for the paid directory owner
How often does Google cache your Site? A Project.
Raising PR - Problems with paid directories and what to do.
Good Planning = Good SEO = Results!
Article Writing for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Forget keywords meta-tag and think keyword density!