A link exchange campaign has to be managed very intelligently!
Managing a 6 week to 6 month campaign is not an easy job to complete. If you don’t have the time or patience to apply your full attention to exchanging and managing links, then an alternate solution may involve contracting out this portion of your web marketing campaign.
For more information on this subject please see my article on Reciprocal Linking.
Build a Link Exchange Directory or Page Build a link exchange page for your website. If you exchange links heavily, you should consider link categorization or a directory, and you should create a separate page for each sub-category. Huge links pages with hundreds of non-categorized links are very annoying to web surfers, even if they are theme related. Any category can have a sub-category, and you should do that. There is also a poor chance that search engines will NOT index a page with hundreds of links and no content, because that page looks like a FFA page!
Obtain more incoming links than outgoing by creating a second site and use it as a reference to your services and create a directory for reciprocal link trading. From this site offer valuable one way links to link partners in exchange for the link partners link to your main site. Direct one way links are more valuable than reciprocal link and you should try to obtain as many incoming links as apposed to out going links.
Please view my article on How To Create One Way Non Reciprocal Links (http://www.kosmoscentral.com/seo-articles/how-2-Create-One-Ways.html) for more information.
Index Your Website! Most webmasters will not even entertain a link exchange request if your site is not even indexed within the major search engines. Even though you need link exchanges to boost your listing within a search engine, try to reciprocate some links before submitting your site and then after your indexed start your reciprocal link campaign.
Point Quality Links to Your Home Page Since search engines will rank your optimized pages based on the number of quality links pointing to those pages, make sure you require/point all quality links to your home page. To avoid any backlash or any misconception that you may be trying to set-up a Free for All or Link Farm from the search engine algorithms point all the other links not related to your site to separate pages you wish to optimize.
Lessen the Burden of Exchange Provide your link exchange information in a very clear manner. Some webmasters are providing the HTML code to be included for the link and this will lessen the burden of fixing broken links. You need to provide at least your URL, link text (key-phrases should be included) and a short description of your website. We do not recommend exchanging a small image or banner, since text links are more valuable than graphical links. If you do decide to provide an image for linking, make sure to provide the “alt” text for that image! An email address for a link exchange is a necessity. If you are actively exchanging links, then it will be a good idea to have a special email address just for this purpose.
Research the Website Thoroughly Research the website you’re exchanging links with. If that site is using a third party service for link exchange management, make sure you’re getting back a link from the site you’re exchanging links with and not a link from the website’s third-party service. Third party links are not very valuable, and because the third-party website is managing the link services of hundreds of different websites, a search engine may look at the managing service as a link farm. You’re basically exchanging a link for a website that’s not reciprocating in good faith and is providing a link to somebody else’s website that is not a quality related website link. To verify, just visit their links page, and watch for an URL change/redirect in the address bar of your browser. If their URL does not begin with their domain name then they are using a third party service for links management, which means the link you are exchanging for is not going to rate high with a search engine’s rating system. Most webmasters will avoid trading links with sites that do not host their own links page within their website, but on third-party sites or services. The link from the third party that you are receiving in exchange might still generate direct traffic for your website, but not provide an acceptable boost for a search engine’s algorithm ranking. If you need a better understanding of the above, try a closer look on how search engine Page-Rank algorithms works.
Visit Other Link Exchange Networks It’s a good idea to visit some Link Exchange networks and chat forums dedicated to links trade and/or link popularity. A great deal can be learned from individuals involved daily in direct web link exchange. Too much information is not enough, having knowledge is power, information makes you stronger and experience is invaluable.
I am a developer, designer, dmoz volunteer editor and consultant. I have been working in the computer networking industry since 1991, providing training, technical support, project management and consulting services. After working for 4 years for a major online company providing web development technical support services, I was offered a directors position in a large real estate corporation utilizing my web development and management skills. A few years later I decided to start a side business for myself and created Kosmos Central LLC a web promotion consulting company. Currently I provide my consulting services for the same company and a few more.
I’ve lived in the Portland Oregon Area the majority of my existence on this planet and occasionally Ill take time off to enjoy life
