Reciprocal Link Exchange

Today the reciprocal link exchange is not as popular as it once was but it still does provide some benefit with regard to providing inbound links to your website.

I will still look for link partners on occasion but I'm more careful about who I link to as the quality of websites does make a difference.

For finding interested link partners I highly suggest using Ken Evoy's Value Exchange Tool. This is an excellent free tool that requires a simple signup requesting your site information and email address. Your site will be submitted to a large pool of interested link partners that you can contact you for exchanges. You will find high-value, similarly themed sites that you can exchange links with to increase your link popularity, in a way that the engines love. 

Click here to use the Value Exchange Tool

Tips for exchanging links with other websites

 
1. Always link to "like" sites.

 When selecting a site to exchange links with make sure the site is related to your site's topic. For example, a site related to pet care should only link to sites that deal in pet care or pet related items.

2. Never link to a site that has no Google pagerank.

Many sites are penalized by the search engines for search engine spamming. If you link to one of those penalized sites you can also be penalized by the search engines as well.
 
Of course, not all sites with no pagerank are penalized, however, to be safe, don't link to them until they do achieve some ranking.

3. Don't worry about low page rank.

I was always told to only link to pages with high Google page rank. While linking to a higher ranked page is certainly not a bad thing, I don't necessarily think it's the only way to go.

Search engines put much more emphasis on quality content sites that benefit a visitor. If the site you link to fits this characteristic, then a lower page rank should not be a deciding factor in whether or not to link to it.

4. Create 3-4 site titles and descriptions for link exchanges.

Take your 3-4 best keywords, the keywords that you want to be listed for on the search engines, and create 3-4 separate titles and descriptions.

For example, let's say your site is about cat grooming and your three keyword phrases are:

cat grooming
cat bathing
cat supplies

Create an separate title and description for each keyword phrase and distribute a different title and description to each link partner. This way you will get your all your keyword phrases out there instead of just one.

5. Place a link on your site first before making a request.

Placing a link on your site first can boost incentive to exchange links, or you can simply offer your site information and ask if the webmaster is interested in exchanging links with you. If you don't get a response you know they aren't interested.

6. Don't put more than 50 links on a page.

Create an index page for all your link pages and keep the links to no more than 50 on a page and keep them confined to a specific topic. . Too many links can be determined as spam or that it is a link farm. If you have many links to resources covering one subject, consider making a new page on the topic and moving your links to that page. It's also a more user friendly way for your visitors to find what they are looking for.

Exchanging links with other sites is just one form of finding quality inbound links for your website, however the strategy is becoming less and less effective.  As the web progresses, getting high value backlinks through blog and forum commenting has proved a much better and more effective strategy.