Exchange Links to Improve Search Engine Ranking

An affordable way to improve your website's search engine ranking is to exchange links with other websites. This means you include a link to another website and they include a link to yours. This is also known as reciprocal links. There are a few things to remember when selecting a website with which to exchange links.

Exchange links with websites that are related to yours. If you are selling racing car collectibles, your target audience is probably not interested in Barbie dolls. Search engines look for incoming and outgoing links to sites that are related to your topic.

Exchange links with sites with high search engine ranking. If you cannot get your listing the top 50 results for a specific keyword, exchange links with another site that does. You may sell lawn accessories, but not garden seeds. These are related topics, because someone improving his yard may purchase seeds and lawn sculptures. Both sites will benefit with additional web visibility.

Exchange links with sites with high Google Page Rank. Google's Page Rank looks at how many useful incoming and outgoing links each site has and assigns a value. Sites that are ranked 4 or more have more links, so these will help you more.

Exchange links with sites that look professional. Some sites have high search engine ranking and high Google Page Rank, but are very ugly or unprofessional. Visitors will leave the site without making a purchase or looking for your link on the website. That means no one will click on your link, because it won't be seen. If you don't like the site, others probably won't either.

Exchange links with sites with sites that are up to date. If a website is not updated, it may be abandoned or email may not be handled immediately. There may be broken links and other problems with the website which will turn away visitors. Your link may not been seen, clicked or even working.

Do not exchange links with link farms. Link farms are simply websites with numerous free listings for numerous categories. Some Free For All Listings (FFA's) want your email to send you junk mail. No one visits those sites or clicks those links.

If you see an ad for a link farm that requires you to link to only their site and their listed links, beware. Some will host the links on THEIR server, so their site gets all the credit instead of your site. Some use redirects and track clicked links. Some search engines do not include redirects as direct links to you, because they linked somewhere else before going to your site.

Check with Google and type link: www.yourdomainname.com to get an idea how many sites actually link to yours. Replace www.yourdomainname.com with your domain name. There are link popularity checkers to check for other search engines, but this is just a guide. They are not completely accurate.

Do not exchange links with sites with questionable hosting or content. If you sell motorcycles, you may be tempted to exchange links with adult websites. You should reconsider, because there are many search engines that will filter your listing from their results for family friendly listings.

There are also web hosting companies that host both safe and adult web sites. Some search engines may filter you, if your site is hosted by one of the questionable hosting companies. Check on your web hosting company website to read their policy.

Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, September 10, 2003

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