No exchanges required?

[Mabbs]

I know a guy that has been successful getting his site top results in Google by just submitting to directories and article sites. I have always thought you need to exchange links with related sites to achieve a good position for competitive keywords, is this not the case?

The reason I ask is that I am struggling to get related sites to exchange links with me but I'm now wondering if I'm wasting my time and would be better off concentrating on the directories.

[flagday]

One-way lnks are better than exchanges, and directories and articles can provide one-way links, even if they are of little importance (low PR).

But, after submitting to various directories I also started getting link exchange requests from webmasters in related fields. Perhaps the directory webmasters own other sites (seems to be a pretty good reason to start a directory), perhaps other submitters saw my site while browsing the directories. Don't know.

[Warkot]

You don't have to exchange links to achieve a high Google ranking. You just need backlinks from relevant sites for that. Articles and directories are good in this respect, since they provide one-way links. But it's not always necessary. If you are running a great blog, for example, people will naturally link to you.

However, I do believe that writing nice personalized link exchange invitations to Webmasters who run related sites could be a good way to develop your link popularity, especially if you have a commercial site.

Warkot

[mystikmedia]

I don't exchange links, and I do okay. There are several different approaches that can be taken. Link exchanges is just one of them.