Link Exchanging - Effective?

Now, I'm not looking to get my site ranked on SEs but get traffic into the site and hopefully have word of mouth do some of the work for me. Does Link Exchanging with similar sites actually work?

 

You can consider link exchange as a way to get some visitors. Search engines count a links from relevant websites that lead to you. When their algrithms however see there is a link trade they may not count the link.

But linking helps in general.

 

Oh so one-way links are better than reciprocal ones?

Would similar sites be better or directories that ask you to give a reciprocal link?

 

As far as I can tell so far (I'm fairly new to this, but have seen great results thanks to this forum), link exchanging will bring you the most traffic when you first start out. Not only that, but it will help with Search Engines and get you listed in them. I've never had my links "not counted" because they're exchanged. As long as they're relevant. To be honest, even when they're not relevant.

Since SE's "see" my sites now on quite a few other pages, my traffic from SE's outnumbers my link exchange traffic. My point is this. Start out exchanging links, it can only help. At the very least, it'll bring traffic. Then, as your site grows, you'll see more and more traffic from SE's. Just what I've experienced thus far.

Good luck with your site,
boxer126

 

Thanks. Does having similar sites make a difference?

 

3 way is good, 4 way is better, one way is the best

yes, similar site make a huge different

 

I know similar sites make a huge difference with SE's. I think he means traffic wise....which I understand is also a "yes". But even irrelevant links will drive a few clicks. I'd try to stick with relevant as much as possible though.

-boxer126

 

1 relevant link is often better than 2 (or even more) irrelevant (if we're talking about SEO - not direct traffic). This is even said in various Google's papers and patents (we all know that PR algo is not topic-related, but any other algos including basic topic distillation, Hilltop, or even TrustRank (if it is being used already) rely mostly on RELEVANT links)

 

Have guys noticed that all the top ranked sites in google have nothing but relevant links?

 

No offence to your experiences mate, but I'd beg to disagree with what you have written above that you claim to be from your "experience"! Especially after the launch of "BigDaddy", Google's new spider.
Link Building/SEO are topics that have to be taken into account from the very beginning stage of web development, atleast me and a many other SEOs believe so! These factors are not something that you may start your site without and as it grows indulge in Link Building or whatever! Since without proper SEO/Link Building there are little chances of your site growing any further!
Link Exchanging (or reciprocal linking) is good and does, but only with relevant sites! Reciprocal Links to irrelevant sites may actually push your site down since google may consider them as "Link Buying"
Whereas One way Links, coming from relvant pages definitely carry more weight, and actually help you create an Internet Presence!
As again, NEVER , I REPEAT, NEVER make reciprocal links your primary sources of incoming links, there are many ways to achieve links and you have to utilise them!
And remember one thing "Page relevancy" is the key, especially after the launch of Big Daddy! These days google has begun devaluing links if they contain the term "Advertisements", "Sponsors" in their blocks!
Google is smart, so we have to be smarter!
Do Link exchange, I won't deny it! But make it a limit to exchange links with 5 sites that are relevant to your content!
Don't over-do it! Will only hamper your traffic!
Abhishek

 

Abhishek,

Thanks for the input. I'll definitely use it from here on out. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for relevant links. I do have some irrelevant links from a "link directory" that shares links with each other that I put in when the site first began. Other than that, everything is relevant. I'm not gonna remove the directory, the site's an arcade and gets enough traffic right now, but I'll keep all your info in mind for the future.

And, from what I said earlier, I still also believe this is true. Sometimes people just starting out can't buy one-way links until the site can sustain itself.

-boxer126

 

In the past year I have done nothing but trade links with relevant sites and also submitted my sites to free directories daily. I hold first page rankings for competitive terms and in the last couple of months or so, I have managed to get to the top 5 for some of them.

So, don't stop trading links at 5 relevant sites...trade a few links every day (with relevant sites) and submit to directories for some one way backlinks.

Just remember, links alone will not get you top rankings. Visit the SEO forums for more tips

 

Activeweb
that is the point !!!

 

What do you do with all the links that you trade? Do you have a page just filled with them?

 

I link exchanged with a well developed site when i just opened mine and it paid off really well! I was able to fly up in search engine rankings just from one link.

 

Well, the thing is, the sort of category my site is in, there are no well-developed sites.

 

That can be a good thing. Hey, be the first quality site in your niche and you should start getting links automatically. But, if the case is limited sites period to link to, then start submitting to directories. If your keywords are not competitive, as you suggest since there are no well-developed sites, then it shouldn't take long at all to put yourself on the front page of google SERPs.

 

Well, I definitely want to build a quality site. I intend to put a lot of effort into it to get it up and running.

Get some content, get good keywords...

Should be hopefully able to get some success.

 

I got it,Thanks,you guys.recently i am promoting my site too.the info is useful for me

 

I can prove to you link building works...

I have a site that's been a top 1 to 5 result in Google (out of tens of thousands of sites) for the better part of the last decade - for a site I never promoted, didn't list in directories, had little or no SEO, etc... And, I was ranked that high solely on the inbound links (I didn't exchange links either, but a lot of sites linked to me).

Pretty much proves the power of link building right there...

Cheers,

Bob