I just wanted to let other members aware of link exchange. My rank dropped to 3rd page from 1st page after link exchange. First exchange with some quality sites was still Okay but no increase in ranking. Later I mistakenly linked with a directory. Now my page dropped to 3rd page. My conclusion is there is no benefit in link exchange though it might increase pagerank. Linking to directory is the worst of all. My 2 cents (now my link exchange page is removed and wait for next update)
Ya, link exchange is pointless unless you do 3way exchange. I don't trade links at all though on my sites.
Yes I just wanted to confirm link exchange is dead. But I tried a technique that didn't index and cache the link exchange page without meta tag noindex,nocache,nosnippet so that would be one way back links. My problem is I can't prevent Google bot from crawling that page though. Now no more on-page trick. It is risky. I was wondering if I lost some trust from Google by linking a directory.
Completely untrue and somewhat 'generalised'. Link building, in a sense, is not dead. Link exchange, link building or Offsite SEO (whatever you call it) has its own advantages and disadvantages. The question always in mind when it comes to links should be 'What type of links should I be getting?". Link exchange in itself isn't entirely bad nor dead. The only difference is where you get your links. You do an exchange from a crappy website/directory and then expect good results? You must be an idiot. While link exchange has been the cesspool of spamming for the past years, there is still sense left in this method only if you know how to do it right. Getting your links from quality websites regardless if it came through from link exchange, link bait or a three-way link exchange is still worth doing (prolly sometimes). Ironically, people say that link exchange was so 2004 but the fact is, it is still quite helpful even now only if executed correctly.