Is link exchange bad?

I'm interested to know whether link exchange has any negative affects on your search engine rankings and page ranks. Is there a point where you can have too many link exchanges or are more links better?

 

dont think so

 

I'd say you can have as many link exchanges as you want...but I think you might want to vary the anchor text within the links.

 

Don't think it will harm you, unless of course, you are linking to a bad neighbourhood.

 

hmmm, so far it looks like there are only noobies (no offense) commenting on this thread. Are there any people who have been around for a bit longer who can share some light on the subject? Am curious too

 

This statement works pretty much in many cases, and as long as you avoid bad ones, Google will not penalize you so easily. But why not going for a better SEO?

Instead of linking to anyone, find similar or same niche website. A link from irrelevant site is not so valuable. Get links from high PR sites. It may not be the best ranking factor, but it does help. Get links from sites that are ranked high at Google with the similar keywords you have been promoting with.

Or consider one way links instead of exchanging them. One way links can look more natural especially if they are within content.

 

Link only to related and trusted site. Don't link exchange to link farm site.

 

Oh yeah, I am linking to similar sites. With my blog it's link exchange with other money making blogs and my gaming site is linked with other gaming sites. I have lots of incoming ones from content too for the gaming one.

I was just curious because at the moment I'm kinda exchanging links with anyone who wants to if they have a similar site to me. Just didn't want it to backfire.

Thanks for your help everyone.

 

There are countless threads in forums all over the web discussing this. Many people says that link exchanges are not good. They state that it is not part of a natural linking scheme and they are correct. Its not natural and Google are hitting on non-natural stuff, we know that.

 

link to relevant sites and trusted sites with appropriate keywords in your anchor texts are always useful..

 

no link exchanges from my experince dont affect your ranking in a bad way

 

depends. as said, if you're linking on a bad site (say, spam or bad neighborhood, whatever yo u call it), then that's so grave! it's like putting your foot 6th feet below the ground.

however, one's right about how google loves sites that seem to have natural links. google thinks that link exchanges aren't natural, so you may not seem to rank well compared to others who don't engage in link exchange.

simply put, it's better to have backlinks than to have outbound links. link exchanges can be helpful if you're going to use the 3-party way of linking. you establish link exchanges yet you do not intend any harm to the site you're really optimizing with.

 

No, if exchange links with quality sites

 

It doesn't matter as long as the link is from a relevant site, the higher the PR the better.

 

Link exchange is always helpful

 

Exchanging links won't "hurt" you (depending on the neighborhood), but from the Search Engines point of view, a natural link to you from a relevant source will be considered more valuable to you.

Link all you want, but the quality coming to you will factor heavily in regards to PR and ranking.

 

link exchange with link farm sites - BAD

link exchange with banned sites - BAD

link exchange with relevant and trusted sites - VERY GOOD

 

no, it is benifical for improving the site PR,
but if you use only quality back link rather than link exchange it will be more efficient

 

Nope link exchange is not bad. Just exchange link with related site and it will benefit your site.

 

Depends on the site, do not link with bad neighborhood sites.