Link Building vs. Link Exchanges

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to start a new conversation on this topic as there seems to be some huge misconceptions that link exchanges are a GOOD idea. I want to emphasize that it's an old technique that might have worked in 2000, but it doesn't in 2007. Search engines are wise to link exchange programs, automated link programs, link farms, and the like. (For example, Google has an entire team of people dedicate to spam-detection, as I'm sure Yahoo and MSN do.) Reciprocal links between two sites are not counted as highly as one-way links. Not to say that two quality sites with similar themes are never going to link to each other. It's just that it shouldn't be your linkbuilding strategy. The best way to get link juice in the search engines is to spend time first creating quality content, and second getting links from quality sites.

Quick and lazy schemes are increasingly worthless, so avoid them. Here's a good rule of thumb, if it's super-easy and super-fast, avoid it. Period.

I've put together some linkbuilding resources for everyone here who wants to build legitimate links. This is by no means a complete list, and I'm happy to add to it. I just wanted to get you started.

Feel free to share your thoughts and input on this topic, even if you disagree with me. After all this is a conversation.

 

lol welcome to the last century! One way links are definitely the way to go now days. 3 way link exchange however looks natural as far as the SEs are concerned.

 

Mightyb...exactly my point. 3 ways can work IF you do it right, but in some cases search engines have caught on.

 

You still get benefits with link exchange. Don't totally discount it.

 

Improve your contents...make sure that it will be of quality and useful to others or something that's appealing for them that they might link with your site which is known as link baiting...i agree with mrsolutions...

 

I think you are underestimating link exchange effectiveness...

 

Link building is better because link exchanges are just a part of link building and it would have a lesser percentage to get a backlink from link exchanges than doing other link building methods

 

You get benefits from both link exchanges and link building

 

according to my experience i generally suggest my clients to do both link exchanges and one way links . the ratio must favour one way link though .It can be 75:25 . Also at last what really matter is the quality of links you are having .
Regards.
Ashwini

 

I agree with you boyponga link exchange also is the way to increase your page rank.

 

As most of you, I think 1 way links are stronger than 2 way links.
But taking apart SEO benefits, link building could bring you some decent traffic if you choose good sites to exchange with.

 

Link exchanges are great for adding relevant content that can benefit your site visitors. If its to a relevant website, I don't see why not.

Of course you still need to do your usual link development campaigns.

 

Link exchanges are good but you can rank high by just exchanging links. Matt Cutts himself says that they are giving less value to reciprocal links. But still, Link exchange do help.

 

one way incoming links carry more weight/juice....
compare to 2 way links exchange

 

IMHO, to improve the PR, link exchanges only wastes the time

 

As of right now, 77% of you voted for "Link Building", 14% of you voted for "Link Exchanges", and 9% of you voted for "They're Both Equal".

For those of you who still think Link Exchanges are a good idea, read this blog post from SEObook:

Matt Cutts Announces Death of Cheesy Link Exchange Networks

According to Matt Cutts, from Google:

Still think it's a good idea?

 

im not a big seo expert but spend time on these link building these days

i think link building i better than exchange

 

I agree that heavy link exchanging, automated link exchange sites, link farms, etc. are a waste a time and can hurt your site and that is what Matt Cutts outlined on his blog. However, being selective and exchanging links with high quality sites in your field is never a bad idea. They can increase targetted traffic to your site, help build partnerships with related sites, add lots of on-topic keywords to your pages and provide useful information/resources for your site visitors. They DO benefit a site IF done correctly. Are one-way links better, sure. Does that mean one should abandom other link building strategies including exchanges, nope. As far as your original poll question goes, it really is a question that I cannot answer since 'link exchanges' are a part of 'link buliding' so to ask which is better, really is not a question at all.

And, to the person that commented that link exchanges are a waste of time to increase PR, PR is not the only game in town and while link exchanges may or may not have a positive affect on PR (which has yet to be proven either way), they have many other benefits.

The problem is that many webmasters took a good thing and made it bad thing by incorporating huge directories of unrelated links on their sites. Now, the search engines have to weed out these webmasters that have abused the system and that is unfairly giving link exchanges a bad rap.

 

Why not exchange link? You can get some target traffic with it.

 

I agree with this. You bring up some good points Janet. Thank you for sharing your input. That's why I started this thread...to start a conversation.

What I'm arguing against is really the automated link exchanges. Matt Cutts points out that Google can detect even the three-way ones.

Building links for the search engines isn't the only thing to focus on. Building links for traffic is very important too. Strategic partnerships are very important and if that involves linking back to each other, then great! Just understand that the search engines won't give it as much value. But if it brings traffic, then that's definitely not a problem.