Say I start a new site, I can't rely on SE traffic yet as it will be sandboxed for a bit, so I want link exchanges to try and get some hits, but Google doesn't like you having too many links or too many too quickly, so just how much is too many or too many too quickly? I would like to get some link exchages going with like minded sites, more the better to try and get some hits in but am a bit worried about this. Thanks
Just stick to the following basics 1. Exchange with relevant sites only. 2. Rotate your anchor text with different sites. 3. Start with getting few links in the beginning and keep the growth consistent. There's no hard and fast rule, but overindulgence can harm.
don't do it too much. just like livechat said stick with the basics. IMO submit to 5-10 directories a day with different anchor text and always keep track of your inbound links. Good luck('',)
I don't think there's any hard and fast rule. Some sites have links added at a vastly different rate to others and there are naturally occuring peaks and troughs in the number of links added to a site. Just try to keep the links relevent with varied anchor text for each. Try to get as many one way, or indirect exchanges as possible as it'll be things like this that'll flag your site rather than the rate the links are added at.
Do it naturally . Slowly, don't build to many backlinks in short time. Like 2000 in 2 days . Big G likes where things happen naturally . And gain one way related links.
I never buy that theory that you can't have 1000's of backlinks added in a short time and it not be natural. If the links are one way and relevent then you'll suffer no penalty. I've had clients that have had big marketing budgets (online and offline) aquire 5000+ IBLs in a short space of time and been fine.