Hi... Dp memebers Usually while exchanging links, i ask for contextual link. But there are site wide links, footer links, text links, banners, etc. I request for link on the relevant page or section of the website than site wide links. Which one is the best ? thanks
Contextual is better. The others are almost equal in the eyes of search engines in terms of placement value.
You should really avoid link exchanges altogether and look for quality one way links instead. The google blog has several articles about the benefit (or lack of) in exchanging links, e.g http://www.im-wizard.com/why-you-should-stop-looking-for-link-exchanges/
Link exchange can be a good way to generate traffic and importance from search engines point of view...only if it is done with the same business profile sites or with some trusted domain with extension of .org, .net ....Link exchange activities were given priorities by search engines but now search engines like Google and Yahoo have given very less important to links obtained through link exchange (still have some but very less importance). If you look for link exchange then always choose to do the exchange with relevant sites and that too textual based link exchange. Link exchange should be from the content not from the footer or a link page.