Mention reciprocal linking on any internet marketing forum and
you will be sure to get a barrage of heated replies. There is a
continual debate about the advantages and disadvantages involved
in reciprocal linking and both sides make convincing statements.
So, should you or should you not get involved in reciprocal
linking? Ultimately, the decision is yours but here are some
guidelines:
1. The main goal of any linking strategy is to get more traffic
to a website. Reciprocal linking can work for or against you in
this matter depending on the site that you exchange links with.
If you exchange links with sites that receive a lot of traffic,
some of that traffic may be diverted to your site. On the other
hand, if you exchange links with a low traffic site, you may
divert some of your traffic to the other site without seeing a
similar return. The solution is to exchange reciprocal links
with a site with a page rank no lower than one level below yours
and to try to exchange links with many sites with a higher page
rank. Ideally, you would seek to exchange links with sites that
have at least a PR 4.
2. Don't exchange links with everybody that asks. What advantage
is there in exchanging links with a site that sells wedding
favors when your site is about dog training? Anyone that visits
the wedding favor site will be looking for information
concerning weddings, not dog training, and very few will click
on your link regardless of how high the page rank is for the
wedding site. The key here is to exchange links only with sites
that are relevant to your site or to your keywords.
3. Avoid exchanging links with sites that have a huge link
directory. If your site is listed on page 43 in your category of
another site's link directory, few people will ever see your
link. Although a link will be generated to your site for the
search engines, you will not receive much traffic from the link
exchange. Try to exchange links with sites where your link will
be displayed on the first, or at the most, the second page of
another site's link directory.
4. Build online relationships. Exchanging links with other
relevant websites is a great way to start building partnerships
with other website owners and may open the door for future joint
venture requests.
5. Build your link popularity. Most search engines view sites
that have many links to them as being important. So, the more
sites that link to your site, the higher your site might rank.
But again, make sure that all reciprocal links are relevant to
your site or the search engines will penalize you.
If you do decide to get involved in reciprocal linking, join
only well established link exchanges that allow you to approve
or disapprove the link. Avoid link farms or link exchanges that
will automatically exchange your link with their entire database
regardless of the relevancy to your website.
The optimum way to set up a link page is to enter all links
manually. Yes, it is time consuming but when you are starting
out, this is the best way to do it.
You would first need to set up a page on your website just for
your link categories. You can call this page anything you like
such as Links, My Partners, Link Partners, My Link Partners,
etc. Set up this page with the major categories and
subcategories that are relevant to your site. Then, set up a
page for each subcategory that will contain the actual links.
Test to be sure that whenever anyone clicks on a subcategory
that they are taken to the appropriate link page.
Prepare a short 3 - 5 line ad about your website or your product
and include the URL to your website. This should be in HTML code
for easy uploading. Each linking company has their own
procedure, but generally, each time you ask to exchange links,
you'll need to copy and paste the other website's HTML code onto
your link page under the correct category and subcategory. You
will then need to upload the updated page to your website.
Once this is done, let the other website know on which of your
pages they can find their link. If the other website owner
approves the link exchange, they should add your link to their
link page and inform you on exactly what page you can find it.
Check to make sure that your link has been added to their site.
If they have not added your link, you have the option of
contacting the website owner as to why or of removing their link
from your site.
About the author:
Ricardy Banks is a Certified Internet Consultant with WSI and
has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry.
WSI Internet
Consulting & Educationrbanks@easywsiwebsol
utions.com
