Everyone Wins With Reciprocal Link Exchange

©2004 Sonya Gray

Many Webmasters are realizing the beauty of Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O) when utilizing a popular technique known as Reciprocal Link Exchange. When exchanging links with other site owners, Webmasters are capitalizing on S.E.O's powerful effects.

The goal of most Webmasters is to generate as much traffic as possible in order to sell their products or promote their services. I have found, from personal experience, everyone who participates in exchanging links wins.

Plus, exchanging links is really easy to do. Here's how:

Look for sites that have rich content that will be of interest to your site visitors and look for sites that are relevant to your site. One of the best search engines to look for content-rich, relevant links is Google.

For example, let's say you began a marketing campaign to search for businesses to link to in Google under the keywords "work from home". There are 13,300,000 sites that match the keyword combination "work from home" and are possible link exchange partners.

Carefully look for a way to submit your link to their site. Some sites provide the convenience of an online form that can be filled out to submit your link to their site.

Or, carefully look for contact info, i.e., an email address and email the Webmaster with:

Your URL
Title of your site
Description of your site
Category you want your site listed under (e.g., Business Opportunities)
URL where their link can be found
Your email address

If the Webmaster agrees (many won't, but some will), place a permanent link to their site somewhere on one of your pages and they will do the same for you.

Always go back to the site in a week or so where you submitted your link to insure that your link is listed and active on their site, i.e., you can click on your link and go to your website. It does no good if you are placing a link on their site, but they are not doing the same for you. I have found most Webmasters are pretty good about exchanging links and most will contact you via email when your link has been added. Some won't. So it is a good idea to follow up and make sure your link is listed and active.

The goal is to link to as many content-rich, relevant sites as possible. The higher the search engine ranking of your site, the more likely Internet surfers, i.e., possible customers will check out your site, bringing with them repeat traffic and repeat sales.

When sites trade links, they both benefit by:

*Sharing a percentage of traffic directly.

*Getting noticed more favorably by the search engines.

Some link exchanges can send hundreds of visitors per day to your site, while others might send one or two a week. The latter is far more common, but even those are worthwhile as long as they are from content-rich, relevant sites.

Why?

More and more search engines are considering "link popularity" as a factor when they decide to rank pages in their search results.

In other words, if the search engines notice other quality sites linking to one of your pages, they will "like" that page better, all else being equal.

The presumption is that a link pointing to your page is like a vote of confidence in that page. More links equals more confidence. Even a few links can make a worthwhile difference in how well a page is ranked.

I have found the benefits are enormous. Consistent use of Reciprocal Link Exchange as a marketing strategy is highly recommended for driving more traffic to your website.

If done correctly, everyone wins with Reciprocal Link Exchange.