question about link exchanging?

[ptmatt]

I'm fairly new to SEO and do it solely for my own businesses websites. I've been using SEO spyglass to track my competitors backlinks and noticed that they do alot of link exchanging with other websites. Does exchanging links with other sites actually help? Or is it better to just to build one way links like I've been doing?

[ONEWOLF]

I think most people will tell you to build one way links whenever possible and do not underestimate the power of the diversity of your links.
Link exchange is most effective in hyper-niche markets where getting back-links from authority sites are almost impossible.

Bottom line: a few link exchanges will help but don't base your entire strategy on them. Get links from directories, web 2.o sites, blog commenting in niche blogs, video sharing sites, etc.

[Danny Cutts]

I dont do any reciprocal linking any more....

Just build links in articles/blog posts blog commenting forum profiles etc etc

[TobyAletha]

agree with ONEWOLF...it's better to make one way links...it's the most effective and reliable way to make good backlinks...good luck =)

[KimboJim]

Link exchanges can work, but they are often not as good as one-way links. Think of it this way. Your friend tells you that there is this really great product. You ask him why he is telling you about it and he says one of two answers:

1) the product is really good and he is not getting compensated (one-way backlink)
2) he is affiliated with the company making the product (link exchange)

While this isn't a perfect model, I think this is one good way of thinking about it.

[Tim Franklin]

back links are good, the better quality backlinks you have the better your SEO results will be, layered backlinks are always a good idea, when you effectively develop a multi layered approach to building back links, your score increases, it just makes sense to do what you can to create the best off page SEO that you can...

[googlepage1]

well its working pretty well but when you are getting links from relative or authority websites/blogs. however, we prefer to go with 3 way linking and it helps.

[ptmatt]

Thanks for the input guys, it really helps.

Another question? According to the info I got from Syglass my competitor (who's held the #1 postion on Google in a competitive market for well over a year) is getting about 80% of his links from his signature on a local community forum. Does a ton of links from posting on the same forum really help that much with rankings?

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by ONEWOLF

Link exchange is most effective in hyper-niche markets where getting back-links from authority sites are almost impossible.

As googlepage1 points out accurately three way backlinks are very good. In reality they can be used in any niche and are effective across the board

Bottom line: a few link exchanges will help but don't base your entire strategy on them. .

Again incorrect. Some of the top ranking sites in some of the most competitive niches utilize link exchanges (again three way and parallel) to rank. There is no reason why they cannot be the base of a very successful strategy.

The problem is that people often do not understand the various kinds of link exchanges. Three way link exchanges are indistinguishable from one way links .

[ryanjm]

Originally Posted by ptmatt

Does a ton of links from posting on the same forum really help that much with rankings?

Not really.

And regarding link exchanges--the best way to do those is if you had another website that you could place their links on. For instance, you ask for them to link to Site A, and in return you place their link on Site B that you also own. That way it's not a reciprocal link.

[anwar001]

I think this can be a good strategy in small, uncompetitive niches where you can get a few links from link directories, social bookmarks as well as directory submissions and see your site getting near the first page of Google.

[waqarhassan41]

One way link is mostly important then reciprocal links, so i suggest you to get one way links.

[patco]

Yeah, never do reciprocial backlining... Most of the times the other person would remove your website as soon as possible

[strategic seo services]

Originally Posted by ptmatt

I'm fairly new to SEO and do it solely for my own businesses websites. I've been using SEO spyglass to track my competitors backlinks and noticed that they do alot of link exchanging with other websites. Does exchanging links with other sites actually help? Or is it better to just to build one way links like I've been doing?

Link exchanging helps, but one way links are better.

[dminorfmajor]

Call this shady but I used to do this a lot until I got too busy for it and it works great.

1) Make an account at linkmarket.net (reciprocal link exchange site)

2) Create a "links" page and go ahead and link back to linkmarket.net. This should be your first "job" in your queue.

3) Wait a day or two and you should have 20-30 people wanting to exchange links with you.

4) "Accept" those requests and then they'll link to your site.

5) Now, you have the obligation to link back to them but you have 30 days to do it.

Here's the best part, you don't HAVE to link back to them. In 30 days when you haven't linked back to them, they'll get a notification to take your link off of their site because you didn't reciprocate. The cool thing is that MOST of the time, they're too lazy to take your link down. So now you have a free 1-way backlink from that site.

From experience, hundreds of sites will want to link to you within the first couple of weeks and all you have to do is hit "Accept" and you have a bunch of free backlinks.

I used to check my LM account every 15 days or so and just hit Accept on all of the requests and just rinse and repeat. You can call this shady or whatever but it'll get you a boatload of links. A lot of the links pages actually have PR as well.

[jpboxersox]

Link exchange is very helpful when building link popularity. One of the best ways to get links is using directories, blogs and articles. Yes link exchange is still worthwhile to do but your directive should be to get one way links, since these will really boost your search engine results. When gaining one way links make sure you are using keywords in your anchor text, this will help with the one way link.

[anwar001]

Originally Posted by dminorfmajor

Call this shady but I used to do this a lot until I got too busy for it and it works great.

1) Make an account at linkmarket.net (reciprocal link exchange site)

2) Create a "links" page and go ahead and link back to linkmarket.net. This should be your first "job" in your queue.

3) Wait a day or two and you should have 20-30 people wanting to exchange links with you.

4) "Accept" those requests and then they'll link to your site.

5) Now, you have the obligation to link back to them but you have 30 days to do it.

Here's the best part, you don't HAVE to link back to them. In 30 days when you haven't linked back to them, they'll get a notification to take your link off of their site because you didn't reciprocate. The cool thing is that MOST of the time, they're too lazy to take your link down. So now you have a free 1-way backlink from that site.

From experience, hundreds of sites will want to link to you within the first couple of weeks and all you have to do is hit "Accept" and you have a bunch of free backlinks.

I used to check my LM account every 15 days or so and just hit Accept on all of the requests and just rinse and repeat. You can call this shady or whatever but it'll get you a boatload of links. A lot of the links pages actually have PR as well.

Did you see some good ranking improvement after getting these links from linkmarket members?

By the way, I don't think it would have hurt your site if you linked back to them.