So Tell me why don't some of you exchange backlinks? Non Reciprocally

It's 2011, link exchanges don't work anymore.

I guess I might just be weird or something. Cuz...if I find that another blog has related content to mine and has traffic coming from human eyeballs...I'm exchanging links.

I have other ways of gain authority and page rank...I want human eyeballs without spending my bankroll on ppc.

No offense to anyone here, but I don't trust anyone enough to show them my sites.

Keep in mind, I don't show my family my sites, I don't want them thinking they are helping me by clicking my Adsense & end up getting me banned.

I've done a lot of work to get where I'm at with my sites, keyword research, seo, content.

I don't need some yahoo with a free site stealing everything (content, etc...) in one day, that I've created over the last few years.

We are all in this forum to make $$, $$ does not mix well with friends & family.

Why not exchange backlinks?

In most cases you don´t know the person you are dealing with and people that easily exchange links with others make me paranoid. It seems they are doing everything for some quick and easy links and therefore may be dangerous. I don´t know what they are doing besides that and may be de-indexed or punished by Google. And than I would link to a punished site. Doing regular checks if everything is okay with my linkpartners is a lot of work.

Your link may appear near links from spammy sites.

Linkpartners are often unreliable and do not stick to the agreement. Suddenly you notice your link is gone and when you email the person you get a reply like: Sorry, but did we have an agreement. I don´t remember and you can erase your link to my site. Constantly checking if your links are still there is also much work.

Just a word to those that don't know. Professional SEOs arrange for links all the time. Theres no question it works and frankly some of the things some of you are coming up with have been overcome as a major hazard (always a risk) by prequalifying the user and the site (if even by a third party)

Again I want to state that I m not talking about reciprocal links or a free for all. I am very aware of the high number of people on WF that run some horrible sites. I get a lot of PMs looking for tips and asking questions and I concur. Lots of them are garbage but I also have been presently surprised at a few that are well built, have good quality and that are very business like in how they run their business.

A non-reciprocal link exchange? Isn't that an oxymoron?

I certainly do that Mike and you would be foolish not to. Many ways to do it, just have to be smart about it. If you it right then it's 10 times better than any other linkbuilding method.

1. Selfishness

Honestly, I admit it. I want visitors on my site and my site only. I'm not here to promote other people's business.

2. Scams

There are more link exchange scams than people can imagine. Some webmasters simply delete the links after a week or two (but you still link to them). Other webmasters simply using link exchange websites to 301 redirect the link juice to the site they are really trying to promote and in that way, the real site never links to you.

It's not that they don't work if you go about it in a careful manner, it just doesn't seem worth the headaches for minimal SEO and direct traffic benefits.

You can do some exchanges such as guest blog posts on each others' blogs that both include links. Or article exchanges. However a big page of links with a required link exchange doesn't work anymore. It's a waste of time.

Hi Mike,

I think Link Blueprint works in exactly the way you're talking about. It's a co-op link exchange program where people place links on their own sites and in turn earn credits for links on others. (You have to be a member of Steve & Tim's IMA Membership Program (no affil) to get access to it or own another one of the product creators products.)

In theory it's absolutely awesome and there are a number of things in place to prevent some of the issues raised in this thread. For example, if you build a link for someone on your site, only to remove it a few days later, your credit will be revoked.

As I say, in theory, it's great and it has been utilised by many with great results but the main problem is that when it's free like it is (as in you're not directly paying for a link) it's hard to get people to continuously participate. And that's what it needs. I believe the owners of the service are having a rethink to change how it works.

My main gripe with the service was with the lack of effort put in by most people participating. I'd do my best to create a nice, contextual link from a strong PR site of mine in order to earn credits. Only when it came time for me to trade my credits for a PR link from someone else... the link would be on some ridiculously crap website or on a site with such a poor backlink profile that it was inevitably going to lose that PR.

Anyway, I just wanted to point this out as a solution to this concept that is out there (there may well be similar services too). You can pretty much guarantee a lot of warriors would be looking to put in the bare minimum effort possible if they were to use a service like this, and this make it harder for it to work.

Matt

I think it's a great idea.. several ways to approach it. I would obviously do my own due diligence to see who I link too - *Google can't punish you for who links to you, but who you link to and endorse*. I agree that reciprocal linkbuilding is harmful if you link back to the same page, but that's the thing - don't link back to the same page .

Here's a scenario I think Michael is looking for:

My own site: www.netdawg.com = PR 2, Internet Marketing
Client site: www.fishbowlinventory.com/blog = PR 4, Inventory Software
Client site: www.theaccountantsoffice.biz = PR 3, accounting
Purchased Domain: www.acowjumpedoverthemoon.com = PR 2, Baby Products (future)

I have webmaster access to these properties in 1 way or another and I'm looking for links related to the mentioned categories (mostly business related and one consumer related).
If any warriors have related thanks they can offer, then im open to discuss the exchange.

Why?? Because my competitor SEO's aren't doing this.. so it's an advantage. I try to match them link for link and it will be hard for them to emulate this.

**When other SEO's are using the same public linkbuilding venues as you - the separation comes from *PERSONAL WEBMASTER LINK EXCHANGES* - trading value for value, just like the good old days. Anyone can create a Web 2.0 link, social bookmark, submit to directories, every low hanging fruit... but at some point you need to go for the higher fruit.

Will it take more time? Sure.. but a legitimate PR 2-5 link can go a long way.

Details can be worked out to make sure it's in the best interest of both of our web properties.

Thanks for the topic Michael.

3 way link exchanges work well with local businesses because you can partner with same-industry businesses in different geographic locations. I've done this some (it's not my sole linkbuilding method). It works, it's relatively efficient, and I haven't had any issues with partners removing links.

Again, it shouldn't be your sole linkbuilding method, but it works, especially for non-competitors in the same market.

So many excuses not to do it...I think its a great idea staring us all in the face if we can figure out a way to keep everything on the up and up.

Not only does it not work anymore. But any time that you do a link exchange, it is not a fair trade. One person is always giving up more, and in the long run it may not be worth it. The other thing is that you need to keep with all of them to make sure that they are keeping your link up for the same amount of time that you are leaving up their link.

Hi mike (original thread starter),

I keep hearing how exchanges are so 2010, and google doesn't like them blah blah blah, But you know what, Link exchanges work.

I have had sites rank well almost exclusively on them.

WHY THEY WORK

You are swapping with niches only.
The exchange usually requires you to contact the site and for you to trust each other, this is the whole concept of what PR was set up for, from papers citing other papers that they trust as an authority.

They are hard to do as they usually require lots of manual effort and emails, webmasters are lazy, people are suspicious of being contacted out of the blue, spam blockers etc - so any reciprocal link is gold (cause google know it usually takes a lot of effort to set them up.
Links of this kind are permanent, or at least until the site dies.
Compared to forums such as this one, you are linking to a niche, not just a random forum (even though this one is very good :-) )

WHY DO OTHERS SAY THEY DON'T WORK

Because its MUCH EASIER for your SEO Manager to charge you for one way links they spam on forums. They don't want to be bothered with old fashioned, manual link building.

DOWNSIDES

Yes Google knows that you have traded a link between two sites, but I am sure the same can be said for posting on each others forums, blogs etc.

You usually get positioned on a link page that has low PR and many other links, so your PR share from it is often low, but at least its connected with your niche right?

SURE there are many ways to get links from social sites, forums, blogs, paying for them etc. But reciprocal links from authority sites in your niche beat the hell out of many other 'easy' link building methods' and can get you work or sales as the site is connected to what you do ...

anyway thats how i still see it in 2011.