Tryangled Solutions web designing tips tricks

To engage in a successful link exchange request campaign, it’s really not rocket science - just an observation of common courtesy and a recognition of the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) motivators in regards to the people you are approaching.

For tips and suggestions on how you should approach other webmasters with a reciprocal link offer, read our guide to Internet Marketing etiquette.

Link exchange strategies and linking management software have become increasingly popular over the last couple of years as webmasters have come to realize the importance of gaining increased coverage on other sites.

Having a solid link exchange campaign is a crucial part of your overall marketing, not just as a traffic boost from having a listing on another site, but also from a search engine perspective. It’s no secret that many major search engines will boost your rankings not just based on what’s on your site, but also what’s off it; i.e links from other sites pointing back to you.

Every day I receive several requests for reciprocal links trades and out of 100 such requests, perhaps one or two I will actually respond to.
Web masters searching for cross-promotional partners have a tendency to make many mistakes when approaching other web masters for a link trade. The popularity of Windows based link management software packages and the consequent misuse of them has also provided many traps for web masters:

1) Tone - the request is more like a demand.

2) Impersonal link request - I can tell that the person hasn’t really looked at my site, just at my rankings.

3) Unbalanced link trades - many people create a huge “list o’ links” - hundreds of entries on a single page and then expect a premium placement. These kinds of link farms are of no benefit.

4) Failure to exchange - on a couple of occasions where I’ve agreed to a swap, after a few of days I’ve noticed the link to me has disappeared from the reciprocating webmaster’s site

1. Exchange links with websites that will bring you targeted traffic. Targeted traffic means visitors and/or customers that will be interested in your products or services.

2. Keep your link title brief and free of long sentences.

3. Try to keep your link description brief (aim for 200 characters or less).

4. Do not capitalize all letters in your link title or description.

5. Do not give the webmaster a deadline on when they should reciprocate. Webmasters are very busy people and it may take from 1 to 60 days or more. Be patient and in the long run you will receive more quality link partners!

6. Never remove a link partner from your site once they have agreed to exchange links with you and placed your link on their site.

Reciprocal link exchange still is an important strategy of link popularity building despite all the measures taken by the search engines to diminish its effect. Back in 1999-2001 obtaining a quality link exchange was not difficult, and webmasters used to respond more willingly to an e-mail request. But as more people became aware of this strategy so the reciprocal linking scam started to be a common practice.

Sometimes I check my old ‘link exchange’ e-mail account I used to build link popularity for my very first website. There are lots of people contacting me daily with exchange proposals. Well, not actually people – they are mostly bots.

Probably one of the reasons I still maintain that e-mail is that those requests are a source of a persistent amusement for me. One example: a request in pink letters with images of dancing puppies and bouncing hearts written by a ‘blond chick’ (picture attached) asking me to link to her pharmacy site! Or maybe I just enjoy reading the admiring comments on the outlook and content of my site that precede every exchange proposal?

Link exchange scam is an interesting theme for a study per se and still awaits its researchers. But in the meanwhile the SEO community is being successful in summarizing the guidelines for the most perfect link exchange scam.