Link Building Basics – Trading Links
Trading Links – Yes, I did just recommend “Trading Links” – but with provisions.
First and foremost it should be mentioned that this was one of the biggest problems of link building spam…and it was (and still is) a problem. If you’re a Webmaster, chances are in just the past week that you’ve received an automated “Link Exchange Request” from random Gmail account or a 3-way linking scheme. Waste of your time. If they did not reach your SPAM box first, hit the “Delete” button.
Trading links is not inherently bad. In fact, it’s natural in the sense of relationships (human or computer) that you’ll link to your friends, partners, and organizations that are relevant and make sense for you to link to for whatever reason. And, in turn, they may want to return the favor.
Here’s a scenario: You’ve got a retail outlet on the beach and you’re selling sunglasses. Your friend owns a store just down the strip, and he’s selling beach balls. Your biggest customer is a beach tourist with children, and you’re sometimes asked where to get the best beach balls. It just so happens that your friend down the street gets requests for the best sunglasses, too.
You make a deal to put a sign up at your register, telling every sunglasses customer where they can get the best beach balls. Your friend down the street puts up a sign, telling his beach ball customers where to get the best sunglasses. Your business is combined in a healthy, useful business relationship.
Here’s an alternate scenario: You’re that same customer shopping for sunglasses for a day at the beach. As you go to pay, you’re pummeled with dozens of ads for all sorts of goodies – pet supplies, a box of magnetic paper clips, personalized coffee mugs, dog collars, a walnut bowl, a FREE $500 gift card for signing up to 15 monthly subscriptions, and Canadian Generic drugs. You’ll pay for your sunglasses & wander down to the beach, regurgitating the marketing gumbo you were just forced to swallow.
So – trade links when they’re beneficial to your customers. You should only have links that you’re willing to display proudly to customers.
Tips on link trades:
1) If you find someone you want to trade links with, before you ask, talk about business, customers, the meaning of life. Give them a reason to want to link to you, other than you want to help your business get Search rankings – make friends and links will follow.
2) Calling someone dramatically increases your chances of getting a link.
3) Don’t get cheated – here’s a gut check. Be sure they’re not using any dirty link tricks, like adding a rel=”NOFOLLOW” attribute to their HREF tag, or a META Robots “noindex,nofollow” on the page they’re putting your link on.
4) Only trade with a site that is RELEVANT to your audience.
What NOT to do:
1) Don’t bother responding or trading with anyone who requests through an email and does not address you or your site personally. Automated spam. Waste of time.
2) Don’t participate in any type of “3 way linking” scheme. These won’t benefit you and they’re often fake, anyway. And please help the Internet – don’t use automated “link request” programs. Both of these are just a waste of time.
3) Trading links just for PageRank is an ancient way of saying “I know SEO”. PageRank updates infrequently, and is only one factor in how much value a link is going to pass to your site. Take it as a grain of salt… but it’s tasty from time to time. It’s still useful for Google. In my experience, if the site isn’t at least a PR 4 and/or I can’t get a homepage link, I don’t expect any traded link to help Search rankings.
4) Don’t get talked into services from any “link builders” that promise higher search engine rankings with reciprocal links. Be wary who you’re linking to, know the source, and know their intentions. Linking to a bad/spammy neighborhood on the Internet associates you with them and can hurt your Website’s reputation.
5) Don’t trade links just to manipulate search results. It rarely works anymore and even if it does, it’s almost always temporary.
See ya next week. Have a great weekend.