The Death of The Link Exchange
Diamond Search Engine Optimization Company
Link Exchanges have been used since the beginning of the
internet as a way of gaining popularity in the eyes of the
major search engines. This used to be the best way to gain
positioning in the major search engine results for your given
keywords. Your company could gain ground fairly quickly by
utilizing link exchanges.
Wikipedia’s Definition of a link exchange:
Link Exchange ("Reciprocal Link Exchange") is the practice
of exchanging links with other websites. There are many
different ways to arrange a link exchange with webmasters.
The simplest way of doing it is to email another website
owner and ask to do a link exchange. Also visiting
webmaster discussion boards which offer a dedicated link
exchange forum where webmasters can request a link
exchange be it of a certain category or open to anybody.
Link exchange has been a long time practice by website
owners since the beginning of the web. In the last few years
(after year 2000), this practice has gained more popularity
as search engines such as Google started favoring sites that
had more links in the rankings. This system was very
accurate at gauging the importance of a website when it
first started, leading to the popularity of Google.
However, according to experts, search engines no longer
place a heavy emphasis on reciprocal links. Instead, the
popularity or credibility of a site is now gauged by one way
incoming links to that site. In addition, analysis suggests
that it is very important both that the theme of an incoming
be link be relevant to the page being linked to.
This definition can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Link_exchange
The death of the link exchange is officially here. Relevant
one-way links are the most important aspect of search
engine optimization since the newest algorithm changes for
the major search engines. Yahoo has gone as far as denying
sites admission into their search submit program for having
a link exchange program, considering it spam (I have
personal experience with this).
The best way to build relevant links is by utilizing these
aspects of search engine optimization:
1. Directory Submissions: The all important DMOZ and
yahoo directory are mandatory for any company seeking
high rankings in the search engines. Be sure to search for
relevant directories for your company. You can do this by
searching for your major keywords in search engines with
the word “directory” and will find them fairly easily.
2. Article Submissions: By writing articles that can be
reprinted for free, you get free advertising and webmasters
get content to deliver to their customers through an article
database or e-zines. You are allowed to include a resource
box at the end of your article that contains information
about your company and the all important link to your
website.
3. Social Book Marking: Social Book Marking is a new
trend on the internet that was pioneered by sites like del.
icio.us, furl, digg and many others. This is the act of book
marking a site to a public (or private) favorites archive that
other web users can use to find important information. You
then use tags to identify your book mark for the relevant
keywords. This also generates a link pointing to your site.
The link exchange has officially become useless. End your
link exchanges now while you still have the chance to do
so. In the near future, search engines may penalize sites
that take part in link exchanges, so take advantage now and
get rid of them before you lose crucial positioning in the
search engine results pages.
This file is not intended to be viewed directly using a web browser. To create a viewable file, use the Preview in Browser or Publish to Yahoo! Web Hosting commands from within Yahoo! SiteBuilder.
