Explanation and guide to Link Exchanges

You can do it by a simple method of emailing another website owner and ask them to do a link exchange with your website. Upon their willingness, you place their link on your site and inform them by sending the URL of the link on your page. They verify this URL and if found correct then they in return will place a link back to your site.

Make sure to exchange link with a high ranking website because it would not only improve your search engine ranking but will also bring you direct targeted traffic from your link exchange partner's site.

Step by step building of Link Exchanges:

1. Make a list of sites for link exchange: First step towards link exchange is finding web sites that belong to same category to which your site belongs. The best way is to look for web sites that are found with the best keywords related to the content of your web site.

2. Check the quality of the web sites: There are several reasons why you must be careful before exchanging links with another website(s). Sometimes, link exchanges can also harm your site if they are the wrong kind. The site must not be a link farm where hundreds of links exists without much organization. There may be links of adult sites too. Best thing would be to check the site and choose those web sites that have a page rank of at least 3.

3. Find Link Exchange page: Normally the page where link exchanges are put is named “Link to us”, “Partners”. Find the instructions, if any, for adding your link to their web site. They may have a policy for adding just a text link or an image (banner) link. Get the image or its URL in such case.

4. Link page on your web site: Create a web page that will list out the links to other web sites. Name it as you wish but to be careful of the Google search engine. Avoid using names such as “links.htm”, “linktous.htm”, etc as Google may list blacklist your web site. Once you find a good name, link it from the main page i.e. index page.

5. Link text for your site: You need a code that will be placed on others’ web sites to link back to your web site. You may decide on a text link such as
www.yoursite.com Or a graphic link.

This way you will make it simpler for the webmasters to put your link on their websites.

6. Send request for link exchange: Prepare and send a personalized email to the webmasters or site owners. Get their names from their websites. This would make things easier for link exchanges. Inform them that you have placed their link on your web site. Provide them the URL of your web site where you have added their link. Also provide them the code you have for linking back to your web site this will speed up the process. Do not forget to mention a deadline of 1 or 2 weeks for adding your link on their web site.

7. Verify link exchange: Verify whether your link has been added to their web sites after the deadline occurs. If you find your link then it is OK else remove their link from your web site. Keep a record of the confirmed link exchanges to check back in future for the live links to your web site. Note down the exact URL of the links. If you receive a link exchange request from others, do reply to the email with a confirmation as early as possible. But make sure to verify the site content before you agree for link exchanges. The site must not be an adult site or inappropriate or unrelated to your site content. This would be the best way to avoid embarrassment at a later date.

8. Check back the links: Make a practice to check back your links on others websites for existence. If they have been removed for some reason, send an email to them asking for reasons for removal and for putting your link back on their website. If you don't get a satisfactory explanation, remove their link from your web site.

Having reciprocal links or link exchanges on your web site is one of the most common and most effective forms of website promotion. So keep a track of similar websites that are relevant to your website content.