With every update that search engines receive, it is getting harder and harder to boost your content among other sites. The tactics also vary significantly depending on your needs. We are sure that quality sites will find their place under the sun almost without any extra measures, but sometimes even your web pages with quality content need a boost. But how to do it?
To reach the rank of well-established sites, you may need to get your way around search engine rankings. Link exchange is the measure that, among other link schemes, will definitely lead to the increase of site authority and popularity among users. But what is link exchange? And how to use it correctly for your own good? Is there anything illegal behind it? How do you exchange links with other bloggers without getting a ban?
In this article, we will answer the above-mentioned questions and even more, so stay tuned if you want to know more about link exchanges. We promise that by the end of it, you will be an expert in link exchange matters.
Link Exchanges: What Are They?
Let’s begin with the basics. Even if you have never heard about link exchange, you have certainly seen such cases on the Internet. Reciprocal link building is the situation when two website owners agree on link swaps. As a result, they receive traffic from their pages and exchange the site users. Pay attention to link relevant websites, as their users are more likely to click on your content than any others.
But why should you do so? Well, the more links and users you have, the better your statistics in terms of domain rating, search rankings, and search engine results. There is no info in Google’s webmaster guidelines concerning reciprocal links, so using them is legal. Moreover, you will not be an outlaw using this strategy. We have seen numerous times how a web page with thousands of visitors every day uses reciprocal linking with other websites.
All in all, to gather referral traffic and improve the site’s ranking, it is of utter importance to use link exchanges, among other measures. We are sure that you will do everything to promote your own website.
Link Exchange Importance
Link exchange was not really popular among traditional SEOs until recently. Moreover, they advised against such measures. However, the tides are changing, and more and more users prefer it as their main strategy for improving their backlink profile.
Among other options to get quality backlinks are:
- Giving an interview on a podcast or a special program
- Look for opportunities for guest posting
- Create unique and popular content
- Include brand mentions in the text
- Create data-driven content
But apart from these time-proven methods, most websites agree that link exchange has become really popular nowadays. Moreover, there is an example from the recent past that proves the importance of mastering a link exchange strategy in order to gain link popularity. Surely, we are talking about private influencer networks.
One such private influencer network got popular not a long time ago. It was notorious for using link exchange to achieve a boost in domain authority and link profile. Several bloggers participated in this scheme when every one of them mutually exchanged links with other members. If we try to imagine the scheme, it will be an enormous spider web where every minuscule element is connected to others. They managed to achieve success, and why can’t you?
We can also say that such excessive link exchanges are widely used by many popular companies. The link scheme is the same: they link relevant sites that are owned by their friends, and by swapping links this way, their link-building efforts allow them to improve their backlink profile.
What to Avoid When Exchanging Links
Generally speaking, link exchange allows you to avoid direct competition with multiple sites in your niche and boost the metrics not by valuable information or hot topics you discuss in the blog but by getting links on the related sites and receiving new users. However, you may be worried whether this violates any of Google’s guidelines. All in all, nobody can ban you from asking for reciprocal links. However, according to Google’s webmaster guidelines, you will be banned for excessive link exchanges.
Excessive here means that the penalty depends on how many outbound links you get. For sure, it is quite natural to get popularity by link exchange requests, but pay attention to them oversaturating your content. Still, we have never heard of quality sites penalized for link exchanges.
Also, there are situations when you would not like to ask for link exchanges at all:
- Some sites allow you to check the outbound links ratio of a certain page. Look for the ratio of both inbound links and outbound links on the page. If the ratio of the inbound links to outbound links is more than 1/2, we’d better not work with such a site owner.
- For sure, you wouldn’t trust a shop that has been around for a couple of months and wouldn’t buy some serious stuff from them. The same works with sites. To get link juice, your link scheme should not include links from sites that are, let’s say, less than two years old.
- Moreover, there are special sites or Facebook groups where you can check the trustworthiness of a certain webpage. The site authority should be considered when you exchange links. Here, it’s like Internet hygiene. Don’t mess with bad pages, and you will get natural links as easy as that.
Overall, the above-mentioned rules are just basic for reciprocal link-building strategy. Link exchanges are a powerful tool in the right hands, and practice makes perfect. You shouldn’t waste any time here; start exchanging links today (but first finish our article).
How to Pick a Candidate for Link Exchange
Sometimes, it may be quite hard to figure out when to start link exchange and when not. In certain cases, this can lead to unforeseen consequences; for example, you can be banned because of the partner pages. To pick a quality site, you should consider whether they correspond to some basic elements of a trustworthy site. First, look at the sites with a good domain rating. It is usually a sign that the site is recognized by Google and other search engines, which definitely boosts SEO value.
Next, use the tools to see the site’s statistics. Pay attention to the organic visitors count for every month before you exchange links. If the number is lower than, let’s say, 6,000, we would not consider link building with this owner.
Last but not least, the content. Certainly, not all links can bring you the needed visitors, and a quality backlink is quite hard to find. The most common reason for the incoming links not being that valuable is that the two websites do not have matching visitors. These two groups simply do not have mutual interests, and that’s why they do not click on the reciprocal links.
So, the right candidate for exchanging links should fit these three conditions at least. This will help you get the most out of the reciprocal link and not be sorry about the link-building strategy.
Best Ways of Exchanging Links
So, what are the best options for link exchange? Actually, to make link exchanges safe, you should pick the right way of doing so. Let’s take a look at the most popular ways of exchanging links now.
Guest Post Swaps
One way of finding your way around search engines is to decide on a guest post together with the owner of another site. Guest posting is a powerful tool, but not everyone understands how it works. In simple terms, you just write a post for an owner of another blog and vice versa. After that, you both do link swaps and include outgoing links in the texts of each other. Some sites even start full guest posting campaigns where they do a marathon of posts for each other. Such cross-linking can actually boost the rating and help you attract more users.
Boost Communities
Another way of doing link exchange is to find a special community dedicated to this issue and work with site owners there. We know that such communities have become popular recently, and you can find such pages on Facebook. The principle of work there is quite simple. You check the community members, see what sites they have and offer, figure out whether you want to do a link exchange with them, and discuss any additional details together. It is a relatively new way of link building, and it became popular only recently but has proven to be rather efficient.
Paid Services
However, the guest posts and link-building through communities may be too much for you. Luckily, there are much easier opportunities for individuals. You can simply pay the site owner, and they will include your link in their next text. However, such a reciprocal link is dangerous as it can lead to a ban from Google. We would not recommend this means to anyone, but if you don’t see any other option, it can be a viable one.
These are just some of the ways of getting reciprocal links, and surely their number is endless, and even if we wanted to, we wouldn’t be able to enumerate all of them. Still, the choice of the measures should correspond with your desires and possibilities. Link exchanges are purely individual matters, so choose the option that fits you and go with it.
Link Exchange: an Important Strategy to Master
To sum it all up, reciprocal links are a double-edged sword. In certain situations, it can help you boost the SEO value of the site and promote it in the eyes of engines like Google. However, in the wrong hands, you can get yourself banned, and no guest posts will help you in the future. To get the most out of two websites, you should pay attention to the related keywords that appear on another site and do a proper analysis of it. Don’t see your partner pages exclusively as a way of getting value but as a partner in this cruel world of link exchanges.
Frequently Asked Questions — FAQ
How do we attract more users to the site?
In every case, the answer to the question will be different. In case your content is truly unique and interesting to a large number of users, it is better to focus on guest posts. If you are good at finding a middle ground with other website owners, take a look at the special communities dedicated to reciprocal links. However, the most common rule is to use all these ways simultaneously. This allows you to cover the largest number of users and, therefore, increases your chance of finding your users.
What sites use reciprocal links more often?
What we can say for sure is that your site can be dedicated to whatever topic you want and still use reciprocal links. We have seen many cases of sites using this way of promotion, from sites about knitting to the space industry. Also, it doesn’t matter how big the site is. There is no doubt that smaller sites use this as an opportunity to find ways around Google rankings and other similar elements. However, we have recently figured out that one of the biggest sites in the entire industry also took advantage of this opportunity and promoted their sites in this way.
What are the rules of a good guest post?
Over the years, we have figured out some rules concerning the posts people write on each other’s sites. At first, it should partly correspond with the topic of the site. However, 100% similarity is also bad – the users simply won’t have reasons to click on your page if they can find everything on the site where they are. Also, your text should be interesting to read or, in other words, worth clicking on. Not every guest post can be considered great and attract users to your site, boosting SEO value, but you should never cease trying to get as many reciprocal links as you can, and success is imminent!