Ever get one of those “let’s exchange links” emails from out of the blue? You should ignore them. Here’s why: Search engines use the quality and quantity of links to your website as a very significant element in determining search rankings. Because of this, online marketers spend lots of time, energy and even money to built links to their site. The most rudimentary link building technique is the mutual link exchange – you link to me and I’ll link to you – and should be avoided because:

1. Search engines counteract this gaming of their algorithm by identifying and even penalizing sites caught engaging in link exchanges.
2. Many sites who offer request link exchanges actually don’t pass value back to their “partner” – links can be labeled with “no follow” commands, diluted through URL redirects or placed on pages deliberately hidden from the search engines. Click here to see just how creative online marketers can get when disguising their links.
3. A common tactic is to post a genuine link and then quietly remove it after the “partner” has reciprocated.
4. Sites engaging in link exchanges are often engaged in other, more nefarious tactics. Google frowns upon linking to these “bad neighborhoods”.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 1:32 am by Conrad Saam, Marketing and is filed under Conrad Saam Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.