Do Link Exchanges Still Work for SEO?
Google loves relevance and that being so they do not mind link exchanges at all when they are done with that in mind. In fact if every link exchange was suddenly dismantled the entire search engine would would go haywire!
Again, I would like to clarify that link exchanges have always and still do work when it comes to not only achieving high rankings in the SERPs but in also advertising your website.
It amazes me how many people think link exchanges will hurt your website. There is so much misinformation out there and this “SEO myth” is one of the most common ones.
Its stems from the “Florida Update” that happened back in 2004. Before then people were abusing this form of link building like there was no tomorrow. Kitchen websites were doing reciprocal exchanges with automotive websites with no other purpose but to get a back link. People quickly figured out that links from sites, no matter how related or unrelated they were, could catapult them to the top of Google.
Webmasters were exchanging links with as many sites as they could because if you had 100 and your competition had 95 you would outrank him regardless of how relevant your link profile was.
You can still see some older sites that employed this method. They have link exchange pages that are basically general directories with every type of website under the sun listed on them.
And for a while it worked…
Needless to say Google caught on to what people were doing and devalued all those unrelated links. People who were on top for good keywords fell into oblivion. And so started the myth that link exchanges a) do not work and b) can get you banned from Google.
In reality Google does not mind link exchanges at. It helps them determine what websites are about. I would go on to further state that they actually like them. Its only natural for people within the same niche to all link to one another.
Why wouldn’t a flooring site link to one of his friends who also has a flooring site? Its great for the user because he can find what is is looking for more quickly. I cannot tell you how many times I have been searching for a term, went to a website, could not find what I was looking for, but they had a “related link” on there to another website where I did find what I was looking for. That is how the internet is supposed to work. Matt Cutts himself has even stated that exchanging links are fine with Google on more than one occasion just not to an “excessive” extent.
I work for an SEO company in the Northwest and we do link exchanges for some of our top clients with competitive search terms. They have worked great! There are some terms that we could not get using other “one-way” methods and finally we exchanged links with a couple of targeted high quality websites and it worked.
The key to remember is relevance. That is all Google really demands. Their goal is to obtain the most relevant search results for its users and it will go to almost any means to accomplish that. If you do a link exchange with a relevant website in the same niche as yours then you are not only helping advertise your website but helping Google out as well. You are adding to a positive visitor experience.
Here is some good advice. When doing them just ask yourself “would a visitor to my website be interested in this website if he or she saw it?” If the answer is yes then its a quality and relevant link exchange.
They still work. You just have to do them the right way now.There are many ways advertise your website and this is by far the most cost effective way of doing it.
While some people have automated software I like to handtype mine to make it more personal. If possible its also a good idea to tell the person you are asking for a link exchange something you apprciated about his website. Everyone likes complements and they will make the other person more likely to say “yes” to your request.
Neverthless, it takes work to find good “partners” and you will only get a 5-10% response from people you contact. Its a good practice to take a couple hours out of the day to send some up and you will be better off.
