Working the Link Exchanges

Link exchange sites offer a formal method of exchanging links, with an emphasis
on raising Google PageRank. The best of these clearinghouses function
also as topical directories built by participating sites that submit their links

In a nutshell, link exchange sites work by supplying an outgoing link to your
site (an incoming link, or backlink, from your perspective) and asking for an
incoming link from you in return. There is sometimes no standard of acceptance,
application process, or human communication between you and the
link exchange. You simply type your site information into a form (see Figure
3-2), and within a short time the link to your site is created. You have an
informal obligation to return the favor at your site, which, when multiplied by
the many participants in the exchange, helps raise the PageRank of the link
exchange site. Most link exchanges operate free of charge to the participants.
40 Part I: Meeting the Other Side of Google
Although the preceding description covers many bases, the link exchange
field is complicated. Two major variations are prevalent:
 Paid link building. Certain online marketing companies specialize in
building incoming link networks for their clients. Ideally, they approach
high-quality sites with strong relevance to the client site (in other words,
similar sites with high PageRank), and request placement of a link to the
client site. Content exchange is usually not involved. These services act
as agents on your behalf and work best when your site is good enough
to benefit other sites by linking to you.
 Link farms. These exchanges build vast numbers of outgoing links with
indiscriminate disregard for topicality or any sort of editorial policy.
Only a fine line distinguishes legitimate link exchanges that accept site
information automatically and link farms. Google doesn’t like link farms.
Remember that Google’s spider has an inclusive robotic eye with great
peripheral vision. It sees the truth about link connections and their honesty.
Building your backlink network around link farms can do you little
good and might penalize your PageRank.
Figure 3-1:
A link
exchange
site that
offers a
real estate
directory.
Chapter 3: Building Your PageRank Through Networking 41
Google claims to distinguish link farms from meaningful link exchanges, and
generally discourages using any kind of link exchange site that contains no
content besides the links to build PageRank. Choose carefully. The more editorial
discretion exercised by the site, the more legitimate it probably is. Use
exchanges that maintain a tight topical focus in your field. A general rule is:
The more personal the link exchange, the more valuable the incoming link.
Link exchanges work on the principle that a rising tide lifts all boats. If the
exchange site benefits from a high PageRank (thanks to dozens of incoming
links from participating sites), its enhanced stature in Google bolsters the
PageRank of each participating site. The best and most honorable link
exchanges concentrate their networks in one certain field, in which case the
rising tide is lifting the boats of sites that naturally are in competition. The
mutual benefit is well and good, but the challenge remains to distinguish oneself
from the high-floating crowd and keep ascending on the search results
page. Site optimization techniques described in Chapter 4 can help with that.
When assessing link exchanges, select sites with a reasonably high PageRank —
say, 4 or higher. The higher PageRank benefits your own PageRank when Google
evaluates the backlink. A high PageRank also provides a kind of Google “stamp
of approval,” which might not be forthcoming at a less reputable link farm. (To
easily see a site’s PageRank, use the Google Toolbar. For example, in Figure 3-1,
the Google Toolbar lists a PageRank of 6.)