Im sure youve heard it before or maybe you are doing it already but this is a great way to get your business free exposure. Link exchange is simply the exchanging of URL information between two websites. Once these links are exchanged, each party posts the information onto their website, usually on a Links or Resources page.
By exchanging links with other websites, you are increasing the number of incoming links to your website which improves your overall website rating which in turn boosts your placement in search engines. You also have the power to carefully select which websites you exchange links with so that you can be sure you are showing up on similar websites places where your target market might show up on the web.
By exchanging links, you also have an in with the company you are exchanging links with. Even though your relationship may start with the webmaster or administrative personnel in charge of exchanging links, you can easily turn that into a contact in the marketing department, sales department or even an employee at the senior management level.
Here is a step-by-step guide to doing a link exchange:
1. Start with a topic or specific market. Do some research on the websites that you would like to do a link exchange with by going to Google (or another search engine) and performing a search on a few keywords related to that topic or target market.
2. Determine which sites are best. When performing your search, do a secondary search on their website for add a link or suggest a site. Those keywords will bring up the link exchange page if they have one. Not all sites have a link exchange program in place.
3. Fine tune your list. When making your list of potential sites to exchange links with, go back through the sites and look for attributes that you do not want to be associated with. Does the company exchange links with websites that may be considered offensive? Does their website have a good rating and draw in a lot of traffic? Asking yourself questions like this will keep your list a lot shorter.
4. Send your request(s). When sending your request for a link exchange, you need to have a few key pieces of information ready. These include:
a. Your website URL.
b. The title for your URL you may want to include a tag line of some sorts. E.g.: XYZ Company Automotive Battery Specialists.
c. Contact e-mail address.
d. Page of your website where their link appears. Some companies may want you to have their link posted before theyll add yours.
5. Send a follow-up e-mail. The best thing to do is once the webmaster adds your URL is to send them an e-mail to say thank you. Remember, its not just about getting your URL out to as many places as possible; you also want to be building relationships with other companies.
Once youve participated in a few link exchanges and you let some time elapse, you can easily check to see how many websites have links which point to yours. Simply open Google and enter link: and then your website URL. The pages which link back to you should be displayed in the search results and you can see how well your link exchange campaign is doing.
Resources We Recommend
Google Toolbar allows you to check to see what the ranking on most pages is. This will help you determine whether the site you seek out is worth it or not. |
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