Link Exchange 101

A link exchange is a simple agreement between the webmasters of two websites to each post a link to the other’s site. Link exchanges are performed for the sake of increasing referral traffic in some cases, but usually their primary focus is to increase search engine page rank. Because one of the most important determining factors in search engine page rank is that of back links, link exchanges were developed.

Good places to find and carry out link exchanges are IT or SEO forums. In any advertisements or offers that you make on these forums, it is highly recommended that you include the page rank and theme of your site, but not the URL until a deal has at least been tentatively struck. Including these extra details can go a long way toward streamlining the link exchange process. You might also include the number of outbound links your site has.

Sometimes link exchanges specify blogroll or footer links. This simply means that the link must be displayed on every page of your site for the deal to be valid. This is for the purpose of squeezing out extra page rank value from the link and is generally more beneficial in these terms. Due to the significant difference between individual page ranks, usually link exchanges are only carried out between pages of equal rank. After link exchange has been completed, it’s always a good idea to subsequently check on the link periodically to ensure that it stays up.