Link Exchanges Are Worthless
Yup I stating it. Take it as opinion or fact, but this is what I’ve decided. I mentioned this a bit in a previous post about gaining back links, but I now feel more strongly about it than I did before. Link exchanges, in general, are completely worthless.
As mentioned in my other post, I did research on my own site’s backward links. What I found is that Google is kicking out all those “link page” exchanges. What’s worse is it looks like home page link exchanges are being kicked out as well. What’s NOT being kicked out is random links on other pages.
Let’s use my candle site as an example. Go ahead and look up link:http://www.soy-wax-candles.com/ in Google. What do you see? No “link pages” that’s for sure (and trust me, my link is shoved on plenty of them). What I DO see is blog posts, directory listings, and internal pages on sites I did navigation exchanges with. Funny their HOME page doesn’t come up isn’t it? Just a “side” page that’s rich in content.
What this all means is if you are going to do a “link exchange”, it MUST be a navigation exchange. That or nothing at all. Google doesn’t seem to care now, so I don’t either.
Now of course everyone has been saying for years the best link is a “one way” link. This is more true than it ever has been. A “one way” link is that where you do NOT exchange. Instead, your link is on a site (or blog post) without you having to link back. Take articles for example. Your link ends up in an article (sometimes on another site), without you having to put a link back anywhere. THAT is a “one way” link.
While I have some ideas on great ways to get one way links, I’m still looking for more. It irritates me when I see SEO articles about backlinks saying “there’s so many ways to get good incoming links without link exchanges”, yet they fail to even mention one way. I guess maybe I’m just as bad here, but at least I’m admitting I don’t know! LOL! (And actually, I do - see other post about link building).
Anyway, what is your best ways of finding good incoming links without doing link exchanges? I’m curious to know!
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Comments
Great post, Kara.
I amso found the Link Building one to be quite amazing! THANK YOU!
Posted by: Lara | August 31st, 2007 11:51
WOW Kara - excellent information. I have been scratching my head over here wondering where on earth my backlinks were on Google! Now I know!
Amber
Posted by: Amber | September 6th, 2007 00:00
Thanks for the great info Kara!
Melissa B.
Posted by: Melissa B. | September 6th, 2007 00:16
Wow I never knew this,,,, so where do we get one way links?? Can you write a piece about this??
Posted by: Dharma | September 10th, 2007 23:10
Another way to get a good one way link is to write a testimonial about a product or service you enjoy and send it to the site owner. Often they will publish it on one of their most viewed pages and include a link to your site.
Posted by: Denise | September 20th, 2007 21:23