It’s becoming more well known among webmasters that links are important if you want your web site to be found. Some webmasters and search engine optimizers will buy links to increase their link popularity and chances of being found on search engines. Another method of getting links to your web site is by link exchanges.

A link exchange is an agreement between two webmasters of two web sites. They agree to place a link to the other’s web site, usually in a links directory or links page. Exchanging links in such a way can increase the web site’s chances of being found on search engines and it also provides a resource for visitors of a web site who are looking for similar sites to browse.

With increasing numbers of webmasters aware of search engine optimization and link exchanges, many of these webmasters have started to use “black-hat” search engine optimization techniques as outlined in the page, The Shady Side of Link Exchanges.

So what does constitutes as a “good” web site to exchange links with? The following are questions I ask myself when approving link exchange requests or requesting a link exchange.

Can you browse to the links directory or links page from the home page?

If you can’t get to the links page from the home page, neither can a visitor or a search engine.

Is the page where your link is in Google’s cache?

If the page is in Google’s cached, it means the search engine can easily spider and index the page. Checking to see if the links page is in Google’s cache also demonstrates that the web site isn’t using robots.txt or meta robots to exclude search engine robots from spidering the links directory or pages.

Is the web site in the same or related theme as my web site?

Look for links that are related to your site. Visitors on a web site about weight loss is unlikely to be interested in buying home decor. As I always say, you can’t sell an apple to someone looking for an orange.

How many other links is on the page where my link is listed?

A visitor is unlikely to find the link to your web site on a page with more than 50 links. Their brain just sees “lots of links” and they’re unlikely to have the patience or tolerance to sift through all those links, especially if the page is full of unrelated links.

If they’re asking for a triangular/one-way link exchange, does the site which links to your site have any content or value?

While triangular or one-way link exchanges are thought to be more “valuable” than reciprocal link exchanges, very often you’ll see that the web site which links to your web site has very little or no value or content and it exists just as a link directory. While it’s good to have a link directory on your web site, a web site that is purely a link directory and serves no purpose other than to get one-way link exchanges are often blacklisted or devalued by search engines. You can imagine that there’s no reason for visitors to go to that link directory site, so there would be little to no traffic stemming from a link such as this.

Not all one-way link exchanges are valueless. If the web site linking to your web site has content and you can see it being valuable to a visitor, then by all means, establish a link exchange.

Summary:

1. You can browse to the page where your link is on from the home page.
2. The page which lists your link is cached by Google.
3. The web site and/or web page linking to your web site is in the same or related theme.
4. The number of other links on the links page is less than 50.
5. The web site linking to your web site has content and is not only a link directory.

In conclusion, when evaluating a web site and their links directory or pages, pretend that YOU are the visitor looking for another quality web site to browse.