Trading Backlinks a good idea?
-
New to the "backlinking" party. Wondering if its 'good practice' to trade links with other websites within a like-industry.
We've been receiving a lot of emails from other websites asking us to trade links. Is this a good link building practice anymore?
Thanks!
-
Thanks, Branagan. This is what I meant by "..a little knowledge being dangerous..." I've been reading a lot here and there (plenty here in SEOMoz) about the dangers of link exchanging and taking it as a hard and fast rule to never exchange links that is rather new due to recent Penguin updates. What I was missing was "excessive" or unnatural and that if it makes sense, is approached wisely and isn't done in bulk, it's still ok.
-
Might be worth checking that if they say they are going to link to you that they actually do so and that they leave it up. Hopefully if they are decent enough sites they wouldn't do that though...
As others have said, definitely only link with decent sites and only if it would make sense from a human point of view to do so.
Might be worth checking in GA to see if the site then refers you good traffic. It may help you decide which ones to link with in the future.
I wouldn't go mad with exchanges though.
-
Hi Gina, If it isn't clear enough in the comments, check the first video I posted and the sixth point in this one:
10 Myths That Scare SEOs But Shouldn't
Cheers!
-
Jumping in here with some confusion and probably an example of a little bit of knowledge being dangerous. Can someone please explain this to me? I thought that complimentary link exchanging has become a no- no. What am I misunderstanding?
-
If it makes sense to put their link on your site, then go for it. If it fits naturally and isn't out of place, then yes. Otherwise, no.
Basically just use your common sense. If it looks spammy on your site, don't use it.
Also, avoid having a page full of links. That's a huge red flag and could end up hurting you. And if they are putting your link on a similar page, you are better off without it.
-
I never really do link exchanges unless they are part of a blog post. Also, I don't link to sub-par websites or unrelated websites. It's okay to link to another site and they link to you. One example is I have my BBB Membership page point to my site and I point many links from my site to that single BBB Page.
Look at the site you are going to link to and ask yourself, "Can this potentially cause a problem in the future? What's the risk?" I have turned down MANY sites wanting to link exchange, but if they are willing to write a high quality guest blog post, then I'm fine with it whether I get a back link from their site or not.
-
Trading links with other quality sites in your niche is a great way to get links. Just make sure the sites you're linking to are high quality (not spammy, have pagerank, aren't using shady link tactics). A quick backlink check of the sites using OSE or Majestic is probably a good idea.
I usually like to put together a "Partners" or "Resources" page where I add all the links from people I trade with:
http://www.salsabythebay.com/resources/
Hopefully you can use the initial link exchange to begin a relationship with some of the other players in your niche, so you can collaborate on other projects too, like guest posting, interviews, etc.
-
If you exchange links with quality sites, relevant to your niche and in a useful manner from the user point of view, you should be on the safe side and could probably benefit from it.
Check out this video for more info: Whiteboard Friday - Sitewide, Reciprocal, and Directory Links
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Directory Listings no longer counted in Backlinks?
Interesting situation when I looked at Google Search Console this morning, I found that back-links from directories had dropped off and am wondering if anyone else is seeing this? Specifically, I am in Australia and had links from Yellowpages.com.au and Truelocal.com.au to my primary domain. Interestingly, Yellow Pages had gone a bit crazy recently in that the number of links to my site seemed to balloon exponentially from about 50 when I first listed to 700+ to 1500+ to 1800+ and then the balloon popped. Truelocal in contrast was only ever showing the 1 link. There have not been any changes from my end, and I only ever had one listing in these directories so not sure what generated all these extra links in Yellow Pages. Anyone else in Australia noticed a sudden drop off in Google Backlinks from Directories? If not it may just be a temporary blip.
Link Building | | Excal0 -
Backlinks with high DA but PA1
Whenever we get new backlinks, its always on a PA 1 page, does this pass a lot of link juice as long as the DA is high? I know the PA can go up by promoting the page, but i rather promote my own website than one page linking to my site. Any thoughts on this?
Link Building | | MozVpn0 -
Making the most of a good back link
Hi Guys. We recently acquired a really good backlink from a charity site that has high DA. 71/100 on Open site explorer. I understand traffic is also a key component in a backlinks value, not just the DA. Is it worth spending time and energy (we don't have much as it's the lead up to Christmas) encouraging people onto the blog post to hopefully get some extra traffic through that link? And more generally, how much does traffic effect the value of link? Any insights would be greatly appreciated 🙂 Isaac.
Link Building | | isaac6630 -
Is this a good idea for link earning?
Hi, One of our clients provides legal documents online and one of the document is bespoke 'Privacy Policy' for websites. It normally comes with a price as solicitors draft each policy manually. We were thinking to offer this for Free 1 - As a promotion so that we can attract webmasters 2- to earn links that we will ask webmasters to give us a link from their website once they add the text I wanted to get the understanding from you before i go ahead if this is a good a way to gain links or not? I appreciate your input Thank you
Link Building | | Rubix0 -
How long it takes to see backlink ?
We are promoting a law related website and I have posted a blog as a guest on a Law related blog which has PR 3 and Alexa Ranking 171.. It's been 3 weeks but when i run a backlink report from OpenExplorer or other tools that i use, i cannot see the link coming through at all. There is no no follow attached. I'd like to continue to post more articles on the same website but i need to make sure i am getting good links from it otherwise i will go somewhere else. However, i need to understand why do i not get links from that blog as it is very reputable and good blog. I appreciate if you can advise please? Thanks!
Link Building | | Rubix0 -
Is there any good tools for toxic link checking.
I have done a manual link audit and made a good, bad and not sure list. Is there any tools I can run over the list to see if I missed anything and help me decide what to do with the not sure list?
Link Building | | mark_baird0 -
Press Releases as Backlinking
After analyzing one of my competitors I notices they show up in PRweb as one of their top rated back linking sites. My question is using prweb or something similar okay to use for backlinking? Would they help at all? Also, since they distribute content, would I get penalized for duplicate content?
Link Building | | floridaoutdoorsrv0 -
Blog Commenting good or bad?
I spend a good amount of time on SEO forums and I found a thread about building links within comments.. I personally don't see how putting my keyword in my name place and linking it to my site will benefit me, I feel like google is already on to this and no one is going to click on it. Is this a waste of time?
Link Building | | SEODinosaur1