Are Link Exchanges Dead?

Link exchanges used to be a great way to increase your Page Rank and gain a better position in Google. However times are changing and now this method has become less effective. Now it will no longer help you with popularity but will still gain targeted visitors to your site.

Why has this method of promotion gone out of favor? The main reason is the excessive spamdexing that webmasters indulged in. This is a fancy name for blatantly trying to cheat the search engines. These cheaters especially targeted Google as Page Rank lays heavy emphasis on popularity and links to your site. Here are a few ways that web masters tried to cheat the search engines:

- Buying many of them to falsely raise popularity.
- Collecting them (farms)
- Exchanging with anybody and everybody just to gain popularity
- Making dozens of small websites that will join with your main one and give a false view of your popularity.

Link exchanges can still be an effective way to get targeted traffic to your site. However there are a few points to remember.

1. Always choose websites that will be good resources for your visitors. They will be ones that are complimentary to your business.
2. Never join websites that have huge collections from anywhere and everywhere or collect these yourself. These websites are known as farms and can actually get your site banned by Google. Because of their vast number they will not bring you any traffic, as you will just get lost in the crowd.
3. Never choose random websites. These will not bring you good traffic and can even make your Page Rank drop with Google.
4. Make sure you exchange links with quality websites. This is important for your own business reputation and Page Rank with Google.
5. Categorize the URLs so that there are no more than 10 to a page. This will be fair to your partners as visitors can find them easily and use them as valuable resources.

As you can see link exchanges are not dead. You just need to adapt to get the best possible use out of them. They will not affect your popularity much but as you can see might affect your Page Rank due to the type of websites you are partnering with. With these few points you can still gain targeted traffic and sales by using this method of promotion wisely.

Article Source: http://www.articlecache.com -- Article Directory | Web Site Promotion
By : Joseph Then
Links exchange is very important to any website. Learn how to conduct and effective links exchange at Automated Links Exchange

Link Building using Google Alerts

One of the key components to any successful website is the number and quality of their inbound links.

There are many ways in which you can attract links to your site. Some good, some not so good!

One strategy that I have been using very successfully is to combine article writing with Google Alerts.

Here's how it is done.

Step One: Write some articles.

Start writing articles and ideally make sure they are related in some way to your business.

I suggest you prepare at least a couple of articles and I would avoid writing them in Microsoft Word. Try to use something like Notepad. I'll explain why in a minute.

When you have a couple of articles of about 400 to 700 words each, you should then submit them to the article submission sites.

Article submission sites are great for getting your articles distributed around the web. Not only do these sites send articles onto other article distribution networks, but lots of website owners come to these sites for content to put onto their own websites.

When you submit your article to one of the submission sites, you are allowed to add an "About the Author" paragraph to go with your article. It is here that you put a link back to your website using whatever keyword phrase you are trying to optimise on.

As you already have your article written you can simply cut and paste the article into the submission forms. I tend to have an "About the Author" paragraph already prepared to cut & paste as well.

Now the reason I suggested using Notepad for your articles is because when you copy from Word it tends to bring with it certain formatting issues and these can cause you article to be rejected by the submission sites. Notepad doesn't have this problem.

Step Two: Find out who's using your article.

By using Google Alerts you can set up alerts for each of your articles. I tend to use the article name is it's fairly unique. Otherwise try using a distinctive line from your article.

Whenever Google finds your article, it sends you an email with the web address of the site where it found it.

You can now check out this site. If you think it will give you good traffic or pass on good page rank, you can contact the website owner. As they already have one of your articles then they probably like your material so you can either offer more articles (with links of course!) or even point them to pages on your site that they should link to because the content would be of interest to their visitors.

So there you have it. One of my tips for building links back to your site.

By the way, you might just like to put your website name into Google Alerts as you'll be surprised how many alerts that can generate and you can also find many places mentioning your website.


Vernon Riley is a founder of KKSmarts. Their site contains many free guides covering all aspects of Website Promotion including free SEO Training.
Article Source: http://www.articlecache.com -- Article Directory | Web Site Promotion

15 Best Link Building Way

Here are 15 best link building ways that promise to bounce your site to the top ten search results of Google or any other major search engine. Read them; understand them; and make sure that you use them to taste web success.

1. Post your links to some good and relevant directories. This is the easiest and quickest way to get links. But, remember; many reputed directories don't permit links to internal pages.

2. Have a few complementary sites that support your main website. If the former obtains a rank, contact other webmasters for a 3 or 4 way link building. But, never link your main site from the supplementary one or vice versa; or else the search engine may catch your pattern. Also, ensure that all your sites are under different IP.

3. Include a blog in your main site for obtaining plenty of natural links.

4. Submit quality content articles that talk about your product or service to about 3-5 relevant web directories. They are one of the best link building ways of obtaining one way links, plus attracting traffic to your site.

5. Contact various webmasters and submit your articles to them for one way link.

6. Request links from your business acquaintances or search for local sites.

7. Register your site with the Better Business Bureau. It builds credibility.

8. Create pages in Hubpages, Squidoo, and other such sites to obtain links.

9. Create a list on various topics and put your link with some respectable sites that are related to your business. There are many sites that allow you to do this.

10. Bookmark those pages of your site that are rich in quality content.

11. Issue an RSS feed and organize it, if possible.

12. Associate with forums and post your articles in it for links. Though most of the reputed forums provide NOFOLLOW links, ye they still help.

13. Purchase some high class text links from niche directories and blogs.

14. Use your creativity and create a page or tool that can be used by visitors. For example, create a unique calculator. Let visitors associate with the tool or use it in their own website. This helps you obtain lots of one way links, depending on the quality of the tool.

15. Provide something FREE! The whole world loves free things. This is perhaps the best link building tactic. Such an offer will lure many links towards your site. Search for website designing companies that provide free templates. These templates help get the sites a large number of one way links.

Still thinking about the best link building way? Stop! Pick a few from the ones stated above and watch your site enjoy a ranking among the top ten on Google search!

Article Source: http://www.articlecache.com -- Article Directory | Free Content

By : Rickie Smith
For FREE tips and information on the best Link Building Ways visit our website at "30 Minute Backlinks"