3.4 Do Not Link Exchange... Value Exchange!
“Link-exchanging” has become a “bad term,” implying all the wrong things. So let’s redefine it now -- let’s call it “value-exchange”...
You and another excellent content site each agree to provide a high-value link to your respective visitors.
With that as the basis of your thinking, here’s the key point...
Most of your inbound linking program should be one-way-inbound-only links, as explained above. The rest of this section is mostly about value-exchanging. It finishes with a short discussion about one-way-outbound-only links (i.e., without a reciprocal inbound link).
Value-exchanging doesn’t necessarily make good sense for all businesses -certainly not for pure sales sites or e-commerce stores. But it should fit into the plans for your theme-based content site, provided you do it properly.
What do I mean by “properly?”
Reciprocate links to enhance the experience of your visitor. That’s the key reason for exchanging value.
Otherwise, you are merely engaging links. That boils down to an attempt to artificially raise your link popularity. Perhaps even more damaging is the beating your credibility will take if you link to low-quality, spammy sites.
Bottom line?
Keep it real. Do not do it “for” the engines. Do it for your visitors.
The beauty of that approach is that in the long run, you will also gain at the engines. You never have to lose sleep, worrying about incurring a ranking penalty. Respect the SEs, build your site for your visitors...
... and
you’ll sleep like a baby!
Final point of importance...
You cannot control who links to you. So you are not held “accountable” for inbound links (barring some truly outrageous behavior).
But you do totally control to whom you link! And you are held totally accountable by the engines for that activity. What are the engines looking for?
You already know the answer but it’s worth repeating here... outgoing links to quality sites of similar and related topics! Reality!
So link to a quality resource, one that is related to your content. The site does not have to be a Google PR 6/Alexa Top 100,000. But, in your human judgment, you must truly feel that it is an outstanding, related resource. If so...
Link to it with pride as a service to your visitors. “Keeping it real” is not about burying a page, with 100 links on it, somewhere deep in your site, 18 clicks from your home page.
SIDEBAR
Seriously... if you currently have a page of 100 links, buried deep,
re-evaluate the practice. Not only are you in danger of being penalized,
but the links you have attained as a result of this practice (likely hosted
on your partner’s own 100 link page) are almost worthless.
Overhaul your link program as outlined in this e-booklet, and
watch your entire site start to perform better. Yes, really... assuming
you employ Content 
Traffic PREselling Monetization.
Suppose you do find such a great site, one so good that you want to link to it as a service to your visitors. Sure, it would be wonderful if you received a link in return. But if it doesn’t work out, it’s not a bad idea to have a couple/few one-way-outbound-only links. More on this below.
As you’ll see, establishing a good value-exchange program takes time and effort. You have to...
- locate quality related resources that do not directly compete with your business
- contact them
- negotiate the exchange, extolling the virtues of your site and the exchange for your visitor
- monitor the exchange.
Phew! It makes me
tired, just thinking of it all. Luckily, I have a few solid ideas to
accelerate the process. First, though, let’s understand the manual
process more thoroughly. I don’t recommend the “manual
process” -- but it will help you understand some of the other types
of processes and tips that follow.
MYLW: <<3.3. Themed Directories 3.4. Value Exchange 3.4.1. Manual Finding Link Partners>>
