Link Exchange Sites

Fazza · #1 (**permalink**) 24-03-2008, 10:41

Have had a look through this forum and havnt seen anythong about link exchange sites and wanted to get everybodies opinion. I am talikng about sites such as UKlinkexchange and linkmarket.

Does anybody use these types of sites and what is everybodies opinion on the usefulness of them?

I myself have tried them but find them a nightmare and dont feel they have benefitted me a great deal.

If anybody uses any sites similar that they think are really good please share.

RayB · #2 (**permalink**) 24-03-2008, 10:56

I would advise strongly against using all such "link schemes" like the plague.

Before I understood SEO I dabbled with one such scheme and it held back my rankings (and I suspect the trust Google had in my site)

Once I removed the scheme and links (and my "link partners" stopped linking back to me) - my rankings soared with a couple of months.

What you need is a totally natural and balanced link profile - and link schemes will not achieve that for you.

A handful of highly relevant reciprocal links are excellent - but only as part of a balanced link profile which should also include relevant one way inbounds, blog comments, articles and press releases, forum participation and so on

Fazza · #3 (**permalink**) 24-03-2008, 18:58

Its good to have an experienced responce. I will be removing all of the links to my site from link partners. Are you saying this will help?

I cannot stop them linking to me. If I remove their link from my site but they still link to me will this still harm my rankings?

Its hard to get comments posted on relevant blogs for two reasons. There arnt many airport parking blogs and the one that are around are my competitors blogs who will not post my comments for fear of increasing traffic to my site. I have my own blog but not sure if im blogging correctly. Any advice on blogging and getting my comments posted?

Rest assured though I wont be using any link exchange programs in the future.

RayB · #4 (**permalink**) 24-03-2008, 19:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fazza

I cannot stop them linking to me. If I remove their link from my site but they still link to me will this still harm my rankings?

Well, they will actually help - because they've become one way inbounds (until you're rumbled, then you ex-link partners will probably delete your links)

BellaMiller · #5 (**permalink**) 24-03-2008, 20:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fazza

Its hard to get comments posted on relevant blogs for two reasons. There arnt many airport parking blogs and the one that are around are my competitors blogs who will not post my comments for fear of increasing traffic to my site. I have my own blog but not sure if im blogging correctly. Any advice on blogging and getting my comments posted?

.

Try blogs about Manchester, "plane spotting", manchester based business blogs, travel blogs perhaps?

Fazza · #6 (**permalink**) 25-03-2008, 07:15

All good advice starting my blog search now. Thanks all.

LinkingClever · #7 (**permalink**) 25-03-2008, 18:41

Great advice from RayB there, I too have damaged sites due to these link schemes and it hurts when hundreds of hours of work goes down the SERPs

I would try not to worry about finding completly on-target sites to obtain links from, especially if it is hindering your link building and rankings.

Find quality links (Google PR, number of backlinks, number of outbound links etc) where ever you can. Directories, social bookmarking, blogs etc are all relevent if you can get a link from them. You may need a few more links to counteract the lack of relevence, but if you are struggling to find link sources you have no choice imo, and is not a big problem anyway.

Make sure you have gleaned all info about where to get backlinks from your competition too!

Jay