Discussions

Are Link Exchanges worth it?

Posted by JournalWriter • 5/09/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic

I'm pretty new to blogging.(mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/ is my blog)
I'm curious about link exchanges. Are they considered cheesy by the "old timers" and in poor taste to use and if not are they worth it?

I don't sell anything on my blog, it's mainly a blog to blog about stocks and options. I'd like more traffic though.

User Comments

5/09/07

thegoodknife

i personally dont see much value in it.

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5/09/07

DavidAirey

With more and more of the blogs I read removing "nofollow" I think a link exchange is even less worth contemplating.

Link exchanges are created by those who are chasing stats. It's better to focus on your blog's content rather than a short-term fix.

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5/09/07

kirewass

Link exchange doesn't always work. Your link, for instance, may be buried in an obscure area of the site or you will get a bad position in some other way. Perhaps choosing good links will produce effective results but poor links will do you harm (getting banned from a search engine!). No good at all, is it?

Instead, spend your energies on publishing useful information humans want to read.

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5/09/07

wakish

Yeah, link exchange has lost the impact that it used to have initially, IMHO.
So far, this has not worked for me..

I think [b]kirewass[/b] has said a very good point: "publishing useful information"

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5/09/07

onlinehustlers

The way I do it is if I like the blog and network with the blog owner I don't mind exchanging links. I wouldnt expect much traffic from it tho..

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5/09/07

WonderWoman

Meh...

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5/11/07

marjie

It doens't give as much traffic as you'd wish, but it does help stretch out your audience. I personally like link exchanges because it keeps you in touch with other bloggers. Then again, there's this community too....so it's up to you to decide if you want to use one or the other, or just use both.

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5/12/07

AGagReflex

"Link exchange doesn't always work. Your link, for instance, may be buried in an obscure area of the site or you will get a bad position in some other way."

I'm feeling dizzy and confused.... I thought link exchanges were when you swap links with another blogger that you admire... have I gotten it all wrong this whole time??? AAAHHHKKK!

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1. 5/12/07
  
  ThriftShopRomantic
  
  That's what I'd considered it was. Link exchange, reciprocal linking, link trades-- same thing.
  
  It's worked out pretty well for me for bloggers with similar interests...Now FINDING those bloggers can be challenging, and getting them to respond can be more challenging still (I think stats indicate something like only 1% of folks will respond about reciprocal linking). But for people I've been able to connect with, I do see the traffic coming through.
  
  Maybe we all are inadvertently talking about different things?
  --Jenn
5/12/07

gadegigo0

Link exchanges with high traffic sites can surely give you plenty of visitor, i got linked to one such site and i get traffic from it everyday, eventhough i don't really have anything those visitors want

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5/13/07

mayenskie

well, if you want to have higher page rank and wide followers then link exchange is necessary

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5/13/07

carlocab123

If you exchanged links with a high traffic site, yes.

But if you exchange for just links it's not. Most search engines doesn't give that much importance on 2 way links now. 1 way is still the best

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5/14/07

stevens8204

I still send my link the old fashioned way...it works best honest.

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5/14/07

starmedia

I think link exchange when used with other tactics for increasing traffic can't hurt. carlocab123 is right in his comment that one way links are the best, but two way links are not the end of the world if you start building up sort of a community feel. SEO is a tricky thing. it is constantly changing.

-Kate

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5/14/07

RTCunningham

Link exchanges like blogroll exchanges don't seem to have much effect on anything. However... if you write relevant text surrounding a link, it's perceived as a good thing by the search engines and works well.

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5/14/07

theliterate

I've never actually added a link solely for stats. I only add links to blogs that I read (if you look at my blog, you'll notice there are not many links there). I can't imagine how link exchanges would benefit the stats. I never really look at the links in other peoples blogs, but maybe that's just me. I only concentrate on their writing to be honest.

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5/14/07

Franck

Don't care about link exchange, focus on providing quality content. People will link to you.

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5/14/07

Piston

The way i have tended to go thus far is just too add links to my site of people whom i wish to read each day. I have not considered a "Link Exchange". I feel that with the method of just adding links i would have more freedom to just remove the link if the time comes when the page has no longer interested me for a while.

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2/20/09

sensico

yeah definitely no value in link exchanges. Definitely not cool anymore

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2/20/09

aftercancer

I think it depends on the content of your blog. I blog about a niche subject so I tend to trade the occasional link with someone who shares similar ideas.

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2/20/09

timethief

What all blogs need is non-reciprocal backlinks. The reasons I think link exchanges are now rendered useless can be found in these blog posts:
Understanding Backlinks
onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/understanding-backlinks/
Understanding Reciprocal and Non-Reciprocal Links
onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/understanding-reciprocal-and-non-recip...

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