|
Links_Exchange_ _a_Hazardous_Business
| Links Exchange - a Hazardous Business?
Most off us want our beautifully crafted web sites to do well
in the search-engine ratings, - perhaps even to make it to the
first few pages in Google, - which would somehow justify all the
long and late hours we put into getting it ‘just so’.
- So we gather in all the relevant information we can possibly
find, and include it in all the right places, taking great care
in linking our pages properly, optimise each page in turn with a
list of ‘keywords’ - and making sure that the most relevant
keywords are reflected in each pages ’title tags’..
After having done everything we can possibly think of ‘at home’,
- we become aware of the importance of having ‘inbound links’
from other websites, especially from ones of a similar nature to
our own little masterpiece, - how a multitude of other sites
referring to our site can ultimately make our site look more
important to a search engines ‘spider’, and therefore gain in
stature within the index of the search engine and move closer to
the top of the list of results presented.
At this point we’ll probably come to the conclusion, that the
least time consuming way to achieve these ‘inbound links’ is by
joining one of the many links exchange programs available on the
internet, - such as LinkMarket or InfoWizards – to find other
like-minded souls, who are also looking for fresh links into
their websites.
These are free to join – although they promote paid options as
well – and on the whole work well by letting you (and other
webmasters) peruse a list of sites that actively engage in
one-for-one exchanges of links with their sites. – You look at
the classified listings in their directory, decide which sites
you would like to ‘partner with’, tick a box to apply for an
exchange, - which will automatically then be ‘proposed’ to the
other sites owner for them to decide whether to ‘partner’ with
you or not, and if they accept your proposal you’ll be notified
and asked to put up a link from your site to theirs.
At this point one could easily get carried away thinking: - YES!
Recognition at last. And - sadly - it appears that many
webmasters – especially of commercial sites – factor this into
their thinking. Knowing that – as the proposer – you must link
to them first, they’ll either take a very long time to put up a
link for your site - (months) – or simply not bother at all,
hoping that you’ll forget about it as you’re busily chasing
after more sites to exchange with.
Well – you’ve now been warned – DO NOT forget about it. Having
put your link up to their sites, - give them SOME time – say a
couple of weeks – to respond. But - remember: all the time
you’re waiting, your links to them are likely to be producing
benefits for their sites, - and if enough suckers do this, they
will - in total – have many hundreds of inbound links, for which
they are not providing any return benefits at all, - thereby
gaining much in Page Rank for no loss of their own!
Keep your wits about you. Before proposing or accepting a trade
of links visit their site and check if there is a link from
their Main Page to wherever they have their out going links.
Then visit the links pages – be sure to keep an eye on the
address bar in your browser – many, many sites are now engaged
in the practice of having their links on a different site to the
one you’re linking to, which again - usually - is an attempt to
gain an unfair advantage on you. One exception would be, where
they are engaging in a proper 3 way exchange simply in order for
the search-engines not to detect the fact that links are being
reciprocated, - which is a good idea as long as both sites on
offer are ‘proper’ sites, - but they should be honest and tell
you about this up front! All too often you’ll find sites that
are nothing but a device for providing ‘cheap’ return links to
the likes of you and me.
Also on the increase are sites that will put up your link pretty
smartly, often from a well rated page, but then after a week or
two, - having allowed you to verify that your link is where you
were told it would be – guess what? It disappears again. What a
surprise! A possible tell-tale sign for you to beware of, would
be sites showing a high Google PR, whilst having a very few
outbound links on their links pages. I have seen quite a few
sites with PR[6] or more and less than 50 outbound links in
their directory!
One must ask hard questions like: Are they really that good,
that thousands of sites would be linking to them without a
return link?? - or: Is the content that good and original, that
it would warrant that high a rating simply for quality reasons,
- considering that most sites struggle to achieve PR[3] or PR
[4]??
All this having been said, don’t be put off, - just keep your
wits about you and ask yourself pertinent questions, and – most
importantly: check, check and check again . . The ‘smarter’
Google gets, - the harder some people will be trying to con you.
- just an afterthought:
Although we are told that the Google search engine increasingly
tend to ‘discount’ – (for Page Rank purposes) - links that are
reciprocated in this way, they should nevertheless be worthwhile
for another reason: - they guide the search engine’s spider back
into your site for another quick scan each time that page is
visited, thereby helping any new content added or any changes to
your site to be discovered and indexed that much quicker than if
left to it’s own devices.
About the author:
Per Dindorp maintains several popular information sites about
Somerset - UK, including http://www.somerset4u.com somerset4u -
complete guide to Somerset, UK
|
|
| |
| |
