9 Hot Tips for Linking with Other Web Sites

There is a good chance if you own a web site that interests another Webmaster, they will ask you to do a link exchange. Whether or not you should link to their site may not be as easy as you think. You don’t want to link to just anyone. You want to make sure this is the type of business that you want linked to you and it brings in the type of customers that you are looking for. There are nine key things to consider when tackling the link exchange maze.

1. Does the Webmaster’s site have any relevance to yours?

This is a major key that is truly important. Make sure the answer is yes. If it is then you can move on down the list and actually consider this site. If this site has absolutely nothing to do with what you are promoting in anyway don’t bother. You are looking for a targeted market. If you link to a site that has absolutely nothing of interest to your visitors and the Webmaster’s visitors have none in yours it is moot to even bother. The point is to be able to generate a targeted market wanting what you have.

2. When do you have too many links on your page?

You want to make sure that if your link will be put on a site that there aren’t an excess of links already there. The Webmaster’s page should ideally have less outbound links than more. Fifteen to twenty is acceptable but any more than that and you should consider not doing the exchange. The more links on the page the less value each one has. Any page with fifty or more links is considered too high for most. If the site is a good quality site or an authority website the exchange might be still worth it.

3. What is the site’s page rank on Google?

Many Webmasters rely heavily on Google’s page ranking as a measure of website quality. If you use the Google toolbar you will see a measure of rank for each site you are on. The Google toolbar is free and easy to install. The better the rank the better the site is perceived to be. You will see the rank bar in the tool bar itself. Google’s page rating isn’t meant as law. Use it as a guide but don’t take it too seriously. The main thing is that the site is relevant to you.

4. Should the links page be categorized?

A well-organized links page should be a must. You don’t want links all over the place and appear sloppy. Of course you can cite a link if it is in an article. But resource links really need to have their own well-organized relation. You don’t want your site listed on a page with 200 other irrelevant links that having nothing to do with anything you want. Make sure you always organize your link pages with relevant and useful sites even if other people don’t. You want to be successful.

5. Is the links page being read by search engines?

You want to make sure that the site you are considering linking to can be read and found by search engines. Make sure the link page is no more than 2-3 clicks from the homepage. To test to see if it is even on Google just type cache: then the address into the bar and see what happens. The site should be able to be crawled to.

6. What if a Webmaster asks me to link to one site, but links back to me from a different site?

Also called 3-way linking or a linking triangle. You need to make sure that the site your link will be on is relevant to your business. This is just as important as the site you are linking to be relevant. If the site you are going to be linked to is not improving your business but the one you are linking improves his that is not good. Know what site you will actually be on. Make sure the sites are of good quality before making that agreement.

7. Do I want to associate my business with this particular site?

This is a very simple question. It should be very easy to answer as well. If the site is good and reputable then it is a good business decision. If the opposite is true then stay away.

8. How do I know if my link partners are still linking to me?

You can do this easily by keeping a list of the URLs in your documents and then check frequently to see if your link is still there. This might become time consuming and redundant if you have hundreds of links on various sites. At this point you will want to invest if you haven’t already, into a link checker. This will be fairly inexpensive and save you on time well spent on something else.

9. What are the best links?

There are several answers to this. Links that deliver relevant traffic are one example. There are also natural links that someone just posts your link because they like your site. This is great but should not be relied on solely. You want good links that are relevant as well. Target specific keywords on the search engines to see what the top ranking sites are and see if you can link with them.

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