subject: Small Business Seo - Trading Links With Other Sites - 3 Reasons Why Not To Do It [print this page] You, as a small business owner with a website, have probably been told by the "experts"that you should trade links with other sites so you can improve you rankings! I have one word for you - don't! Read thisa article to find out why trading links is such a major waste of time and how it can actually damage your small business seo.
Many so called "seo experts"and other small business marketing consultants, are out there telling people that to increase their websites search engine ranking, they most trade links with other websites. They've convinced small business owners of this, and so they send emails out to other small business owners trying to get them to exchange links. The problem is, this is not an effective modern method to increase links, and can actually cause more harm than good. Here's why:
1. First of all, this is a ridiculously time consuming way to get links. Someone (be it the small business owner, the webmaster, or an employee of the small business) needs to go online and search out small businesses that are in a related (but not competing field), and contact the other sites webmaster. They will then probably have to spend some time waiting for the webmaster to contact them back, figure out the terms of the link exchange with this other person, and then finally go out add a link to the site. In the same time or less, whoever's in charge of that task could have written something for a content sharing website (such as an article for an article directory, a blog, or something else), and gotten more links back to their website that way.
2. Secondly, reciprocal links no longer carry much weight with search engines, as Google and others have gotten wise to how manufactured they are. It's true that using this method to link build was effective back in 2004 and 2005, but today it's nothing but a waste of time. In fact, it can even bring harm, because if Google or Bing or one of the other big search engines sees a bunch of link exchanges, they might hit the website with a spam penalty.
3. There is also another reason why link exchanges are a bad idea. To get a link, you will have to give a link from your page to someone else's page, thus putting your own page rank and link reputation on the line. If something goes wrong with this other person's business, you do not want to be linked to them. Instead, focus on producing and distributing quality content on your own, which will get you good one way links and keep your reputation in your own hands.
Link exchanges are a thing of a past, and nowadays give you little seo benefit. They are time consuming, and if overdone can very much put your search engine rankings in danger. Instead, just focus on creating and distributing good content, and you will see that it's easier to rise in the search engine rankings then you think. So don't follow this outdated tactic!
