Exchanging Links – Yep, It’s a Good Thing

Have you ever received one of these emails in your inbox?

“Hey, do you want to exchange links?”

If you are anything like me a few months back, you would read this email and think “Huh? Why would I want to exchange links with you?”… and promptly hit the delete key.

Well, i’ve learned better… there is actually something to exchanging links, and you may want to give it consideration as part of your overall marketing/traffic plan.

In a nutshell, the more links you have coming *in* to your website, the higher placement you can get in the search engine rankings. This isn’t the only thing that determines your search position, but it has been proven to be one of the more important aspects in improving your placement.

So what does this mean? You want to get as many people as possible to put a link from *their* website to *your* website.

One of the simplest ways to do this is to exchange links with other people. So you put a link to their page on your website, and they put a link to yours.

All you need to do is first set up a “Links” page somewhere on your website, be sure to put it on your homepage so people can find it easily.

Then start emailing people asking if they want to exchange links.

As a show of good faith (and good exchange!) first add a link to their website from your links page before you email them. You can then say “i’ve added your link to my page, you can view it here XX”, which many people respond to favorably and will link back to you in kind.

Who do you email? It is best to focus on websites that are relevant to what you have to offer, although not necessary. Start first with your own contact list, then do some research on complimentary sites and go from there.

So, want to exchange links? Click here to go to my link page and follow the instructions to submit your link.

Would you like to learn more about how you can drive traffic to your site through search engine marketing strategies? Join me for the next Search Engine Marketing for Coaches Teleclass, starting in June.