Exchanging Links keeping SEO in mind

Exchanging Links (getting your links on other websites in place of their links on your site) to boost the PR of your site on the search engines is one of the best methods, which has not changed with time. Although its value has diminished a bit as compared to what it was in the nascent years of SEO, it is still one of the best technique to improve upon the search engine rankings, and boost the PR (page rank).

Link Exchange or Link Building methods are mainly centered around quality and relevancy. The websites with which the links are being swapped, should be the established ones, with a high page rank and good incoming links. The sites should be related to your own site. For example, if you own an insurance site, then you should target to swap links with motor insurance, personal insurance or financial websites.

Observe the following steps to build up an effective Link Exchange Campaign:

Researching for Appropriate Keywords: The selection of the right keywords, which can help the web users find your site is of paramount importance. To accomplish this, you may set out with a generalized list of keywords which are related to your site, and expand the same with the keywords related to the neighboring niches. If you have an insurance site, the most relevant keywords for you could be motor insurance, auto insurance, personal insurance, general insurance, finance, personal finance, financial websites etc. You may take the help of keyword research tools, to help you build up your exclusive list of keywords.

How to search for Link Partners: The best way to look for good related link partners, is to run a "search" on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN etc using different keywords. Don't focus on just the first page, coz the sites already appearing on the first few pages, may not be interested in exchanging links with you. You will get the best results from the sites appearing on the deeper pages

Selection of the best Link Partners: After compiling a list of websites related to yours, you should weed out the useless ones, and focus on the good ones. Incoming links from .gov or .edu websites are more beneficial than getting links from the free hosting sites. Don't concentrate on just the PR of the prospective link partners, although it is also one of the main factors which affect the rankings of your site. Always avoid linking to the dubious sites and link farms.

Setting up the Link Swap Requests: Before you send out the link requests to the prospective link partners, it is advisable, if you set up an exclusive Links Page or a Links Directory. And don't forget to mention the exact url where you would be adding their links, while mailing them. Also do mention your own anchor text, the url to which the anchor text should point to, and the short description of your website, preferably not more than 250 characters.

Manage your Link Exchange Campaign effectively: Once you have got your link in place on the other site, it is very important to monitor that the link does not get deleted, and remains in place with the right anchor text and the accompanying description. There are several tools on the internet, some of them absolutely free of cost, with which you can monitor the incoming links to your site. One such tool which I have been using for over three years is the "Web CEO". It is a very compact tool for doing the Keyword Research, Finding Prospective Link Partners, Managing Correspondence, Monitoring the Incoming Links and lots of other features.

Sanjeev Sachdev, with a rich marketing experience of more than 25 years, has now ventured into the field of Internet Marketing. He leads a bunch of brightest guys at
LinkMasters4All, who specialize in Directory Submissions, Article Writing/Submissions, Link Building (One-way & Reciprocal), and the other latest white hat techniques to promote your site, and build quality traffic to it.