Link Exchange, Anyone?

This is a tired subject for anyone who has been in the blogging business for a long time. This has been discussed at least a hundred times in webmaster forums and in blogs all over the internet. But to those new in the game, especially those who have aggressively sought link exchanges, here is a Google policy to ponder on;

Link Schemes

Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
• Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

–source: Google Webmaster Help Center

If you remember your blog history, the last bullet point was what precipitated the first of many Google PR purges. But this is not the point of this article, the third bullet point is.

In the earlier days, the word ‘excessive’ was not included in the policy. Perhaps thinking that a puritanical view towards unnatural link development may be a bit unreasonable, Google added this term later on. Even then, the guideline is not that specific. There were no clear examples as to the application of this policy. A few quarters, for example, would have liked to peg a number to the term ‘excessive’.

Today, I see a lot of bloggers who would bloghop like crazy all over the internet in search for ex-links. Some can be quiet smooth about it while some can be really brazen. I am not privy to their motivations but some of these folks are only out there to increase their PR; link relevance be damned.

I have to a certain extent linked to other blogs that are not exactly related to the things that I write. Most of the time these are links to sites that I really like and/or whose owners are familiar to me. Still, I try to limit these instances to as few as possible.
Nevertheless, reciprocal linking is a tricky thing. On the one hand you have a surefire inbound link, something that every blogger desires, and on the other there’s the thought of violating Google’s webmaster guidelines on excessive link exchanges.

My opinion is that one has to exercise judgment when it comes to responding to those who would request for reciprocal link exchanges. The question that should come to everyone’s mind when deciding is – is this site relevant to yours, and would the site actually add value to what you offer your readers. If not (or even if it is, depending on your mood), then you can just flat out refuse.

Keep in mind that the best kind of links run on a one-way street, preferably those where the arrow point directly at you. Having good, quality content in your blog almost always ensures that you get a lot of these kind of link.