Page 37 - The Dark Side of Back Link Building
P. 37
THE DARK SIDE OF LINK BUILDING 37
Link Tactics Primer: Link Exchanges
The Pitfalls Of Link Exchanges:
An agreement between two websites to link to each other, in any form,
is against Google’s guidelines.
This applies even if the links are highly relevant.
Relevance doesn’t matter; the agreement corrupts the process.
If a majority of your backlinks appear to be inorganic exchanges, you
could be risking manual action.
What Are The Best Practices For Link Exchanges?
If two websites happen to link to one another, that’s not necessarily
bad. Introducing your business to the audience of a relevant, non-
competing business is completely organic and a form of traditional
marketing.
If there’s no prior agreement, it’s perfectly natural.
If you find that a site links to you, and you decide that linking back to
them is ideal for your users, then go ahead!
If a page deserves a link, link to it.
Don’t link to other sites just because you’re hoping for a link back, and
don’t negotiate for links.
How To Identify Bad Link Exchanges:
Ignore anyone who asks for a link exchange, no matter how relevant
your sites are to one another.
If you spot competitors with links to and from a website that isn’t
related to them, it could be a link exchange – don’t try and outreach
that website.
